Historic Mortgage Interest Rates in 2022
Since they’ve been keeping track of interest rates (1971), there has never been such a precipitous jump over a six month span than there was in 2022. In FACT, if you look break down the past 51 years and look at rate jumps (and drops) over 6 month spans, the BIGGEST was between January and June of 2022 when it went from 3.45% to 5.52% for a 30 yr fixed. Sure, there have been bigger jumps in terms of overall points (in between October 1979 and March of 1980 the rates rose over 3.5%, but from 11.64% to over 15%) but not as a percentage increase which, when we’re talking about the cost of living, means a helluva lot more.
This chart is slightly unusual in that it’s reflecting the average sale price based on the time it went under agreement, and not its sale date. In other words, it’s reflecting the climate at the moment a buyer decides to make an offer & the seller accepts it.
For example, the average condo price in JP in March of 2022 was $702K. In March the rates were averaging 4.17%. That means that with 20% down, your average monthly payment (excluding taxes & fees) would have been around $2700. For the same price in October (the highwater mark for monthly average in 2022 at 6.83%), your costs are 33% higher and coming in almost $3700/month. That’s more than $11K/year.
But to put last year’s jump in perspective, since 1971, over any six month span, 6 of the top 7 largest jumps (by percentage) happened in 2022. Here’s the top 10:
We can’t predict how the rates will behave in 2023, but we’re already seeing some reprieve in early 2023 with a small dip in rates to start the year.
We do our best to stay up to date with the best rates & terms for mortgages of all shapes and sizes, but your best bet is make sure you’ve engaged a lender you trust who is on-top of the daily market changes. Of course, reach out anytime and we’ll put you in touch with a lender you can count on to not only provide the best market rates, but who can provide creative solutions for you and your family as you start to navigate towards a home purchase or refinance.
We used Freddie Mac’s mortgage rate page to derive the mortgage rate history for 30 yr fixed.
