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.

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.