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3 mortgage questions buyers should ask themselves now
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Mortgage interest rates plunged last week to their lowest level in two years. While they’ve risen slightly since, they’re still more than a point lower compared to 2023. And with the Federal Reserve issuing its first rate cut since 2020 earlier this month, and the potential for other cuts high when they meet again in November and December, many homebuyers who have elected to stay on the sidelines may now be considering reentering the market.
But the rate climate and real estate market from a few years ago has changed significantly. Mortgage interest rates are still more than double what they were in 2020 and 2021, for example. Rising home prices and limited inventory are also major concerns. To make a well-informed decision about acting now, then, prospective homebuyers should start contemplating the answers to some specific questions. Below, we’ll break down three of them.
Start by seeing how low of a mortgage interest you could secure here today.
3 mortgage questions buyers should ask themselves now
While every homebuyer’s financial circumstances are different, many would benefit by having answers to the following questions now:
Am I prepared to buy?
Homebuying isn’t just something you decide to do overnight. There are multiple ways to prepare for what could be a months-long process (if not longer). So start by asking yourself if you’re truly ready to buy right now. That means having enough money to make the conventional 20% down payment (or enough to pay for private mortgage insurance if you don’t). It also means calculating your potential monthly costs, including homeowners insurance and taxes.
And it extends to your credit profile. If your credit score isn’t where lenders want it to be, then don’t expect to be able to lock in today’s new, lower rates. In short, ask yourself if you’re prepared to buy and, if you’re not, start taking the steps today to be able to do so.
Calculate your potential mortgage costs online now.
How much can I save by waiting?
If you’ve already determined that you’re ready to buy, then move on to the next, arguably more difficult question to answer: How much can you save by waiting?
This is a question not easily answered, as mortgage interest rates are affected by a wide range of economic factors. And they won’t neatly correspond with predictable rate cuts. So, even if the Fed makes another 50 basis points worth of cuts this year, your mortgage rate offers may not fall by that exact amount. But that doesn’t mean that you should forego buying altogether.
Instead, start calculating what a mortgage will cost you at different, realistically available rates, both now and in the weeks and months ahead. Then weigh those potential savings against complications that could arise from a more robust market, including higher home prices. While you may be able to save a marginal amount by waiting for rates to fall further, that difference can easily be negated by higher home prices. So you’ll want to tread carefully and take a measured approach.
Will interest rates rise again?
While no one knows exactly where interest rates are heading long-term, it helps buyers to contemplate the long-term possibility of them rising again. While rate cuts — not hikes — seem likely now, historically, today’s interest rates are still on the low side. So waiting around for them to drop even further not only opens you up to dealing with higher rates in the future, but it also makes the possibility that you could lose out on your dream home more realistic. It’s possible, if not likely, that today’s rates may not move much off the range they’re currently in.
The bottom line
A cooling rate climate is advantageous for borrowers no matter the type of loan but it can be particularly beneficial for homebuyers. Still, since a home purchase is the biggest one many Americans will make in their lifetimes, it’s vital to take a nuanced and strategic approach. This extends to having the answers or, at a minimum, the approximate answers to the above questions. By thinking of these now, buyers will better positions themselves for success both in the short-term and over the life of any potential mortgage loan.
HUNTSVILLE — A Texas man who had waived his right to appeal his death sentence was put to death Tuesday evening for killing his 3-month-old son more than 16 years ago, one of five executions scheduled within a week’s time in the U.S.
AP
Travis Mullis, 38, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. CDT. He was condemned for stomping to death his son Alijah in January 2008.
Mullis was the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. Another execution was carried out Tuesday evening in Missouri, and on Thursday, executions were scheduled to take place in Oklahoma and Alabama. South Carolina conducted an execution Friday.
Authorities said Mullis, then 21 and living in Brazoria County, drove to nearby Galveston with his son after fighting with his girlfriend. Mullis parked his car and sexually assaulted his son. After the infant began to cry uncontrollably, Mullis began strangling the child before taking him out of the car and stomping on his head, according to authorities.
The infant’s body was later found on the roadside. Mullis fled the state but was later arrested after surrendering to police in Philadelphia.
Mullis’ execution proceeded after one of his attorneys, Shawn Nolan, said he planned no late appeals in a bid to spare the inmate’s life. Nolan also said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that Texas would be executing a “redeemed man” who has always accepted responsibility for committing “an awful crime.”
“He never had a chance at life being abandoned by his parents and then severely abused by his adoptive father starting at age three. During his decade and a half on death row, he spent countless hours working on his redemption. And he achieved it. The Travis that Texas wanted to kill is long gone. Rest in Peace TJ,” Nolan said.
Mullis declined an offer earlier in the day to phone his attorney from a holding cell outside the death chamber, said Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Hannah Haney. His lawyers also did not file a clemency petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.
In a letter submitted in February to U.S. District Judge George Hanks in Houston, Mullis wrote that he had no desire to challenge his case any further. Mullis has previously taken responsibility for his son’s death and has said “his punishment fit the crime.”
At Mullis’ trial, prosecutors said Mullis was a “monster” who manipulated people, was deceitful and refused the medical and psychiatric help he had been offered.
Since his conviction in 2011, Mullis has long been at odds with his various attorneys over whether to appeal his case. At times, Mullis had asked that his appeals be waived, only to later change his mind.
Nolan had previously told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during a June 2023 hearing that state courts in Texas had erred in ruling that Mullis had been mentally competent when he had waived his right to appeal his case about a decade earlier.
Nolan told the appeals court that Mullis has been treated for “profound mental illness” since he was 3 years old, was sexually abused as a child and is “severely bipolar,” leading him to change his mind about appealing.
Natalie Thompson, who at the time was with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, told the appeals court that Mullis understood what he was doing and could go against his lawyers’ advice “even if he’s suffering from mental illness.”
The appeals court upheld Hank’s ruling from 2021 that found Mullis “repeatedly competently chose to waive review” of his death sentence.
The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the application of the death penalty for the intellectually disabled, but not for people with serious mental illness.
If the remaining executions in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma are carried out as planned, it will mark the first time in more than 20 years — since July 2003 — that five were held in seven days, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions.
The first took place Friday when South Carolina put inmate Freddie Owens to death. Also Tuesday, Marcellus Williams was executed in Missouri. On Thursday, executions are scheduled for Alan Miller in Alabama and Emmanuel Littlejohn in Oklahoma.
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