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What’s the home equity loan interest rate forecast for November 2024?
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High interest rates have made it hard for consumers to borrow money in recent years. And credit card rates? Those have been even worse. Fortunately, the tides have finally started to turn, and borrowing has recently become more affordable again.
Home equity interest rates, for example, have seen a notable dip over the last month or so, giving homeowners an opportunity to turn their home equity into cash without breaking the bank. Will those rates continue to cool, though, and is now a good time for you to borrow from your equity? Below, we’ll break down what some experts are predicting for this November.
Start by seeing how low of a home equity loan rate you could qualify for here.
What’s the home equity loan interest rate forecast for November 2024?
Home equity loans and home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) are the two main ways to borrow from your home equity. But the two aren’t one and the same.
While home equity loans are fixed-rate products offering a lump sum of cash, HELOCs are lines of credit you can pull from over time. They also typically have variable interest rates that fluctuate. For this reason, rates on these two products don’t follow the same trendlines.
HELOC rates are tied to the prime rate, which is based on the federal funds rate set by the Federal Reserve.
“The main driver of rates for these instruments will be movements by the Fed,” says Kevin Leibowitz, a mortgage broker at Grayton Mortgage. “If and when the Fed continues to cut rates, the rates on these mortgages will fall.”
As of now, the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows high chances of a Fed rate cut at both of the bank’s remaining 2024 meetings. This would likely mean a notable reduction in HELOC rates as well — both newly issued ones and existing ones (since HELOC rates typically adjust monthly).
Get started with a HELOC online now.
Long-term rates could be different
Home equity loan rates, however, aren’t directly tied to the prime or Fed rate. Though the Fed’s moves do trickle down to these and other long-term mortgage rates, the effect isn’t direct or immediate. So on these loans, the forecast isn’t as clear. Often, rates on these products will drop before the Fed makes any moves — in anticipation of them — rather than after they occur.
That’s what happened in August when experts largely predicted the Fed would adjust its policy at the upcoming September meeting. During that time, rates fell from nearly 7% to the low 6% range, only to rise back up once the Fed made its announcement.
“For a fixed equity loan, the trend follows what traditional purchase rates are doing,” says Rose Krieger, a senior home loan specialist at Churchill Mortgage. According to a forecast from the Mortgage Bankers Association, those are expected to fall slightly to 6.2% (down from today’s 6.5%), by year’s end.
Keep in mind that home equity loan rates are typically a few points higher than traditional mortgage rates, since they come with more risk for the lender. In late October, the average rate on a home equity loan was about 8.35% — a little less than two points over the 30-year mortgage rate, according to Freddie Mac.
Act now to be safe
Some experts estimate that home equity rates will generally drop by anywhere from 0.25% to 0.50% over the next few months, though economic data, the election and other factors could throw that off, he says.
Is it worth waiting around to see if those drops come to fruition, though? Likely not, experts say.
“I generally coach my clients to act on a needs basis,” Leibowitz says. “If they need to do something now, then do it. Waiting for lower rates is dangerous.”
The best thing you can do is to proceed with a home equity loan or HELOC when the numbers work for you. If you can get a rate and payment that are within your budget, and you’re able to achieve the financial goals you’re looking to tackle, then it’s probably time to make your move.
“Most long-term projections will show that whether you decide to invest on the ‘worst possible’ day to enter a market or the ‘best possible’ day to enter a market, the long-term outcomes tend to be fairly close over a long time period,” says John Aguirre, a mortgage originator at Loantown. “Given the recent trend of interest rates, moving quicker is better than later. We are hovering around the best interest rates in the past two years, and the chances that we break through to even lower rates is a risky proposition.”
Start exploring your home equity loan options online today.
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An Arizona man says police held him down on scorching asphalt while arresting him during the height of Phoenix’s summer heat wave, causing third-degree burns on his body.
Video obtained by CBS News from the man’s attorney shows Michael Kenyon talking on his cell phone walking in a parking lot on July 6 when police pull up in a Phoenix police truck. Two officers get out and Kenyon puts away his phone. Within a few minutes, they try to handcuff him and a struggle ensues. Two backup officers then arrive at the scene.
It appears from the video that the four officers push Kenyon onto the ground and hold him there. Officers then scuffle with Kenyon before he is finally handcuffed and the officers lift him from the asphalt and escort him into a police vehicle.
Kenyon’s attorney, Bobby DiCello, said he spent more than one month in the hospital after the incident recovering from burns from the asphalt.
When officers lifted Kenyon off the asphalt, his melted skin peeled off and fell to the ground, his attorney said. Police called an ambulance after an officer noticed his burns, police said.
Bobby DiCello
“They held a man — another human being — on a surface so hot that it caused his skin to bubble and boil. It defies all reason,” DiCello said in a statement, adding his client was now “scarred for life.”
DiCello said the temperature that day was 114 degrees, with the asphalt estimated to be between 180 and 200 degrees. Phoenix hit 100 straight days with at least 100-degree temperatures during the summer. Arizona has the country’s only chief heat officer, and Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, is the hottest metro area in the United States.
Phoenix police said officers responded to a call regarding a theft in progress. “Officers made contact with Kenyon, telling him he was being detained so they could understand what may have occurred. The man struggled with police, which resulted with him being taken to the ground on the hot asphalt. The man sustained burns to different parts of his body from the time he was on the ground,” police said in a statement to CBS News.
Police said Kenyon was determined not to be the robbery suspect they were searching for that day. Later when he was taken to the hospital, officers learned he had a felony warrant out for his arrest.
Phoenix police said their Professional Standards Bureau is investigating the incident.
contributed to this report.
Billionaire Elon Musk has been ordered to attend a Philadelphia court hearing on Thursday after he was sued by District Attorney Larry Krasner over his $1 million giveaway to voters.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. in a courtroom at City Hall in Center City, according to a court document.
Last week, Krasner sued Musk and alleged that Musk and his super PAC are trying to influence voters in next week’s presidential election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The Philadelphia District Attorney is charged with protecting the public from public nuisances and unfair trade practices, including illegal lotteries. The DA is also charged with protecting the public from interference with the integrity of elections,” Krasner said in a statement announcing the complaint last week.
Musk, who founded Tesla and SpaceX, has thrown his full support behind Trump in his run for a second term in the White House. Nearly two weeks ago, he vowed to hand out $1 million a day until Election Day on Nov. 5 to voters who signed his PAC’s petition supporting the First Amendment and Second Amendment of the Constitution.
Some experts have questioned the legality of Musk’s actions to give voters $1 million.
“The actions that we’re seeing … it violates federal law pretty clearly. Actually, I don’t think it’s a particularly close call,” Adav Noti, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, told CBS News last week.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro also questioned Musk’s giveaway.
“I think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing, not just into Pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of Pennsylvanians. That is deeply concerning,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” last week.
Musk has been very active in supporting Trump in Pennsylvania, one of the key battleground states in the election. He was in the Philadelphia area for a town hall on Oct. 17 calling on Pennsylvanians to get registered to vote.
At the town hall in Ridley High School in Delaware County, Musk called Pennsylvania “linchpin” for the 2024 election.
“I’m here for a very important reason, which is – I can’t emphasize this enough – Pennsylvania, I think, is the linchpin in this election,” Musk said at the time. “This election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America, and along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization.”
