Embarking on the journey of finding your dream home is an exciting and significant step in life. Whether you're a first-time homebuyer or looking to upgrade, the process of searching for a home can
Not Talking About Corona
Dated: March 19 2020
Views: 43
Today I'm not going to talk about the obvious - Corona Virus - because...well everyone else is talking about it and I think I just want to talk about something different.
Many of us are stuck working from home now, possibly watching the kids and are looking for things to fill their time outside of work. I'll try to fill about 5 minutes of your day here with some thoughts on mortgage rates and assessment notices that recently went out from municipalities earlier this month.
Mortgages - This week we saw the Fed slash interest rates to Zero.....yay no mortgage interest anymore! Not so fast. While this rate cuts it's benchmark federal funds rate from 1% to 0% to 0.25%, mortgage rates may actually creep up a little. Your thinking the same thing I am...."What?!" Well, right now most lenders have a backlog of people who have applied for refinancing because the rates have recently dropped to all-time lows. So the mortgage companies have enough business where they don't need to provide any more incentive to get consumers to borrow more money. Now this doesn't meant that rates won't drop slightly in the near future but it's hard to gauge at this point with so much other market uncertainty. Mortgages are long term loans and tend to track longer term bond yields rather than short term interest rates (what they just slashed to 0%).
Assessment Change Notice - All homeowners should have received their new 2020 Assessment Change Notice from their local municipality at this time. This notice is sent annually and lets you know a couple of important numbers for your home. First your Taxable Value (line 1). This number represent the value of your "tax base." In other words, you take this number, multiplied by the millage rate, and you get annual taxes paid. Line 2 will tell you what your new Assessed Value is. This number is 50% of the market value of your home. If you multiply this number by 2, that is the value the municipality says your home is worth. Lastly, if you own and occupy your home as your principal residence, you will want to make sure in the upper right corner the percent of PRE you have is "100%." Those are the key things I look for on my notice year after year. If you recently purchased last year and there is a change in your taxes due to the transfer of ownership, you should contact your mortgage company and let them know this change so they can make any adjustments to your escrow account as needed for additional property taxes.
Well that's all for now. Stay safe everyone!
Jeff Edwards
I’m Jeff, a dedicated real estate professional serving the Metro Detroit area. With a career built entirely within the real estate industry, I bring a deep understanding of valuations, market tr....
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