With home prices and interest rates up, monthly payments are up. Here’s a link to an online mortgage payment calculator. CLICK HERE.
Prices Up, Home Sales Cooling, Interest Rates Double for Greater Gardner MA
In the City of Gardner MA, the median home price was just over 289k as of July 2021 and is up 14% to just under 330k as of July 2022. Interest rates have doubled since last summer.
The numbers: With a 10% down payment and 30 year fixed mortgage at 3%, that median-priced home had a payment of $1098. A year later, with interest rates doubling to 6%, the same home would have a payment of $1779, allowing for both the increase in home price and interest rate. That’s a payment increase of 62%. Payments do not include mortgage insurance for less than 20% down, real estate taxes, or insurance.
The Cooling: According to the Warren Group, “Increases in wages and salaries are not keeping pace with inflation that is now running at 8.5%. Plus, homebuyers face a very low inventory of homes for sale. All this leads to a cooler real estate market.”
In the State of Massachusetts, the median home price was 540K as of July 2021 and is up 8.3% to 585k as of July 2022. With same down payments and rates as quoted above, the monthly payment is up 42%.
Rents up as well. Local craigslist ads on September 3, 2022 show that a 1 bedroom can easily go for $1200/month, 2 bedroom $1400/month, and 3 bedroom $1600/month. However, the latest listing was on August 30th. Social Media posts frequently show people frustrated over availability when trying to find an apartment.
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