How is Covid affecting the mortgage industry? It’s no secret that certain segments of society who have been affected more by the virus than others are having financial difficulty. Mortgage rates have been driven down by economic conditions, and partly because of that, the housing industry is booming.

Here is an answer by Erin Lantz, Chief Revenue Officer at Ethos Life, in his session on Quora:

When people are getting a mortgage it’s typically one of two scenarios: getting a new mortgage with the purchase of a home or refinancing an existing mortgage to lower the monthly payment rate.

The economic challenges related to COVID-19 have caused interest rates to drop significantly, compared to pre-pandemic levels. What that means for a lot of people is that you can qualify for a new mortgage with a lower monthly payment. If you’re buying a home now, you would get a lower monthly rate than you would have pre-COVID. But when mortgage rates get low, more customers look to refinance at lower rates, and lenders get busy. That can cause other challenges. When lenders are busy, they often don’t have the capacity to handle new customers, so sometimes they actually increase prices to compensate. We’ve seen some of that amid the pandemic – rates are more volatile for customers despite an overall lower interest rate environment.

Ruth Schoenherr is a mortgage broker who will help you find home loans in the Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Largo, Safety Harbor, St Petersburg and Tampa Bay area. For more information, go to her web site at www.ClearwaterMortgageBroker.net or call at 727 447-2418.