Some homeowners have been waiting years for mortgage relief. It keeps slipping away

Travis Dove/Bloomberg/Getty Images

When Patrice De La Ossa’s son was accepted to her alma mater, the University of Arizona, she wanted to give him something she hadn’t had herself: a college degree without student loans. So, she sold her home in Phoenix and moved to Tucson with him, closer to campus, to save on his room and board.

The move meant giving up a 2.25% mortgage for a 6.8% loan. But De La Ossa figured it was temporary. Rates would fall soon enough, she thought, and she could refinance into a monthly payment closer to what she had before.

More than four years later, her son has graduated. De La Ossa is still paying 6.8%.

She’s not alone. In the early years of the pandemic, mortgage rates fell below 3% and many homeowners refinanced their loans to lower their monthly payments. But late last year, for the first time since the pandemic, more homeowners have a mortgage rate above 6% than one below 3%, according to a Redfin analysis of FHFA data.

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate, the most popular type of home loan in the US, has largely hovered above 6% for four years – even above 7% at times. Homebuyers who took out mortgages during that stretch may have expected rates to fall enough by now to refinance into cheaper loans. Instead, the relief they were counting on has remained out of reach.

De La Ossa, who works for an education company, pays nearly $900 more per month for this mortgage than she did for her Phoenix home, even though the two loans are almost identical.

The difference between a 3% mortgage rate and a 6% mortgage rate equates to hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest payments over the life of a mortgage loan – in addition to the principal amount borrowed.

She is frustrated by how much of her monthly payment goes toward interest, especially as she continues to pay off her PhD student loans. If mortgage rates don’t fall enough for her to refinance soon, De La Ossa said she may have to consider moving.

Courtesy Patrice De La Ossa

“That’s $900 every month I’m not putting away toward my son one day having a home, I’m not even able to take a vacation anymore. Now I work a second job just so I can make it. And that company is making $900 more in interest,” she said of her mortgage brokerage.

There was a brief window of hope this year. Mortgage rates, which tend to track the 10-year Treasury yield, drifted lower as inflation appeared to be moving back toward the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. For homeowners waiting to refinance, it looked like the break they had been waiting for.

Then the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, and rates reversed course.

On Thursday, the average 30-year mortgage rate reached 6.71%, a new high for the year , according to Freddie Mac. CNN spoke with a half-dozen homeowners hoping to refinance. Nearly all shared the same frustration: With recent rate moves, they feared their refinancing plans could be delayed by years.

Many financial advisers say refinancing a home loan is worth the cost if you can lower your interest rate by at least one percentage point.

It doesn’t make sense for most mortgage holders to refinance at current rates unless they are in very specific situations, such as needing to consolidate credit card debt or fund a home renovation, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

Refinancing applications have remained low in the years that mortgage rates climbed back above 6%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

At first, David Belmonte, an entrepreneur who owns a masonry business in East Moriches, New York, thought he had a good handle on his mortgage. The rate was a steep 7.2%, and the monthly payment was about $6,000 - but he figured it wouldn’t be forever.

When he bought the house three years ago, his mortgage broker had given him a piece of advice that was common among housing professionals at the time: “Date the rate, marry the home.”

The idea was simple: A home is a long-term commitment, but the mortgage rate you start with doesn’t have to be. If rates fall, homeowners could refinance. Now, the phrase feels outdated.

“It’s not that way anymore,” Mary Lee Blaylock, president of Coldwell Banker Affiliates, told CNN. Buyers should go in to a home purchase expecting to live with the mortgage rate they get, she said.

For Belmonte, that rate has become even harder to stomach as his business has been battered by uncertainty surrounding immigration crackdowns. Three of his six employees have stopped working for him, including one who was briefly arrested by immigration officials. Belmonte said that while the employees had legal papers, they feared additional immigration sweeps.

With half his workforce gone, he said jobs take longer to complete. His income has become less predictable.

“It slows projects down, it bogs down the calendar,” Belmonte said. “Less work, less money.”

He had counted on being able to refinance once mortgage rates came down. Instead, he has found himself struggling to make the payments on the loan he already has.

“I really thought rates would come down, at least that was the plan. Now I feel stuck and I got such a high rate,” he said. “Even if it went down to 5%, I would be saving so much money.”

Moving isn’t a realistic escape. He needs enough room for his wife, his daughter and her three children, who all live with him.

At 59, he said he often jokes that he may be able to retire at 97.

“We barely go out anymore. We try not to drive if we don’t have to with high gas prices. We’re doing what we can, but it stinks,” he said. “I used to make a good living.”

Travis Dove/Bloomberg/Getty Images

当帕特里斯·德拉奥萨的儿子被她的母校亚利桑那大学录取时，她想给他一些她自己没有的东西：一份无需背负学生贷款的大学学位。于是，她卖掉了在凤凰城的房子，和儿子一起搬到了图森，离学校更近，这样可以节省他的住宿费。

这意味着她要放弃2.25%的抵押贷款利率，转而接受6.8%的贷款利率。但德拉奥萨认为这只是暂时的。她心想，利率很快就会下降，到时候她可以重新贷款，让月供更接近之前的水平。

四年多过去了，她的儿子已经毕业。德拉奥萨仍然要支付6.8%的贷款。

她并非个例。疫情初期，抵押贷款利率一度跌破3%，许多房主通过再融资降低了每月还款额。但根据Redfin对联邦住房金融局（FHFA）数据的分析，去年底以来，疫情爆发以来，抵押贷款利率高于6%的房主数量首次超过了低于3%的房主数量。

美国最受欢迎的房屋贷款类型——30年期固定抵押贷款的平均利率，在过去四年里基本徘徊在6%以上，有时甚至超过7%。在此期间申请抵押贷款的购房者可能预期利率现在会下降到足以进行再融资以获得更便宜的贷款。然而，他们所期待的利率下降却仍然遥不可及。

在一家教育公司工作的德拉奥萨每月要为这笔抵押贷款多支付近 900 美元，尽管这两笔贷款几乎完全相同。

3%的抵押贷款利率和6%的抵押贷款利率之间的差异，相当于在抵押贷款期限内利息支出相差数十万美元——这还不包括借入的本金。

她对每月还款中利息占比过高感到沮丧，尤其是在她还在偿还博士生贷款的情况下。德拉奥萨表示，如果抵押贷款利率不能尽快下降到足以让她进行再融资的程度，她可能不得不考虑搬家。

图片由帕特里斯·德拉奥萨提供

“这意味着我每个月少存900美元，这笔钱原本是用来给我儿子将来买房的，我现在连度假都成问题了。我现在不得不兼职才能勉强维持生计。而那家公司却从利息中多赚了900美元，”她谈到自己的抵押贷款经纪公司时说道。

今年曾出现过短暂的希望。抵押贷款利率通常与10年期国债收益率密切相关，随着通胀似乎正朝着美联储2%的目标迈进，抵押贷款利率也随之走低。对于那些等待再融资的房主来说，这似乎是他们期盼已久的转机。

随后美国和以色列对伊朗发动联合打击，汇率走势逆转。

据房地美（Freddie Mac）的数据显示，周四30年期抵押贷款平均利率达到6.71%，创下年内新高。CNN采访了六位希望进行再融资的房主。几乎所有人都表达了同样的担忧：由于近期利率波动，他们担心再融资计划可能会被推迟数年。

许多理财顾问表示，如果能将利率降低至少一个百分点，那么房屋贷款再融资是值得的。

Redfin 首席经济学家 Daryl Fairweather 表示，除非有非常特殊的情况，例如需要整合信用卡债务或为房屋装修筹集资金，否则对于大多数抵押贷款持有人来说，以目前的利率进行再融资是没有意义的。

据抵押贷款银行家协会称，在抵押贷款利率回升至 6% 以上的这些年里，再融资申请数量一直保持低位。

起初，在纽约州东莫里奇斯拥有一家砌砖公司的企业家大卫·贝尔蒙特认为自己对房贷掌控得很好。利率高达7.2%，每月还款额约为6000美元——但他觉得这不会是永远的。

三年前他买房时，他的抵押贷款经纪人给了他一条当时在房地产专业人士中很常见的建议：“确定利率，然后决定买房。”

这个想法很简单：买房是一项长期承诺，但你最初的抵押贷款利率并非必须如此。如果利率下降，房主可以进行再融资。如今，这种说法感觉已经过时了。

科德威尔·班克地产公司总裁玛丽·李·布莱洛克告诉CNN：“情况已经不同了。”她表示，购房者在购房时应该做好长期接受所获抵押贷款利率的准备。

对贝尔蒙特来说，由于移民政策收紧带来的不确定性，他的生意遭受重创，这种失业率更是难以接受。他的六名员工中有三名已经离职，其中一人还曾被移民官员短暂拘留。贝尔蒙特表示，虽然这些员工持有合法证件，但他们担心会遭到进一步的移民突击搜查。

他说，由于一半的员工离职，工作完成时间延长了，收入也变得不稳定。

贝尔蒙特说：“这会拖慢项目进度，拉长工期。工作量减少，收入也减少。”

他原本指望抵押贷款利率下降后可以进行再融资。然而，他却发现自己连现有贷款的还款都捉襟见肘。

“我真的以为利率会下降，至少当时是这么计划的。现在我感觉进退两难，利率还这么高，”他说。“就算降到5%，我也能省下很多钱。”

搬家并不是一个现实的解决办法。他需要足够的空间来容纳他的妻子、女儿和女儿的三个孩子，他们都和他住在一起。

现年 59 岁的他表示，他经常开玩笑说自己可能 97 岁才能退休。

“我们现在几乎不出门了。油价这么高，我们尽量避免开车。我们尽力了，但这感觉糟透了，”他说。“我以前收入不错。”