Q&A With Tulsa Mortgage Expert As Rates Remain High Into 2025

2024 ended with Mortgage rates high and today those rates are still hovering at an average of anywhere from six to eight percent.

The federal reserve made its 3rd and final rate cut of 2024 on December 18th. Many hoped it would impact things like mortgages, but experts say mortgages and interest rates are not always correlated.

To shed some light on the current mortgage market and offer expert advice, News on 6 spoke with Nicole Hopkins, a Mortgage Loan Originator with CMG Financial in Tulsa.

Q&A:

Q: What is the first thing you tell people when the ask about the current rates?

A: "So, the first thing I would tell someone is not to listen to anything they are reading on social media. There's so much misinformation about mortgage rates and mortgage options, so I just tell people call a mortgage lender and open up a conversation with them. The rates are higher right now, especially if you're a millennial, like if you're like me, when I bought my first home, I had a 4.1% it's amazing. Rates now are higher than they've ever really been in my adult lifetime. But that's not the case for everyone. I talk to my parents, my parents remember when mortgage rates were 12% so you really just need someone who can educate you on the process and kind of the history of mortgage in general."

Q: Is the rate the same for everyone?

A: "The rate you're going to get on your mortgage is dependent on a lot of different factors. We have to pull your credit score. We have to collect your financials and look at your debt to income. We're looking at how much you're putting down in the form of a down payment on the property. All of these different factors impact what your rate could be. There are so many special loan programs. We have FHA loans, VA loans, and special grants for first-time buyers, the friend that you talk to who just got a mortgage might not qualify for the same thing as you. So you really need to talk to a professional to explore what your options are, and what does it look like?"

Q: How can you find the best rate out there right now?

A: " So, this is a really unpopular thing for me to say, because my job is to sell mortgages, but I would say shop mortgage lenders. It's one of the best things you can do. The truth about us is we're all a little bit different. There are federal guidelines, there are federal, state, local programs that people may qualify for, but each lender also may have their own specials going on. There are a lot of lenders in the Tulsa area right now who say, hey, we know these rates are scary, but you really need to be in a home. That's the decision your families have come to. So here are some things that we can work with you on the next time you refinance your home, if it's within X amount of time. Some lenders are saying, within a year, five years, whatever that lender may have decided they'll cover the lender fees on the refinance. Other lenders are saying, well, what if we buy down the rate for a year? If you can buy down and have a lower rate over the next year and then it goes up after that, is that a good resource for your family? There are just a lot of different ways to structure things right now."

Q: Do you expect rates to stay high or will they potentially go down again?

A: "So, it is really hard to try to predict the market. It's something I just don't do, and that's just because, when I was working in private wealth banking, we had this amazing economic update team, and they would share updates with us quarterly. And the hard part about it was it changed daily, weekly, monthly. Sometimes we heard a lot of talk that rates would be going down by the end of 2024 now we're hearing it might be by the end of 2025 it really just all depends on the markets and what happens."

Q: What do you wish people asked you when they called?

A: I wish people would call me and say, Will you sit down with me for an hour, instead of saying, What's your rate? And the reason I wish they would do that is because, as a mortgage lender, the number one thing I want is for someone to get into a home that their family feels good about one year from now. I want to sit down and go over their cash flow with them. I want them to understand, here's my budget. If I buy a house at this price point, here's how much extra money I have each month, and can my family afford to live off of that? I'm super passionate about financial literacy. I grew up in a blue-collar family, first-generation college grad. This matters to me. Understanding what's happening with your finances matters. But what's sad is most people just call and ask, what's the rate? And I think that's because of a lot of different factors. It's things like social media that really focus more on that than your overall financial picture.

Q: What kind of questions should you be asking lenders?

A: " I'd specifically say, hey, explain to me what are origination points, what is a buy-down? What are all of these costs on my loan estimate? So many times, I have consumers who will come to me, and they'll say, Hey, I'm getting this rate. It's fine, it's no problem. And then I look at that loan estimate and I say, Hey, you're getting that rate. That's awesome. Did you know it's costing you X amount of dollars? And sometimes it makes sense. I have people who say, Yeah, I want to buy down the rate. That makes sense. We do the math. We look at how long it would take for the purchase of those points to save you money in the grand scheme of your mortgage. But not everyone understands how those work."

Q: What kind of mindset should people go into shopping for a home right now?

A:" Date the rate but marry the house."