Mortgage lenders are selling you a lie

“Marry the house, date the rate.” That’s the advice realtors and mortgage lenders are giving worried homebuyers as mortgage rates reapproach [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( [Mortgage Lenders Are Selling Homebuyers a Lie]( — Alexis Leondis “Marry the house, date the rate.” That’s the advice realtors and mortgage lenders are giving worried homebuyers as [mortgage rates]( reapproach the two-decade high of 7% reached in November. In other words, don’t be afraid to commit to the house you love, because you can just refinance when rates come down in the next couple of years. But frankly, it’s bad advice. New homeowners may come to find they’re in a longer-term relationship with today’s rate than they expected. Photographer: George Frey/AFP via Getty Images Yes, for the last 10 years (before last year’s uptick) rates were much lower, averaging 3.78%. But that doesn’t mean they’ll drop back to those levels anytime soon. In fact, the bond market is starting to price in [higher benchmark interest rates]( following stronger economic data. Refinancing calculations are also more complex than most realtors and lenders like to admit. While lenders typically say a borrower only has to cut the current rate by a 1/2 or full percentage point to save on monthly payments (and recoup the closing costs charged to refinance), Freddie Mac deputy chief economist Len Kiefer says it’s more like 1.5 percentage points to really make a refinance worth it in the long term. Read the [whole thing](. [Your Next Holiday Flight Will Cost a Fortune]( — Chris Bryant [Bed Bath & Beyond Stock Is On Sale]( — Matt Levine [Supreme Court’s Skepticism of Student Loan Plan Has Upside for Liberals]( — Noah Feldman [TINA Is Still the Only Wall Street Acronym That Matters]( — Aaron Brown [Who’s Worse, Trump or DeSantis? A Pointless Liberal Debate]( — Matthew Yglesias [The Age of Colon Cancer Prevention Is Getting Younger]( — Lisa Jarvis [The West Is Losing the Messaging War Over Ukraine]( — Mihir Sharma [Powell’s Comments Unleash Unsettling Volatility]( — Mohamed A. El-Erian [Silvergate’s Bad Debts Weren’t Its Assets But Its Deposits]( — Paul J. Davies More From Bloomberg Opinion Here’s what we’ve been listening to this week. - [Crash Course: Artificial Intelligence vs. Humanity]( with Timothy L. O’Brien (listen on [Apple]( or [Spotify]() - [Bloomberg Opinion With Vonnie Quinn: Ohio Looks for Answers, Workers Call for Benefits]( with Brooke Sutherland, Sarah Green Carmichael, Alexis Leondis and Lara Williams - [Twitter Spaces: Does China’s 5% have merits?]( with Ruth Pollard, Shuli Ren and Daniel Moss This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion published this week based on web readership. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022