Here's how a Fed rate hike will impact mortgage payments in 12 major US cities
Zillow says this could be due to homebuyers being insensitive to interest rate hikes in an exceptionally low-rate environment, and the real estate firm's analysts expect housing prices to go up 3.6% in 2017 even as interest rates rise.
Still, potential homebuyers, expecting further rate hikes, are increasingly looking to lock in low rates before they go up, while refinance requests have dropped significantly (32% on Zillow) since November.
The Fed is meeting this week and is widely expected to raise the benchmark Fed funds rate by 25 basis points to a range between 0.50% and 0.75%. That increase is likely to have an effect on mortgage rates going forward. To that end, Zillow calculated how a rate hike this week would affect mortgage payments in 12 major US metro areas by comparing payments for a mortgage with a 4.0% rate to one with a 4.25% rate. Here are Zillow's estimates.