Mortgage Transfers Pick Up as a Way to Beat Rising Rates
The only goal was to not lose money.
When Matthew Kilboy listed the Washington, D.C., condominium that he and his husband had bought in 2017, they accepted that higher interest rates and a soft market for condos meant any dollar over the $529,000 they had paid was a dollar they would thank their lucky stars for.
A similar two-bedroom and two-bath unit in the building had recently gone for just under half a million. The $549,000 price they listed in April was basically a wish.
A month later, the couple closed at $565,000 — thanks to a little-known amenity that has become increasingly popular as mortgage rates have risen. Their unit came with an assumable 30-year mortgage, with a 2.25 percent fixed rate that the couple had locked in after a November 2020 refinancing. By advertising that the buyer could inherit the mortgage, the couple, who have moved to Denver, got several over-asking-price bids that seemed like a relic from the warped real estate market during the Covid lockdown.
“It was the very first sentence of the listing,” said Mr. Kilboy, 39, a former Navy nurse whose loan, backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, could be passed to the buyer. “No one could find an interest rate that low, so we were really pushing it.”
Source: The New York Times
