Northpointe’s Levesque on RI Real Estate Inventory - and Refinancing

Northpointe’s Levesque on RI Real Estate Inventory - and Refinancing

Northpointe Bank’s Zach Levesque appeared on GoLocal LIVE to talk about the current real state inventory — and conditions — in Rhode Island, as well as what to take into consideration when looking at refinancing a mortgage. 

"Right now we’re still in a little bit of a refinance boom — it’s a pocket," said Levesque. "Interest rates went down dramatically over the last couple of months. obviously having to do with the pandemic, the stock market being hit, so the 10-year Treasury has dipped to very, very low, almost historic lows — which is, in turn, lower interest rates — so we’re seeing a lot of refinance applications."

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"What we’re not seeing as much of is purchase applications. The pandemic, we all knew it was going to affect the market — it actually didn’t affect the market as much as we thought in Rhode Island in March. But we’re starting to go into that time where we’re going to see contracts to buy new homes start to dwindle," he said.

Current Inventory

"In 2019, [in Rhode Island] on the last day of March, there were a little over 5,700 properties listed — fast forward to 2020, at the end of March it was 5,500, so the inventory is lower this year than it was last year," he said. 

"The other really interesting thing is the average days on the market, right now for a property from market to pending or the listing to under contract, is only 59 days, compared to last year at 66, so we’re still in a low-inventory market," he said. "So if I had to guess — and this is a guess — I think we’re going to see that inventory market go down."

Mortgage Refinancing Considerations

"First of all, it depends on what your mortgage balance is — how much do you have left and what is your interest rate. There’s no real handbook on when you should refinance because everybody has different needs," he said. 

"A lot of refinancing that we’re actually doing right now has to do with term reduction because the most money that you can save is cutting the term of your mortgage," he added. 

Levesque joins GoLocal LIVE on Tuesday mornings at 10 AM as part of a content partnership.