The world has changed in recent weeks as the financial impact from Corona Virus has shocked the markets and caused the Federal Reserve to lower mortgage interest rates by a half a point. This move has brought interest rates to their lowest point in 4 years and has made right now an ideal time to buy a home or refinance a mortgage.

If you’ve been thinking about buying a home in the Austin TX area for your primary residence, or an investment property, now is a great time to buy since we may not see interest rates lower than this in our lifetimes.

Current Mortgage Interest Rates

Average mortgage rates actually edged higher on Friday, defying trends in other markets and confounding our prediction. Read about the probable causes below. It’s not time to panic yet: Average rates last Friday evening were appreciably lower than those the previous one. But anyone who’s the slightest bit risk-averse must surely be thinking hard about locking soon.

First thing this morning, markets were again in virus-related uproar. This time, the trigger was Saudi Arabia, which is reacting to the failure of oil cartel OPEC to reach a price-setting deal. It’s raising production and cutting already falling prices, causing mayhem in most markets. Things were so bad on Wall Street that an automated trading brake was triggered when the S&P plunged 7% in five minutes.