The U.S. Treasury Department decreased the home mortgage interest rates last year to try and boost the economy.

Home State Bank Vice President and Mortgage Specialist Amy Milligan tells Raccoon Valley Radio that mortgage rates have been at historic lows for a majority of 2020, and continue to be low. She says interest rates for a 15-year home mortgage is 2.125-percent and for a 30-year mortgage, it is 2.75-percent. Milligan notes that because of this, she’s seen an increase in people getting home mortgage loans as well as refinancing their mortgages. She says there’s been a 25-percent increase in those purchasing home mortgages and almost 70-percent of current mortgages were refinanced.

Milligan points out that there’s also been an increase in home equity loans, based on the bank’s matrix of a customer’s credit score and their debt-to-income of how much money they earn versus how much their bills are per month. The increase is attributable to the low fee of around $500 with interest rates around four-percent.

Milligan is uncertain how low these rates will continue to be, but she suspects the rates will not have a huge spike very quickly because that would create a negative impact for the stock market.