South Carolina Mortgage Rates

Year over year, home sales grew by an eye-watering 35% in the Greenville, South Carolina area in October. While Greenville led the state, other metropolitan areas aren’t far behind, with Charleston seeing home sales rise by 30.7% and Columbia climbing by 29.7%. Statewide, home sales rose by 24% in a sign that the South Carolina housing downturn may finally have stopped, and demand for homes may be rising again.

The figures, reported by the South Carolina Realtors Association, demonstrate that the housing market is improving, but the Realtors Association also said that a glut of homes on the market, particularly distressed properties, was keeping prices from rising as aggressively as strong sales would normally imply. “Most markets have shed listings, resulting from strong sales and sluggish seller activity. There has been a general easing of foreclosures and short sales, meaning distressed listings are dragging prices down less than in recent years. So it’s both about market fundamentals and market composition,” the association said in a statement.

Additionally, the association said that it expected mortgage rates “to remain near historic lows through 2015,” but rents would rise throughout the state as vacancies remained low. The high demand for rentals is largely driven by a move away from homeownership resulting from the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008.

South Carolina homeowners have been turning to mortgage refinance programs to take advantage of record low mortgage rates at a robust pace, with demand expected to stay strong throughout 2013. One particularly popular program is the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP.

About a year ago, the Federal government revamped HARP and relaunched what has been called “HARP 2.0″, since it’s the second version of the program. Thanks to the revamped rules of HARP 2.0, homeowners can qualify for a mortgage refinance on their Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac backed mortgage as long as they have remained current in the past 6 months and have not made more than one 30-day late payment in the past year. To qualify, the original mortgage must have been sold to Fannie or Freddie prior to June 1, 2009.

Rates on HARP 2.0 loans can vary tremendously from lender to lender, as these are calculated differently in different banks. For more information, the online form can be submitted and will return a response almost instantly.

FreeRateUpdate.com surveys more than two dozen wholesale and direct lenders’ rate sheets to determine the most accurate mortgage rates available to well qualified consumers at about a 1 point origination fee.