As seen in The Journal Record .
Even in harsh economic times when homeownership seems difficult to achieve, 94 percent of Americans continue to consider it The American Dream.
When building operations all but ceased across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic, business in the mortgage industry skyrocketed. The demand for home ownership paired with the lack of new units being built, caused costs to multiply and a rapid increase in home interest rates. Since 2020 there have been eleven consecutive rate hikes. This has directly contributed to mortgage rates going from the low 3% rates to rates as high as 8%.
I am proud to say that our mortgage division at Stride Bank has adapted to these changes to help countless prospective home buyers navigate the challenging waters of the housing market in the past few years.
Supporting homebuyers amid a climate of high interest rates, limited building supply and a national housing shortage required us to face challenges head-on. We started by taking inventory of our resources and understanding the pain points our clients and partners were experiencing. We partnered with local home builders to construct incentives for homebuyers by combining lender and builder credits to help ease the financial strain that many homebuyers are experiencing.