CRAWFORD COUNTY, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—If you’ve been hesitant to sell your home because you have a great mortgage rate, there’s a new piece of legislation worth watching: the MOVE Act — Making Ownership Viable for Everyone Act.
The proposal would create a path for certain qualifying conventional mortgages to become portable, meaning homeowners could potentially take their existing mortgage rate and loan terms with them when they sell their current home and purchase another.
For example, imagine you have a mortgage at 3.25%. Instead of paying off that mortgage when you sell and taking out an entirely new loan at a higher rate, a portable mortgage could potentially allow you to transfer the existing mortgage to your next home.
That could be significant for homeowners who feel “locked in” by today’s mortgage rates.
There’s an important distinction, though: the MOVE Act is only proposed legislation right now — it is not law. The bill was introduced in Congress and referred to the House Financial Services Committee. It has not passed the House or Senate and has not been signed into law.
The proposal also focuses on qualifying conventional mortgages connected with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, so it would not automatically apply to every homeowner or every type of mortgage.
As a Realtor®, I’ll be watching this closely because mortgage portability could potentially have an impact on homeowners’ decisions to move and on the overall real estate market.