The 12-month Euribor, the most used indicator to calculate mortgage installments, recorded a new rise in March, of 3.647% in its average rate. Despite the strong fluctuations that it has registered in recent weeks due to the financial storm unleashed by the collapse of Credit Suisse, the index has chained 15 consecutive months of ascents.
However, it has risen more moderately than in previous months, which is why it is far from the 4% rate, the percentage at which it would close this month according to forecasts. It was close on March 9 to reaching that threshold, when its daily value stood at 3.978%, the highest since 2008, after the US Federal Reserve (Fed) assured that it was prepared to accelerate the rate hikes. A measure that also planned to adopt, if necessary, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde.
However, the mortgage indicator halted its rise after the sharp stock market falls that triggered the bankruptcies of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, in the US, and the collapse of the Swiss Credit Suisse, which ended up being acquired by UBS. In this context, the market anticipated that central banks would have to ease their monetary policy.
The Euribor began to move downward, to the point of reaching its lowest since January, at a daily rate of 3.322%. But, despite the banking turmoil, the ECB chose to continue stepping on the accelerator and raise interest rates by 50 basis points, up to 3.50%. And the Euribor climbed again, although the rise in March, of 113 basis points, has been the lowest for a year.
Despite registering a more moderate rise in March, the variable mortgages that have to be reviewed with this month’s data will increase substantially, since a year ago the Euribor was still negative, at -0.237%. According to estimates by the Association of Financial Users (Asufin), the rise in March will translate into a rise of 197.66 euros in the monthly fee for every 100,000 euros of loan.
Thus, for a mortgage of an average amount of 142,654 euros at a term of 25 years and a Euribor plus 1% interest, the fee will be 804.9 euros per month. Compared to March last year, this means an increase of 282 euros per month and 3,389 euros per year. In the case of a mortgage of 300,000 euros, with the same conditions, the increase will be about 593 euros.
