We understand! Everyone loves their ultra-low interest rate; what’s not to love? However, maybe what you don’t love is your neighborhood, the size of your house, or…fill in the blank. Ugh, what a stuck feeling!! We totally understand, it makes total sense…until it doesn’t.
Unless you’re planning on staying in your current home for an infinite amount of time, there likely will never be interest rates as low as they were in 2019-2021. Why? We know you know: dreaded inflation. But fear not, interest rates will go down! They are predicted to go down to 4-5% as soon as 2024-2025. But when they do, all hell is expected to break loose! “…Zillow predicts that U.S. home prices will rise 6.5% between July 2023 and July 2024…While Zillow economists expect national home prices to rise 6.5% over the coming 12 months, their forecast model predicts that 120 of the nation's 400 largest housing markets will see increases of 7.0% or greater over the next 12 months.”
If you’re ready to move, you’re in a pickle. What should you do? Wait until interest rates go down? Look now, even though rates are high? Buyers keep feeling like they're banging their heads against the wall. They want out, but when and how?
What we like to say to both buyers and sellers is the best time to make a real estate move is when you feel ready. Timing the real estate market is really, really hard, especially if you’re selling one home to buy another.
If you can stomach it, seize the moment! When interest rates go down and competition is high, a contingent home sale, (writing an offer on a new home, contingent on selling your current home) is extremely difficult. Right now, we’ve been seeing contingent offers get accepted again. We absolutely LOVE this! How wonderful it is to find a home before selling your current home. During the pandemic folks were having to pull cash from wherever they could to buy their new home first and then sell their current home. While it secured their housing, it made almost all our sellers feel stressed, hoping they got the price they wanted for the house they were selling because the house they were purchasing was more expensive than they anticipated. Almost every home went into a massive bidding war and went waaayyy up in price from the original list-price.
If you are ready to move, we say put less money towards your down payment and use that extra money to subsidize your monthly mortgage until you can refinance. There are so many loan options you can qualify for with as little as a 3% down payment. This is just one creative idea, and buying may not be right for everyone right now.
Please reach out, we are trusted advisors and will look at your particular situation and advise if this seems like a good time for you to make a move or stay put. What’s right for one family could be a bad move for another.
