Inventory is low, but so is competition. It could be awhile before rates drop, and when they do, expect surging demand to keep prices high.
By many metrics, the US housing market has never been more unaffordable, and all of the prevailing wisdom right now says buyers should wait it out, either for mortgage rates to drop or prices to come down.
And yet, there’s an argument to be made for getting in now if you can find something, even amid 20-year high mortgage rates and stubbornly high prices.
Mortgage rates at 8% have sidelined a good portion of the competition. While it might not seem like it, the current landscape might be more of a buyer’s market than in recent years, particularly compared to the height of the pandemic when sellers could demand any contingencies be waived and buyers were snapping up homes sight unseen.
More importantly though, the lack of competition now means that when borrowing costs do ease, buyers can expect a flood of pent up demand to wash over the market.
“The days of the 2%-3% interest rates are never going to come back. Forget about that. But they will come down,” “Shark Tank” investor and real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran said in a post on Instagram this week.
“The minute they drop…the whole world’s going to jump back in the market. There’s going to be no houses around, and prices are going to go up by 10%, or even 15%.
