Interest Rates Went Up — Let’s Talk About It.

You’re buying or selling a home, property, whatever. This sucks. The market sucks.

You probably saw the announcement that interest rates were going to be increasing 25 basis points, and that does not affect your mortgage rate. I had a client yesterday say something to me about mortgage rates going up. No, no they didn’t. That was the Fed rate.

But with the Fed rate increase, it affects your affordability.

Buyers and sellers, everyone, you have just been hammered over the past couple of years with higher gas prices, and affordability at the grocery store and everywhere else is just trickling up into your pocketbook.

So, mortgage rates would have to significantly drop for you to get the net effect to be the same, because prices have not decreased.

Affordability is the major problem. Your everyday consumer expenses, on top of that, sellers, is what is keeping buyers from jumping on your property.

If you’re sitting here and you’re having showings, sometimes it’s price. But really and truly, the market in our area especially, it’s affordability.

That’s why buyers are taking so long to make a decision on a home. It’s because they’re going, “Oh my gosh, this hurts my pocketbook. Is this what I want to do?”

The price of homes has not come down. The price of borrowing has not come down. But the cost of living has increased.

All of this is extremely frustrating and stressful—from sellers to buyers to their real estate agents. It’s stressful for all parties. It’s a lot. Everyone’s going through it. You’re not the only one. You’re just not.

And I don’t know if that gives you a little bit of peace of mind.

All of this means what I have said in multiple videos, which is: when it’s the right time to buy or sell, when you’re ready—when you are ready.

Don’t be chasing the market. Don’t be waiting for interest rates to come down. It’s whenever it’s the right time for you to move, whether that’s for yourself, your friends, your family, wherever it is—your destination, your job, a change in life, a change in your family’s circumstances, anything like that.

That’s when you move. You don’t sit there and go, “Huh, let’s just wait until next year,” unless you can afford it differently next year.

Because prices, they’re not going to go down. Especially where we live, prices do not decrease.

And I really, really need to find some sort of statistic on this and shoot another video, but I promise, every person that I’ve talked to over the years who waited and then came back around, they’re like, “Oh my gosh, prices haven’t gone down. I wish I would have bought two years ago when I talked to you.”