Home Buyers Start to Come Off Sidelines Even as Rates, Prices Stay Stuck
Prospective home buyers are starting to move off the sidelines because life is moving on, even if mortgage rates and prices are stuck.
People who are having babies, retiring and getting new jobs are shopping for homes, according to real-estate agents and buyers. Home tours and mortgage applications are up—early signals that demand is rising as the spring selling season gets under way.
The housing market is still unaffordable to many would-be buyers, and it is too early to predict how the spring market will develop. But some buyers said they are done waiting for mortgage rates to go back to 3%. They are going ahead with purchases because they are increasingly accepting that mortgage rates are likely to stay around current levels in the coming months, if not longer, real-estate agents said.
Aisha Jamil and Nathan Bhatti, who have been off and on trying to buy their first home since 2020, finally took the plunge recently and purchased a five-bedroom residence in Pineville, N.C.
They had been frustrated with rising prices and mortgage rates that are more than double where they stood a few years ago. But they decided this year to move ahead anyway.
“Compared to my siblings and all of our friends who are homeowners, it was not the best time” to buy, Jamil said. But “I think the best time to buy is when you can afford it,” she added.