https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/18/homes...rch/index.html
“New home starts pulled back in March.”
As I always inform any potential home buyers, the US is experiencing a severe shortage of homes since 2008, with COVID (global shortage supply) and rising rates (even less new homes built) further damping new home builds.
This will keep home values (different from home prices) steady. Home prices have slowly started to come down, BUT, keep in mind, home prices today are still above pre-pandemic levels.
The good news is in this current market, though it will continue to be a seller’s market until the supply side corrects itself (which will not be any time soon), buyers now have some leverage and power due to the rise in rates, which in turn gives the sellers a reason to work with the buyer and even offering incentives/seller concession credits (which this can be used towards buying the rate down) or even your closing costs.
So remember, even if you are hearing/reading that NOW is a bad time to buy, look at your financial situation and look at what is happening in the market to see if it is a good or bad time to buy for YOU:
-Higher rates = less competition (less bidding wars) = less likely of paying above asking price
-Higher rates = home pricing slowly coming down due to sitting on the market longer than during COVID and when rates were much lower
-Higher rates = homes sitting on the market longer = seller willing to work with buyers and offer seller concession credits, which could be applied towards buying the rate down and/or closing costs
-Higher rates = can be refinanced when rates go down
-Higher rates = room for negotiating the price of home
-Lower rates = opposite of everything listed above, minus the refinancing part (I suppose you could refinance to a higher rate, but only makes sense if you need liquid cash and are doing a cash-out refinance.)
On a side note, think of difference between buying now at a higher rate vs waiting to buy when rates drop: from the time you buy at a higher rate to the time you refinance to a lower rate, you would have built that much more personal wealth/equity compared to not buying until rates drop. In the same amount of time and renting, all you would have done is pay 100% interest and someone else’s mortgage with no equity/wealth of your own built.
EDIT: Again, this all depends on YOUR personal financial situation.