By Anna Bahney, CNN Business
There is no sugarcoating it: This is a terrible time to buy a home.
Mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed rate loan are now hovering above 7%, more than 4 percentage points higher than a year ago. That has slashed a typical buyer’s purchasing power by 14%, according to Black Knight, a mortgage data company.
With fewer people able or interested in buying now, home sales have been falling. Just 16% of people say now is a good time to buy a home, a record low, according to a monthly survey conducted by Fannie Mae in October.
Still, that’s barely made a dent in home prices, which soared to new heights during the pandemic and are now just easing off of all-time highs.
Another thing tamping down sales is stubbornly low inventory of available homes for sale, said Jackie Lafferty, a real estate agent with Baird & Warner Real Estate in Chicago.
“It is something I’ve never seen a combination of, this lack of inventory and higher interest rates,” Lafferty said. “There is no motivation for people to move unless they have to.”
But whether people need to move because of a new job, a divorce, an addition to the family or they simply don’t want to give up after years of trying to buy a home, there are still buyers out there.
“Even if sales slow down, real estate doesn’t stop,” said Lafferty. “People need a place to live.”
For those who are pressing on, here are a few ways you can take some of the sting out of buying a home.
which goes on to discuss, propose various mortgage strategies to help buyers navigate the high rates
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Many of the things noted in the article that are affecting the national real estate market - high interest rates, falling home sales, still high home prices and low inventory - are also playing a role in our Catalina Foothills market, with at least one big difference,
Toward the end the article notes that, according to a recent report from the National Association of Realtors 97% of homebuyers over the past year needed to finance their home.
Whereas, in the Catalina Foothills, of the 671 homes sold so far this year, 43% (271 homes) were cash purchases. Which I believe has lessened and may continue to lessen the damaging effects of high mortgage rates on our market and should also tend to make a cash offer even more attractive than it has ever been. Let's hope!
Thanks for stopping by
John Schneider /Realtor®
Tierra Antigua Realty
Catalina Foothills Homes
[email protected]
520 271-4164
TheFoothillsToday.com
to see all the homes for sale in the Catalina Foothills
(and only in the Catalina Foothills)
