Should You Wait to Buy Real Estate?

Some good news came out this week. 

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, is predicting that rates will lower to around 6-7% come spring. This is welcome news to millions of buyers who are balking at the higher rates (and rightly so. They can remind us that rates were 18% in the 80’s, but when they rise from 2% to 8% in less than two years, that’s catastrophic no matter which way you slice it).

But should you wait till spring to buy?

I’m not talking to people who aren’t in the position to buy right now regardless of where the rates are. If the numbers don’t make sense they don’t make sense, and that’s a very painful reality for many people. Whom I’m talking to are people who have decided to wait because they feel like spring will bring them a better deal.

That’s not necessarily the case.

Everyday you wait, the price of housing is going up. Real estate appreciates, that’s the name of the game (and before you quote 2008, that was the first time since we’ve been keeping RECORDS that real estate lost value. And I believe everyone would agree that we’ve since regained that ground in spades. The headlines from earlier this year were pertaining to appreciation rates slowing after the highs of the pandemic, not values tanking. Them boys in the press can’t resist hitting the panic button; better for views lol). 

A house that right now is sitting at $400,000, come spring may be around $404,000. That might not seem like much, but it might be the difference in qualifying for a loan or not. Additionally, as soon as those rates drop you’re going to have people flooding back into the market that couldn’t afford a house in November, but come April now they can. The ones who had been on that affordability threshold will be ushered in, and as soon as demand goes up… prices will too.

It’s a personal decision, but my advice would be please don’t wait. There’s no point in trying to time the market, no matter how badly we wish to (I wish I had bought as much real estate as I could in 2008, but I was a little busy being 14, so alas…). The best idea is to buy what you can afford when you can afford it, and let the chips fall where they may. That matchbox with the postage stamp yard may not be your castle on a hill, but it’s YOUR matchbox with a postage stamp yard. It’s your bargaining chip to trade up with when the day comes.

You don’t want to be priced out waiting for rates to drop. Marry the house, but date the rate. If I may end on another little pithy saying: 

Don’t wait to buy real estate; buy real estate and wait. 

Unless you’re 14.

Then you just have to wait 🙂