Marry the house. Date the rate. A market update.

I'm asked (and sometimes told) on a daily basis 'if the housing market is crashing'. The market is not crashing, it is stabilizing. We are returning to normal. This is a good thing. Keep in mind that rates only hit historical lows of 2-3% due to a global pandemic. 

Some markets are seeing homes with longer days on market. Some markets have less buyers. Some markets have more inventory, while others remain critically low. Some markets are seeing price reductions on available homes. This is all specific to YOUR market. There is NOT a national trend with the real estate market. Areas such as Raleigh remain in high demand as we continue to grow with companies such as Google, Amazon and Meta ramping up their businesses here. Markets are extremely localized. That means that what’s going on in my local market may not be the same as your local real estate market.

I don't have a crystal ball, but I know that home prices are not drastically decreasing, if decreasing at all. We (my home market of Raleigh NC) have entirely too much demand to see this in the forseeable future.

In all honesty, a lot of buyers have been priced out and are no longer qualify to be able to buy the same house is that they were able to 3 months ago. This means that there’s a little bit less competition out there. I am noticing there are not as many offers on homes as they once were, but the offers are still as strong as ever.

Rent prices are still increasing. An article from the News & Observer published on March 17th states: "Raleigh rents have increased 1.0% over the past month, and have increased sharply by 21.7% in comparison to the same time last year." 

It is important to remember that because you purchase a home at a 5.5% interest rate with a 30 year loan, this is not set in stone. You have the ability to refinance when rates drop. You have the ability to buy down points and get a lower interest rate.

You marry the house, you only date the rate.