OMG the sky is falling!! Everyone should panic!! Everything is terrible!!! Oh wait, none of that is true. The sky isn’t falling. The sky is firmly in its proper place. It is mid-September in Greater Phoenix. And do you know what that means? It means that real estate is boring. It is doing what it does every September… nothing special.
Yes, the Fed did increase the Fed funds rate and yes, mortgage rates did increase to 7.2% (as of 9/18 per MND). And yes there are still buyers in the market. Not as many as we would like, but that has been the case for a few years now. You know what is surprisingly consistent? Our buyer demand. Over the past 4 years buyer demand hasn’t changed much. Yes, it is seasonal and September is never awesome, but this chart shows that the fluctuations have more to do with seasonality than they do interest rates. Over the past 4 years we have touched 5.99% twice and were over 8% once. Those fluctuations may have had brief impacts but nothing that was actually market moving.
So, despite it all, the increase in mortgage rates will not dissuade the have-to buyers. People move due to events in their own lives. The want-to buyers pay more attention to rates. And quite frankly the want-to buyers have been fairly absent for 4 years, aside from luxury buyers.
But do you know what is true about right now? It is the best time of year to be a buyer. Buyers have a lot of leverage right now. They have little competition among other buyers and sellers want to sell. The first quarter of the year brings hope for sellers. The last quarter of the year does not. Buyers can ask for the moon and will likely get it. Don’t let today’s mortgage rates scare anyone away. There are deals to be had and lots of houses to sell.
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Sarah Perkins is an award winning account executive and has been in title sales since 2004. As the Director of Industry Research & Senior Account Executive, Sarah’s role is to bring real estate transactions to Navi Title. Sarah supports her clients by helping them navigate the ever-changing real estate space through thorough research and understanding of current trends impacting today’s home buyers and sellers.
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