REAL ESTATE ARTICLES

Mortgage Rates or Home Prices?

It can be an incapacitating conundrum: weighing interest-rate movement rates against home-price movements. The trade-off can be difficult to analyze, especially for borrowers who mistakenly believe rates have always been low and will always remain so. Of course, many neophyte homebuyers are thinking along a similar line; that is, home prices are low and will stay low.

The analysis is actually straightforward, if placed in a historical context. Both mortgage rates and home prices are much closer to being at, or near, a bottom than a top when comparing today's market to markets past. Of course, it is entirely possible that a buyer could sign a contract, lock in the loan rate, then go home and read that national home prices and mortgage rates have dropped.

Market tops and bottoms are impossible to predict. The best we can do is to estimate where we are based on long-term trends and similar past economic circumstances. From this perspective, there is really no trade off. Both home prices and mortgage rates are low, so there is no conundrum and there is no reason to put off buying a home for anyone staying put for at least five years.