By Living Room Realty, January 23, 2023
Potential homebuyers in Clark County face a difficult decision as the real estate market continues to normalize: Buy now or wait?
The median sale price for residential homes in Clark County continued falling last month, dropping from $514,000 in November to $479,900 in December, according to the most recent Regional Multiple Listing Service report. Interest rates for 30-year fixed mortgages also fell and are now just above 6 percent, according to the government-sponsored home mortgage packager Freddie Mac.
Given these relatively lower expenses, Living Room Realty broker Scott Cotrell thinks it makes sense to buy now.
“If they buy now, regardless of what they can afford, it’s always going to be better than renting because rent tends to always go up,” Cotrell said. “If you lock in a mortgage rate, it’s locked in for that life of the loan, and you know how much your expenses are going to be.”
Even as prices and interest rates fall, Cotrell doesn’t foresee housing affordability improving for potential homebuyers in the near future. Mortgage rates, though lower than their peak of 7.08 percent in November, are still high, limiting buying power.
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Looking at the year ahead, Cotrell predicts interest rates could fall below 5 percent. If that happens, the market would “take off like crazy,” he said.
For this reason, he thinks buying now would be beneficial for those who want to avoid the stress of a hot market.
Read the full article by Kelsey Turner in the Columbian.
