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The Secret Behind Housing

Every few years the housing market rewrites the rules, and buyers who learned the last set of rules show up unprepared for the new ones. Right now, the rules have changed more than they have at any point in a generation. The buyers who understand that are finding deals. The ones who do not are making expensive mistakes.

Home prices at the national level have remained well above their pre-pandemic levels even as sales volume collapsed. The reason is supply. Homeowners who locked in three percent mortgages in 2020 and 2021 have almost no incentive to sell, which means the correction that many analysts were expecting simply did not materialize the way the data suggested it should.

Wendy is a name you might hear from a lot of agents right now, because the buyers getting deals done tend to know exactly what they want and why. That is not a personality trait. It is a preparation habit.

Your credit score affects your rate more directly than most buyers realize. The difference between a 680 score and a 760 score can mean a half-point or more in rate. If your score has room to improve, give yourself three to six months to work on it before you begin in earnest.

The appraisal is the lender’s check, not yours. When the appraisal comes in below contract, the deal does not automatically die, but it does require a decision. Ask your agent whether recent comparable sales support the price you are offering.

Price matters, but terms matter too. Deal structure has won more competitive situations than overbidding has.

The timing question, whether to buy now or wait for rates to come down, is the one that trips up more buyers than any other single factor. Waiting for the perfect moment is how people end up renting for another five years when they did not mean to. The more useful question is not whether now is the right time in the abstract; it is whether you are buying because the numbers make sense for you, not because you feel social pressure to own.

Buyers who take the time to do their homework tend to find that there are still good properties available at realistic prices. Current property listings and market tools at real estate listings and data are worth bookmarking before you make any major moves.