Is 2024 the Year You Buy a Home

Our goal is to help people achieve their goals. It might surprise you to learn that I help people make the decision to not buy real estate all the time. The time to buy real estate is not always “NOW”. Real estate is a good purchase in any market at any time. However, each person’s circumstances truly matter and we put people over property every time. If you’ve been thinking about buying a home in 2024, here are a few things to consider:

Presidential election year:

I’m not trying talk politics. I’d honestly prefer we didn’t. As a Realtor, we believe in the color purple. There are red and blue problems and I believe in purple solutions. That said, in a presidential election year, there’s uncertainty. The markets do not typically like uncertainty. Also- falling home prices are bad for incumbent presidents so there’s more than likely going to be political pressure to make sure the real estate market is hot before November. 

Interest Rates:

The impact of interest rates when budgeting how much home you can afford cannot be overstated. Marry the house and date the rate sounds cute until you date the rate for years and it becomes a long term relationship. You CAN refinance and you shouldn’t plan on having an interest rate above 7% forever. But, don’t gamble on having interest rates come down by 2% this year. PLEASE explore buy down options and seller credits to lower your interest rates. There are programs and options to pay for a 3-2-1 buy down which would lower your interest rate by 3% the first year, 2% the second year and 1% the third year. Another thing to consider with interest rates is that the Federal Reserve has indicated they are committed to fighting inflation and keeping interest rates where they are or raising them depending on how “sticky” inflation is this year. Many are expecting rates to drop. And they may. But the Fed is not committing to lowering interest rates as of February 1, 2024. Last thought on interest rates: when they drop, there’s going to be a flurry of activity from buyers who have been waiting. That’s going to create competition in the marketplace for the existing inventory and probably drive prices up. If you need to wait, by all means wait. But you could lose whatever advantage a 0.25% interest drop is in a multiple offer situation. 

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