What You Can Do To Beat Rising Rates

What’s happening with interest rates, and what can you do about it?

What’s happening with interest rates? If you’ve been hearing about rising interest rates, you might wonder what that means for you and what you can do about it. Today we have a special guest to help answer those questions: my preferred loan officer, Ryan Nelson with Amerifirst.

Ryan, what’s happening with rates?

On the first of the year, interest rates were in the low 3% range, and since then, we’ve seen a meteoric rise in rates. They’re sitting around 6% as of July 2022, and in my 21 years of experience, I’ve never seen rates increase this fast. 

The big reason for this is inflation. In simple terms, inflation is when the costs of goods and services increase, and currently, the Federal Reserve is trying to put measures in place to slow our rate of inflation.

"If you’re looking to purchase a home, now’s a great time to do it."

Is it still a good time to buy a home?

Even though rates are higher, it is still a buyer’s market. There hasn’t been a better time to buy a home in the last few years. A year and a half ago, people were dramatically overpaying to purchase a property, but today more homes are coming on the market, and things have cooled off due to interest rates.

If you’re looking to purchase a home, it’s a great time to do it. Sellers are also willing to help you pay some of the costs, and if rates go down in the future, you can always refinance.

Ryan, I always say that buyers have many options in this market. If they can handle a slightly higher monthly payment, I can get them into a house with no money out of pocket. They can use down payment assistance and seller concessions to cover all their costs. We can also use seller concessions to buy down their interest rate. It’s all about creating a game plan that will put you in the best position possible.

If you have any questions for Ryan, you can call him at (480) 861-7841, or I can put you in touch with him. If you have any other real estate questions, feel free to call or email me. I‘d love to help.