Originally Posted by vtec to vvel

I know I've mentioned that it's a bad time to take on additional debt and I was referring to taking on additional credit card debt, taking out unsecured loans, etc. Even with higher rates, people will still go into debt, whether due to not understanding the effects of it or out of necessity.

With a home, IMO, the reasons why it's better to buy now:

1. With higher rates, you have way less competition now with limited qualified buyers available, meaning you are not going to pay above the appraised value and sellers are starting to drop price. When rates were near 2%-3% range, I had buyers paying up to $200K above the appraised value of the home (this is something they had to pay out of pocket since lenders will not loan more on a property than what the appraisal value comes back as). Keep in mind that the housing shortage is not going away anytime soon - there has been a significant underbuilding of new homes since the housing market crash while households have significantly grown since.

2. If you buy when rates are high, fortunately, you are not stuck with that rate. Refinance when rates drop.

At the end of the day, pick your poison. It comes down to your personal financial situation:

A. Get a super low rate if you are lucky enough to get your offer selected during fierce competition and pay a significant amount of money out of pocket over asking/appraised value
OR
B. Get a higher rate with less competition and drastically reduce the chances of paying out of pocket over the asking/appraised value, and then refinance to a lower rate when rates drop.

Unfortunately, the media tends to focus on the bad and a very small piece of the pie, rather than the entire picture. For example, the media has been so focused on low interest rates for homes and potential buyers are scared of 7% range rates, when they have no problem moving forward with a credit card/unsecured loan with a rate nearly 30% lol.