Have you been watching the news over the past few months, or are you trying to avoid it at all costs, like me? As hard as I try, it is hard to escape the headlines about the economy and its current state. Interest rates are on the rise and have doubled over the past year. This, alone, can take a home that was once affordable and put it out of budget, quickly.

You may be asking yourself, is now the right time to build a home? Maybe I should wait. Uncle Bob is telling me that I should hunker down and continue to save money through this bit of uncertainty. He says that home prices will plummet here soon. But does Uncle Bob really know what he’s talking about???

The short answer is – no. What has been happening in this market over the past two years is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Approaching it in the same way as the 2008 recession would be foolish. Let’s take a little trip back to that time and summarize what had happened **insert time travel music here, in your head of course** …Back in 2008, the financial crisis was caused by an oversupply of housing and bad lending practices. The oversupply of homes led to banks and lenders finding creative ways to qualify buyers for homes they probably couldn’t really afford. Then foreclosures spiked as people began to default on their mortgages. This led to major price reductions. Builders dropped prices to sell excess inventory, and lenders had to unload a lot of foreclosed homes at major discounts. High Supply and Low Demand led to declining home values. The exact opposite is happening now.

Ok, let’s travel back to current times. Right now, there are not enough homes available to buy to meet the demand. Due to the demand being very high for new builds (remember, there aren’t enough homes out there for the Millennial and even the Gen Z buyers to buy—FUN FACT: did you know they are called zoomers?!), the industry still believes there will be consistent increases on the cost of commodities (lumber, roofing, steel, etc.). Today will still likely be the cheapest time to buy the materials to build a new home.

That leaves one elephant in the room: interest rates. The Fed is currently raising rates to cool the demand.

Let’s talk about interest rates. I know this is going to blow some Millennial/Gen Z minds, but these interest rates are still low! Go ask your parents (or grandparents). When they were in the market for a new house, some of them were paying upwards of 16% interest in the 1980s!!!! Let’s all just pause for a second and say a little prayer that we never get back to that  … …. …. AMEN!

What I need everyone to do is “Men in Black style” clear their minds of everything that has happened with the mortgage rates in the past two years, 2020-2022 (for the young people, YouTube Men in Black Mind Eraser). To have mortgage rates at 3%, and some even lower is silly and probably a once-in-a-lifetime event. If you were able to take advantage of that time period, celebrate!!!! Celebrate, big! For the rest of us, it’s time to embrace what is actually available. I heard the best quote on a recent webinar– “You are marrying the home, not the interest rate; you are only dating the interest rate.” You’ll either be happy you locked in when you did (if rates go up) or you can refinance to a lower rate (if rates go down).

Don’t continue to suffer in your current living situation, hoping for better interest rates. Move forward now, refinance later. AND—did you know there are lenders out there that offer a “rate float down” option!??! Call or email us today to chat more about that!  317.468.2330 | info@joynerhomes.com ……. or fill out a CUSTOMER WORKSHEET to get started now!