U.S. home buyers are becoming more willing to purchase properties even as interest rates stay high, according to a study by Bank of America published on Monday.
    • assembly@lemmy.world
      11·
      11 months ago

      Yeah I mean the alternative is to just abandon your plans for home ownership altogether. One of my neighbors is in real estate and says people are buying now and hoping the rates come down soon so they can refinance at a lower rate and drop the payment. It’s pretty dangerous since buyers are super stretched until they can refinance and it’s not even close to a guarantee that they will actually be able to get a lower rate anytime soon.

    • Alteon@lemmy.world
      11·
      11 months ago

      Agreed. Most people buying homes have been planning to do so for a few years, why would they stop now?

  • HuddaBudda@kbin.social
    9·
    11 months ago

    I am not sure a matter of survival is “Willing”

    People might not be willing to eat french fries off a McDonalds floor. But they will if it is the only food for miles.

    Families are eating the extra costs, because they really don’t have a choice, when the other option is homelessness.

  • msbeta1421@lemmy.world
    6·
    11 months ago

    I’m skeptical of a 1000 person survey, especially when overall home sales are still down.

    That being said, some people may be getting tired of waiting and willing to gamble on refinancing with favorable interest rates in the future.

  • PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world
    4·
    11 months ago

    There was another article a couple of days ago talking about how spending wasn’t down as much as they had been expecting. I wonder if this is part of the same kind of phenomenon.

    As far as I can tell - at least in my area - home prices haven’t fallen but there’s fewer houses on the market. They’ve flattened out, but haven’t really come down. I don’t know if it’s a supply contraction keeping the prices up (because few people are willing to trade their 3% mortgages for 8%) or if there’s just enough demand and people are buying less house with the intention of refinancing.

    • buddhabound@lemmy.worldEnglish
      51·
      11 months ago

      Or investment groups are still buying houses because they don’t have to pay the same rates that individuals would, and then they’re turning them into short term rentals. I just saw an article a couple of days ago about how investors bought a huge chunk of the residential market this year. For all we know, this is just more of the rich grabbing our resources to consolidate them into profits later when we’ve all been squeezed out.