By: Janet Siroto | Realtor.com
If you’re shopping for a new home now or are hoping to this spring, you probably feel your heart racing a little. The word is out: Mortgage interest rates are on the rise.
This means for the same size loan (and house), borrowers will have to pay a higher monthly mortgage bill every month. And that’s prompting many homebuyers to feel as if they need to hurry up and find a house, ASAP.
“Buyers are hyperaware that interest rates are climbing,” says Steve Clark, a real estate agent at Compass in Southern California. “They know it’s important to purchase a home quickly.”
This panic is further intensified by the rising cost of real estate due to low housing inventory. The median home price nationwide is hovering 10% higher than a year earlier, at $375,000.
“My clients are feeling the pressure from the lack of inventory, which is compounded by the increase in interest rates,” says Maggie Ding, a real estate agent in the Los Angeles area. “It feels like they are being hit on both ends.”