Will mortgage rates go down? Here's why waiting may be riskier than you think.

If you’re a first-time homebuyer right now, I get it.

You’re staring at rates, affordability, house prices, and headlines, wondering to yourself "should I just wait until things get better?"

Here's the truth: timing the market is almost impossible, and it can cost you more than you think.

1. Markets will move faster than people do. 

Unless you are a wall street trader. By the time rates actually come down, guess what? Thousands of other buyers have decided the same as you that rates are at the bottom and boom, home prices get pushed higher. The "better deal" you were waiting for often disappears before you can grab it. Not too mention you will likely be in competition and that FOMO feeling will come back, causing higher pressure decision making.

2. Life can change overnight.

I worked with a client last month who was approved, and excited, but decided to "wait for rates to drop just a little more."  The irony is that the fixed rate she was approved at was actually lower than what the fixed rate is today. In that waiting game, she lost her job. Here's the twist: she actually found another job that paid her more. But because of the way her new salary was structured, she had to wait an entire year before qualifying for a mortgage again. Opportunity lost, all because she tried to time the market.  Now, she is paying rent, which was pretty close to the same mortgage payment she would have been paying.  

3. The real wealth isn’t in timing, it’s in owning.

Historically, real estate has been one of the greatest builders of wealth simply because time works in your favour. The average home owner, owns a home for over 30 years! That is a long time to be paying down a mortgage, it doesn't mean you are in he same home for 30 years, but it is like a club that people seldom leave. Every year you own a home, you build equity, even if the value is not going up, you're paying down the principal. That is like a savings account that is hard to access, which is where the real wealth gets built overtime. When you get pre qualified to buy a home, the sooner you take the leap, even if rates feel higher today, the sooner you start winning the game.

Waiting for the perfect time to buy a home is like waiting for all the traffic lights to turn green before you leave your driveway, you will never get moving. Progress always beats perfection, the sooner you start the sooner you arrive.

Brian Hogben