Should I wait for mortgage rates to drop before buying?

Question 1

Kathleen Militello · Accepted Answer

The honest answer is that waiting for rates is a gamble on an unknowable number, and there are two things you can know instead: what you can afford at today's rate, and what home you can secure now and refinance later. Rates move for reasons no one controls, and no one can promise when or by how much they will change. What a buyer can control is the decision to buy a home that fits their life and finances at today's reality. There is also a real math to consider: if rates fall later, most buyers refinance, which turns a today purchase into a future benefit. Meanwhile, prices and competition in the towns you want can move while you wait. I will never pressure you into a home you are not ready for. But I will help you see the choice clearly: waiting costs you the months of living in the place you want, and it bets against your own timeline. On the North Shore, home prices in the commuter towns and coastal villages have their own momentum, and the seasonal market means the home you would have bought in the spring may simply not be available in the fall. The calendar is part of the math.

Question 2

How do I decide between waiting for rates and buying now?

Kathleen Militello · Accepted Answer

The honest answer is that waiting for rates is a gamble on an unknowable number, and there are two things you can know instead: what you can afford at today's rate, and what home you can secure now and refinance later. Rates move for reasons no one controls, and no one can promise when or by how much they will change. What a buyer can control is the decision to buy a home that fits their life and finances at today's reality. There is also a real math to consider: if rates fall later, most buyers refinance, which turns a today purchase into a future benefit. Meanwhile, prices and competition in the towns you want can move while you wait. I will never pressure you into a home you are not ready for. But I will help you see the choice clearly: waiting costs you the months of living in the place you want, and it bets against your own timeline. On the North Shore, home prices in the commuter towns and coastal villages have their own momentum, and the seasonal market means the home you would have bought in the spring may simply not be available in the fall. The calendar is part of the math.

Should I wait for mortgage rates to drop before buying?

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