High mortgage rates, home prices keeping homebuyers away
COLLIN COUNTY (CBSNewsTexas.com) – North Texas keeps attracting people from all over the county with its jobs and lifestyle.
But with higher interest rates, it has cooled the housing market some, even in red-hot North Texas.
In Collin County, it's not hard to find houses that aren't being built fast enough according to some real estate experts, due to high demand and lower supply related to lack of inventory during COVID.
According to Freddie Mac, the average interest rate on a 30-year home loan was 7.19% – up from 6.48% at the beginning of this year and prices will remain unaffordable as long as mortgage rates continue this way.
CBS News Texas spoke with Kyle Paris with the Collin County Area Realtors who said the buyer pool has shrunk but at the end of the day people need a roof over their heads.
"What I notice is that people aren't moving because they just want to, they happen to see a house online and it kind of gets them thinking people move now more of necessity at jobs or just life changes but people are still out there actively buying from a seller's perspective you kind of just have to set your expectations, you're not going to get a dozen offers in that first day," said Paris.
Paris said the houses he sees sell the fastest are the turn key ready houses, meaning the buyer doesn't need to do much to fix it up.
In the Plano, Frisco, Prosper, McKinney area—that's where he sees some of the stronger numbers for sales according to Paris.
If you are in the market to buy—he's his advice for you:
"Advice for buyers right now really is, if you can afford to take on that higher interest rate or get over that mental hurdle now is really a great time to be a buyer, because you don't have as much competition you are able to work with sellers because they know they don't have 10, 15, 20 people banging on their door writing offers up if they are lucky you hope they can get two or three," added Paris.
