Rates and home prices are climbing – but are buyers pushing ahead regardless?
“We try to be really strategic with the buyers we work with,” she said. “A lot of people were counting on refinancing within six months to a year and haven’t been able to. My goal is always to set my clients up for success, not just short-term but long-term too.
“So I want them to be genuinely comfortable with their payment today. If rates drop later and refinancing makes sense down the road, great – that’s a bonus, not the plan.”
A “buy now, refinance later” strategy gained popularity earlier in the current rate cycle, when many assumed the Federal Reserve’s cutting cycle would bring mortgage rates down within a year or two.
With the pace of Fed policy now less certain thanks to firmer inflation data, rising energy costs, and the hawkish approach of new chair Kevin Warsh, loan officers like O’Neil say qualifying buyers on the rate available today, rather than a hoped-for rate tomorrow, has become the most responsible course.
That means focusing less on timing a rate window and more on locking in genuine affordability at today’s numbers, treating any future refinance as upside rather than the foundation of the deal.
