With interest rates down, is it a good time to buy a home?

Well, as we have reported, the feds cut the interest rate by a half point recently. But what does this mean for homebuyers 10 on your sides? Ashley Knight looks into it and tells us if now is a good time to jump into the housing market. So the Federal Reserve raised interest rates or the prime rate a total of 11 times in one economic cycle to try to stop inflation. Now that inflation has cooled, they've lowered that by half a point down to eight percent. So is it a good time to buy a home? I spoke with a real estate agent and a loan officer to explain how the prime rate affects the mortgage rate that you pay each month. No sooner than they lowered the Fed funds rate that afternoon when I got home, my neighbor said, I heard they lowered rates. That's great for you. And in reality, mortgage rates had gone up that afternoon. The prime rate is an interest rate lenders use to determine a mortgage rate. Mortgage rates are based on the market and on the best type of borrower with good credit. While prime rates are set in several steps, mortgage rates can change daily. October, we hit a high of 779 was the national average rate in October. And I think two weeks ago, late September, it hit six point zero two. And I think last Thursday it came out at like six point three two. But that slight spike in mortgage rates may be short lived, which is why lenders and real estate agents are saying folks should jump into the market now. What you want to do is build equity. And the sooner that you do that and get into a property, a home, the quicker that equity can be built. The appreciation rate outpaces the difference in interest rate. I would not have been able to buy my second home without the growth of value in my first. And I would not have been able to buy my third home and step into another market without the growth in value in my second home. And experts are currently seeing home values growing by four to six percent. You might be paying five hundred dollars more a month than you wanted to pay. But at the end of a year, if you're 330 houses, now we're 360. And they say to do it sooner than later because. The pricing of homes is not decreasing. And some lenders say it could quickly turn from a buyer's market to a seller's market. We're not that far withdrawn from where we were at three years ago when the bidding was so intense and the prices were getting run up. Right now, there's actually a deal to be had and even some concessions from a seller to try and entice you to write on their property. Now, to give perspective, mortgage rates were around three percent during the pandemic. And while experts say we may never see that again, they do believe it could drop as low as the fives next year. Ashley Knight 10 on your side.