Should You Buy Now or Should You Wait?

The Federal Reserve  told us all last week that interest rates are going to rise, but it will be a slow climb.

Should be smooth sailing, right?

Cheap money we can count on for the time being, so there's no hurry to think about the future, right?

Not so fast! 

Interest rates bottomed out about a year and a half ago, and they've been going up since. So,
the rise in rates is not something we need to plan for... it's here...

Check out this chart:

If you have to make payments, it doesn't take much of an interest rate hike to make that house you dream of buying much more expensive - an increase of just 1.5% (like from 3.3% to 4.8%) can make that $300,000 dream home actually cost you about $100,000 more in interest!

The upshot is that a higher interest rates usually means you will be forced to make a higher payment or you will have to buy less house.

Ask yourself:

Are homes in Sacramento going to be less expensive or more expensive in five years? 

Can we expect interest rates to stay low?

Find the house you love and buy it now while prices and interest rates are reasonable.