​If you are buying a home, today’s housing market can feel like a challenge. With so few homes on the market right now, plus higher mortgage rates, it’s essential to have a firm grasp on your home buying budget. You will also need a sense of determination to find the right house and act quickly when you go to put in an offer. One thing you can do to help you prepare is to get pre-approved.

To understand why it is such an important step, you need to know what pre-approval is. As part of the process, a lender looks at your finances to determine what they would be willing to loan you. From there, your lender will give you a pre-approval letter to help you understand how much money you can borrow.

Freddie Mac explains it like this:
“A pre-approval is an indication from your lender that they are willing to lend you a certain amount of money to buy your future home. . . . Keep in mind that the loan amount in the pre-approval letter is the lender’s maximum offer. Ultimately, you should only borrow an amount you are comfortable repaying.”

Pre-approval gives you critical information about the home buying process that will help you understand how much you may be able to borrow so you have a stronger grasp of your options. With higher mortgage rates impacting affordability for many buyers today, a solid understanding of your numbers is even more important.
Pre-Approval Helps Show You’re a Serious Buyer
That is not the only thing pre-approval can do. Another added benefit is it can help a seller feel more confident in your offer because it shows you are serious about buying their house. With sellers seeing a slight increase in the number of offers again this spring, making a strong offer when you find the perfect house is key.

As a recent article from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) says:
“If you plan to use a mortgage for your home purchase, preapproval should be among the first steps in your search process. Not only can getting preapproved help you zero in on the right price range, but it can give you a leg up on other buyers, too.”
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My Bottom Line:
Getting pre-approved is an important first step when you are buying a home. It lets you know what you can borrow for your loan and shows sellers you are serious.

As the housing market continues to change, you may be wondering where it will go from here.

One factor you are probably thinking about is home prices, which have come down a bit since they peaked last June. You’ve likely heard something in the news or on social media about a price crash on the horizon. As a result, you may be holding off on buying a home until prices drop significantly.

That’s not the best strategy.

A recent survey from Zonda shows 53% of millennials are still renting right now because they’re waiting for home prices to come down. Here’s the thing: the most recent data shows that home prices appear to have bottomed out and are now on the rise again.
​Selma Hepp, Chief Economist at CoreLogic, reports:

“U.S. home prices rose by 0.8% in February . . . indicating that prices in most markets have already bottomed out.”
And the latest data from Black Knight shows the same shift. The graph below compares home price trends in November to those in February:

So, should you keep waiting to buy a home until prices come down?

If you factor in what the experts are saying, you probably should not. The data shows prices are increasing in much of the country, not decreasing. The latest data from the Home Price Expectation Survey indicates that experts project home prices will rise steadily and return to more normal levels of appreciation after 2023.
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My Bottom Line:
Let’s have a conversation. That’s the best way to understand what home values are doing in the Myrtle Beach Market.
If you are waiting to buy a home until prices come down, you may want to reconsider. Connect with me to make sure you understand what’s happening in our local housing market.