The housing market is still going strong but is facing a couple of challenges that are hard to overcome. The biggest challenge is the lack of inventory on the market. Current homeowners are shying away from selling due to the fact that they currently have an excellent rate and they fear they will not find anything to buy. 
According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) the average mortgage rate for homeowners is less than 4% and the current rate today is over 6%, so that means an existing homeowner would lose their low rate and have to come in at a higher borrowing cost. Those in the industry refer to this as a homeowner being rate locked. Those in the industry believe that the mortgage rates should start to fall this year and more inventory will come on the market.
Homeowners are afraid to sell because they are scared they will not find another home to purchase and move into. If you are a homeowner that would like to move during the current housing market, consider all your options. Builders are offering incentives to purchase their new construction homes.
This could be to your advantage if you want to sell your home in today’s current market. In the fourth quarter of 2022 almost half of mortgaged homeowners in the US were deemed as equity-rich. This means that the total of all of those loan balances of these properties was no more than 50% of their value.
