Rates Are Changing; Time to Act

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University recently released their State of the Nation's Housing report for 2015 and it was full of great information for prospective buyers and sellers. Some of my key takeaways were statistics on the rental market, the homeownership rate, and why this might just be the best time to make a purchase.As far as the rental market goes, we're all familiar with the rent hikes plaguing large city metros across the country. Unfortunately, the rental market keeps growing despite these historic spikes. Homeownership for Gen. X-ers (35- to 44-year-olds) has fallen the most and is actually down 5.4 percentage points from it's 1993 levels. That's something that hasn't been seen since the 1960s.While it's true that we're definitely seeing median sales prices go up at this point in the year, we're also seeing those mortgage rates take a climb. Home prices are still below their peak values (believe it or not) and mortgage rates are still near historic lows, but they're working their way into the 4.0 percent range. Take a look at this graph from Keeping Current Matters to put mortgage payments into perspective ...Here's my biggest takeaway from the State of the Nation's Housing: things are going to continue to increase. The market may seem chaotic now, but if you're looking for one of the best prices and rates over the next several years, this is the time to get it.Make sure you visit Keeping Current Matters and the Joint Center for Housing Studies from Harvard University for more information on the State of the Nation's Housing 2015.