09/01/2026
Are you thinking about buying a house but aren’t sure now is the right time?
Let’s address recent articles like this one from our Tri-City Herald (https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/business/article317056728.html) predicting a housing market crash or this one from USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/sponsor-story/real-estate-ausa/2026/08/21/buy-now-or-wait-until-fall-tips-for-homebuyers-in-2026/91389661007/) about whether to buy now or wait. Pulling straight from that second article “As many homeowners can tell you, there’s rarely a perfect time to buy.” Much like timing the stock market, trying to time the housing market is unlikely to give you the expected result.
For the past 24 months, we’ve seen a steady build up of inventory creating a balanced space for negotiation between buyers and sellers. Sellers are not able to ask top of market prices like a few years ago, and buyers are not accepting flaws without some kind of compensation. In many ways, rather than viewing now as a down market, we should view it as a healthy market. Buyers have a lot of choice and sellers need to be thoughtful about the price and condition of their properties. Financed offers have a chance to compete.
On that note, let’s talk money. For some time, published interest rates have held right around 7%. What that masks though is that rates are entirely dependent on your situation. I’ve had multiple clients negotiate rates in the 5% range in the past 12 months. Build a relationship with a lender, even if you think it could be a year or more before you buy, as they will help get you on the right financial path.
Some cling to hope we might see a major drop in interest rates. If rates are back down to 3% two years from now, it means that our economy is in such dire straits that those kind of rates were necessary. Similarly, we would likely be back to a 2020-2022 scenario where people with financial means did well, but where many people, like first-time buyers, really struggled to compete against those all-cash, no-contingency offers. A classic case of “Be careful what you wish for.” Likewise, with millions of homeowners dependent on the equity in their homes, losing ground could mean real societal repercussions. Overall, few forward looking statements are seeing lower interest rates as a likelihood given the need for the Fed to fight off inflation and the dreaded stagflation.
Some also hope that more home construction across the state and region will dramatically reduce home prices. There are already hundreds of homes available from Milton-Freewater to Pasco. Builders continue to face significant material and regulatory costs, plus have limited incentive to keep building when they are already holding considerable unsold inventory. New construction alone won’t encourage buyers who are feeling stressed about the overall picture of the economy. There are a lot of options in the market, whether you are looking for a home for yourself or an investment, making now as good a time as any in the past six years to make a move.
