By Kent Zelas | Investor’s Business Daily
How will a spike in mortgage rates, coupled with recent increases in home prices, affect 2017’s housing market? The real estate brokerage Redfin found that about half its agents expect buyers to lower their expectations and more than half foresee sellers opting to remain in their homes.
Still, agents believe that the predominant attitude now among homebuyers is one of optimism, the brokerage said. Reporting on a December survey of 800 of its agents, Redfin found that “more than one in three agents described buyers as being ‘hopeful,’ which outranked other choices such as ‘fatigued,’ ‘disappointed’ and ‘rushed.’ ”
Would that hope remain if mortgage rates climbed even higher, say to 5%, over the course of 2017?
