With high prices and interest rates, homebuyers feel the pressure

Mortgage rates have been on the decline recently, but, on average, this year has been the least affordable time to buy a home since the housing site Redfin started crunching the numbers 11 years ago. Someone with the median income would need to spend more than 40% of their monthly wages to afford the median home this year, a new report by Redfin shows — and it’s upward of 80% in the costliest markets.

First-time homebuyers Shannon and Thornton Wolf, a writing teacher and an engineer, are now proud survivors of the 2023 housing market.

“I can see it making people pretty crazy. So it’s good that we had each other,” Shannon said.

They closed on a $300,000 home in New York’s Hudson Valley in October and are moving in a couple weeks. Sure, they love the historic charm of the 200-year-old house, but one thing they don’t love? Their 7.5% mortgage rate.

“It’s sad that we didn’t get a nice low rate when it was available,” Thornton said. “But there’s never the perfect time. Like, you should have bought 20 years ago,” Shannon said, laughing.

Just two years ago, they would been paying about $800 less on their monthly mortgage. That’s what stings about 2023, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

“It’s gonna be a standout year because of just how quickly the market turned from one with low mortgage rates to one with high mortgage rates,” she said.

That left buyers with the triple whammy of already sky high home prices, bigger borrowing costs and few homeowners looking to sell.