Brandon Resident said "Hi, a question for those out there who have been watching the economy and have thoughts on local housing prices.
Interest rates are increasing, and are said to see likely at least another couple of interest rate increases this year. At one time we were seeing 5 year closed mortgage interest rates at 2 percent, now most banks are seeing more than double that. Is it possible we might see 6 percent interest rates by the end of the year?
With so many people living paycheck to paycheck, is much of the population going to have a difficult time making ends meet?
What will that mean for housing/real estate prices, is it going to be years of real estate dropping in prices?
Is right now the last of the good times to sell real estate at the premium prices they are currently offered at?
Thoughts? "
Fact is even at 6 per cent borrowing money would be pretty cheap. We have all been riding the wave of steeply increasing property prices for too long and most of it has been fuelled by low borrowing costs which in the long term is unsustainable. We all need to change our way of living, borrow less and try to save more. Of course a few bankers would disagree but you have to remember that they are the ones making a profit when you borrow money.
Same as any investment. Property prices can go up as well as down and even the most seasoned experts don’t always call it correctly.
The economy is teetering on the edge of a precipice right now, inflation is high and interest rates are rising. We haven’t seen these scenarios play out to this extent for a good 30 - 40 years.
FWIW I think that there is plenty of room for interest rates to rise much higher yet and maybe this is the correction needed to find long term stability and curb excessive consumer spending.
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2022-07-09 14:43:15