Real estate experts offer possible solutions in tackling housing market obstacles

“We have two kids now and two dogs, and it’s just a little too small,” Andrew Seifter, a home buyer, told WPBF 25 News.

He said he bought his first house in Jupiter about five years ago and had been looking for a bigger house nearby for nearly a year.

“We had a dream home in mind in Jupiter but as interest rates started to rise and property values did not fall, it changed circumstances,” he said.

“We refinanced this house during 2021, when rates were extremely low. So, we have a phenomenal interest rate on this home. And now with the current marketplace for interest rates, it’s just made the whole situation difficult,” Seifter added.

He then decided to meet up with Jeff Lichtenstein, of Echo Fine Properties, to come up with a solution.

“Keep that as an investment property, and instead of buying their dream house, this 3,000-square-foot house, get a 2,000-square-foot house that’s much less money. And then when rates cool down, then maybe they sell their investment house, then they make their jump to another home,” the president and broker of Echo Fine Properties told WPBF 25 News.

Seifter said he now plans to rent out his first home.

“Maybe down the line when the real estate market cools off, then, we finally make that jump to the dream house we thought we were going to get,” he said.

According to the National Association of Realtors, existing-home sales dropped nearly 37% in year-to-year transactions from January 2022 to January 2023. The median home prices have also increased more than 1% nationally.

“This last year has been like a pause in the market,” Lichtenstein said. “I think the pause is going to end in the fourth quarter or the beginning of first quarter because all the new home construction has really stopped. It’s not going to give the buyers a lot of opportunity to go there, and a lot of these wants are going to become needs.”

He said buyers may have to resort to nearby neighborhoods to find more affordable homes.

“You may have to go to a different area. So, we’re seeing some people, for example, go to Port St. Lucie, where there’s a lot of growth, but the prices are less. Or more out west in Palm Beach County because there’s also so much money coming in,” Lichtenstein said.

He also mentioned how prices, in one sense, are actually decreasing.

“Prices are really going down in a different way. We’re having right now 6, 7, or 8% inflation year over year. So, prices are not going up, but they really are dropping because of inflation because if you’re not reindexing it to go up according to the rate of inflation, they’re dropping,” he added.