Amy Gregory

The most common reason sellers are not listing right now has nothing to do with the market. It is a number. Their current mortgage rate.

They bought at 2.9 percent in 2021. Or 3.2. Somewhere in that range that feels like a completely different world right now. Today’s market is sitting around 6.8 percent.

Moving means a monthly payment nearly double what they carry now. So they stay. They wait for rates to come back down to something that feels manageable.

I am not going to tell you that logic is wrong. It makes complete sense. I just want to show you what the other side of the math actually looks like.

Every year you wait, your equity grows. But so does the price of your next home. If values in your target area appreciate 3 to 4 percent annually, a home that costs $600,000 today will cost roughly $624,000 next year.

And $648,000 the year after that. You are not waiting in a vacuum. You are racing against appreciation on both ends of the transaction at the same time.

Here is the question I ask every seller frozen by their rate. What has actually changed in your life since you bought this home?

Maybe the kids are grown and the space no longer fits. Maybe you need to be closer to family. Maybe this home stopped working for you the way it did three years ago.

A rate is a line item in your monthly budget. It can be refinanced when conditions shift. Your life does not pause on the same schedule.

There are also strategies most sellers do not know about that significantly reduce the rate shock. You can fund a rate buydown from your sale proceeds.

You can use equity from this home to buy down points on the next one. You can time your sale to close during a rate dip without waiting for 2021 levels that may not return for years.

The decision is always yours. But the math is worth running before you wait another full year.

DM me and I will pull your specific numbers at no cost.