HAVE HIGHER MORTGAGE RATES STOPPED HOME BUYERS IN THEIR TRACKS? 🏡🧐

We can see that mortgage rates have risen quite a bit during 2022, and they went over 4% starting in March. Housing Inventory for these 12 locations in Portland, Oregon, and beyond began climbing in March so let's see the effect on the number of Homes Sold.

I summed up the number of Homes Sold from March to September for 2019 to 2022 for these 12 locations in Portland, Oregon, and beyond.

And what did I find? Well, the number of Homes Sold has decreased from the same time in 2021, but the 2022 activity is consistent with 2020 and 2019. Meaning it looks like the lower mortgage rates created an additional demand and an increased number of Homes Sold, but so far, the higher mortgage rates haven't appeared to limit the number of Homes Sold. Now, I want to highlight the phrase "so far" because I believe this is a trend we'll want to keep an eye on as long as these higher mortgage rates linger within the Housing Market.