Do I buy the house for $320,000, or $303,000?

The only real question here is what are the payments and can I afford them?

Last week a person with great credit could get about 5.5% for a 30 year fixed, but this week they would be lucky to get under 6%. Should one wait for rates to go down again? NO! chances are they probable won't go down for a while....time is money...money has value....and if your not paying to own a home, your throwing your money away to let someone else use it to increase their value.

A house is on the market for $320,000. If you bought it last week at 5.5%, your payments for just the 30 year fixed would be about $1816.92 per month. If the house has been on the market for awhile and you could get it this week for about $303,000, even though rates went up to 6%, your payments on a 30 fixed loan only would be about $1816.64. A savings of 28 cents per month! Wow....

Ok, there is a little sarcasm here....but it is well intended when buyers are saying they can't afford 6% when they don't even know the price of the house or the payments.

So, is the market just an excuse to use that seems legitimate, because people are affraid to buy, or is it just that people are not takeing the time to get educated on buying and using the leverage of rates and down market to figure out the real bottom line.