"Marry the house, date the rate!"
Has anyone heard this one before? And by before, I mean, throughout 2022 as rates have risen and pushed most home buyers to the sidelines, bringing the real estate industry nearly to a halt?
It's perhaps the most widely used marketing pitch in real estate this year, and it also happens to be one that makes me cringe - every.time.
How do I hate it? Let me count the ways. 'Marry the house, date the rate' puts out an underlying promise - that is, that the rate someone is getting today is temporary. Which, with some degree of likelihood, is true - but there are also degrees of uncertainty which are equally important, but not discussed - at all. And that's my issue. I've been pretty vocal about my disgust with this marketing gimmick, to the point that Housing Wire reached out and requested I write an opinion piece - so I did, and it was published today in their 'RealTrends' media offering, and can be found in full here:
Dating the Rate Makes for a Toxic Relationship
In short, marrying home ownership is a wonderful idea - it's a nearly surefire way to increase long term wealth. But dating the rate? That's a fantasy, built on the hope that a refinance opportunity will present itself. And it may! But it also may not, and for that reason, a major financial decision like buying a home and taking out a mortgage should be based on the current reality, and not what we hope the market will do in 2023.
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