Inaction is easy. It’s quiet; unwritten; immune from critique. It sits undone; confidently static.
But if buyers and sellers were compelled to transcribe their inaction, it would read like a sociopath’s diary entry:
“We could have watched you grow up, but your grandpa and me weren’t willing to give up our 2.875% rate to move closer to you.”
“Your mother and I could have sent you to good schools, but we just didn’t have the energy to problem-solve a new monthly payment.”
“I know we have two kids now honey, but I’m not willing to pay what it takes for you and them to have more space.”
People don’t talk like that out loud. But their inactions can.
A cranky cohort of buyers and sellers have stood offstage waiting for whatever celestial alignment to click into place that signaled the perfect time to jump in.
What they’ve learned is a parody of Mr. Keynes: rates can stay higher longer than you can stay stubborn. Prices too. This group is not about to go through another year of watching the show pass them by.
Buyers and sellers are ready to step away from the spreadsheet and get on with living their lives.
I can borrow the courage to say so thanks to the magical certainty that emotion will obliterate logic every time. That’s about as far as I’m willing to venture into the blackhole of publishing predictions. Actually, hang tight, one more add on.
This capitulation is not anything new. Over the past few years, the noisy misdirection of data had us thinking homeownership was cerebral.
It’s not. It’s storytelling. It is the ballet of our lives being rendered on a stage we can finance thanks to a robust secondary market.
You walk in to a new listing with a price and a plan. You walk out having watched your entire life unfold in the rooms you just stepped through. And how do we help?
By giving people what they need but don’t want. Indeed my clients don’t want what I manufacture and they never have.
I’m ok with that.
In fact, let’s double down on that sentiment. People don’t even want a house. They want a place that is theirs to live out the story of their life. So a house is simply a book with blank pages. Mortgages are the ink in the typewriter.
This year, buyers and sellers are ready to get back to writing. And that capitulation will overcome the inertia of inaction. Just like it has every year before.
And every year hereafter.
David Wickert is the president at Accunet Mortgage.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.
To contact the editor responsible for this piece: [email protected].
