Rising Mortgage Rates: A Buyer's View

Mortgage rates have risen nearly 1/2 a percent in a little over a month, and some analysts are saying homebuyers will now hurry up and buy, for fear rates will climb even higher. My response? Not so fast.

Here's why: we don't have any more money to spend than we did before. And now we can afford less house, just as the spring market winds down and the crush of buyers starts to recede. That is as much the sellers' problem as it is mine.

Exactly how much difference does a piddly half-point make, you ask? Try $100 a month on a typical mortgage for a typical Boston-area house. Going at it from the other end, our top price -- the very highest figure we can afford to pay -- just got slashed by at least $20,000.

That ought to get the attention of sellers in a hurry. At least I hope it does, because Jordan and I are still seeing far too many houses sitting out there unsold, priced at 2005 levels as if the statewide pricing downturn for the last year and a half simply didn’t happen.

Memo to sellers, from every homebuyer out there: We want to buy your homes. We really do. But you have got to start believing what you read in the newspaper.