Should You Buy a House With a 6–7% Interest Rate, or Wait?

I get some version of this question all the time right now:“Should I buy now, or should I just wait until interest rates come down?” And I completely understand why.

As of mid-September, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was hovering right around 7%. When you’ve heard stories about people who bought or refinanced at 3% a few years ago, today’s rates can feel especially painful. But here’s the thing: I don’t think buying a house should ever be based on trying to perfectly time interest rates. It should be based on whether the numbers, and the house, make sense for you right now.

A lower interest rate doesn’t always mean a better deal.

One thing that often gets overlooked is what happens when rates actually do come down. More buyers tend to come back into the market. That can mean more competition, multiple offers and less negotiating power. Right now, higher rates have pushed some buyers to the sidelines. Nationally, home sales have slowed, and the fall market traditionally brings a little more breathing room for buyers. That breathing room can be valuable. Maybe you negotiate the price. Maybe the seller gives you a credit toward your closing costs or an interest-rate buy-down. Maybe you get the house without competing against 15 other people. None of those things are guaranteed, of course. But they’re all part of the equation, not just the number you see attached to the mortgage rate.

Start with the payment, not the rate.

When I work with buyers, I’d much rather start with: “What monthly payment are you actually comfortable with?” Then we work backward from there. A 6.75% rate on a house you can comfortably afford is very different from stretching your budget because you’re hoping rates will drop next year. And I would never buy a house today based on the assumption that you’ll definitely be able to refinance later. Could rates come down? Absolutely. Could you potentially refinance someday if they do? Yes. But that should be a bonus, not the only reason the purchase makes sense.

Waiting has a cost too.

Waiting is sometimes the right choice. Maybe you need more savings. Maybe your job situation is changing. Maybe the payment simply doesn’t work yet. There is nothing wrong with that. But I also wouldn’t automatically assume that waiting a year means you’ll get the same house for the same price with a lower payment. Real estate doesn’t usually give us every advantage at the same time. When rates are low, competition may be higher. When competition slows down, rates may be higher. Sometimes the opportunity is in the part of the market that feels a little uncomfortable.

So… should you buy now or wait?

My answer is probably less exciting than you were hoping for: It depends. If you find a home you really like, you plan to stay for a while, you have the cash you need without draining every dollar of your savings, and the monthly payment feels comfortable, there may be no reason to put your life on hold waiting for the “perfect” interest rate. On the other hand, if the numbers make you nervous every time you look at them, that’s worth listening to too. The goal isn’t just to become a homeowner. It’s to own a home you can actually enjoy living in. And sometimes the best thing we can do is stop trying to predict exactly what the market will do next and look at what the numbers are telling us today.