With real estate market slowing down, now may be the time to buy a home

MIAMI –  A bit of good news if you’re looking to buy a home in South Florida. 

The market might be softening a little bit. 

A new report shows sales of previously occupied U.S. homes slowed for the tenth consecutive month and that could give you some negotiating power if you’re looking to buy.

South Florida Real Estate Professional, Angelique Hibbert told CBS4 the market is starting to level off. 

Hibbert says out of every 10 deals about three to four sellers are helping buyers with closing costs because properties aren’t moving as fast.

“I can give you a clearer example, I put a property on the market for $700,000. I had like 15 showings, however, there were three interested people that were really ready to buy and we were on the market for four days. Which seems to be a very long time when we were on the market for only 4 hours,” said Hibbert.

So for buyers, things are looking better in South Florida but things still have a long way to go. 

Despite the high-interest rates, Hibbert says you actually might be better off making a home purchase now versus waiting.

“You are going to wait for the interest rate to go down?  But if you wait for the interest rate to go down, what’s going to happen? The price is going to go up. So that $925,000 property that you are purchasing is going to be $1.2 million if the interest rate is at 4% or 5%. Can you afford it at that point?” said Hibbert.

Hibbert suggests negotiating with sellers since sales have dramatically slowed and refinancing when interest rates finally come down.

“Negotiate now, get the best price you can possibly get, and wait for that interest rate to adjust. You’ll win in the end,” said Hibbert.