Downsizing? Why Rising Interest Rates Are Your Friend
The housing market stinks for most buyers, but baby boomers with tons of equity can trade their big home for a smaller one and profit from the extra cash.
A good time to trade down.
Photographer: Allison Dinner/Getty Images
Mortgage rates above 7% have put the housing market on ice as affordability challenges put off a lot of buyers. Newer, younger homeowners who locked in their mortgage at a low interest rate — and whose next move probably would be trading up — are content to stay where they are until mortgage rates fall.
But there's one group of homeowners for whom high interest rates are arguably good news as they contemplate their next housing market transaction: downsizing members of the baby boom generation. For them, housing and financial market conditions are more attractive than a year ago.