As the spring homebuying season kicks off, you may be ready to buy a home of your own, but continuing inflation, high home prices, and high interest rates may be giving you pause. Is now a good time to buy a home?

According to a new report, national mortgage rates have gone from a high of 7.37% in October, to 6.2% into January 2023 . Home prices in November were 2.5% lower than the peak achieved in spring 2022, and 42% of home sellers offered concessions in Q-4, 2022. Further boosting confidence, the job market has improved. In January 2023, the national unemployment rate lowered to 3.5% as employers added an unexpected 223,000 new jobs.

While those shifts aren’t monumental, they’re making some consumers feel better about the housing market; homebuyers believe home prices will fall through Q3-2023, and they also said they believe mortgage rates will come down, despite the Federal Reserve’s determination to tame inflation by increasing interest rates.

Let your Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices network professional show you the latest sales trends in the area where you want to live with a custom competitive market analysis. You may be pleasantly surprised that now’s the time to buy.

If you’re selling your home, you can make small improvements with little money or time spent to increase your home’s appeal.

Your home’s front entrance is crucial to first impressions. Add a new steel door or paint your existing door with a trendy new color. Round out the look with a new welcome mat, a new framed house number, a freshly painted mailbox, and planters of fresh greenery or flowers.

Regular exposure to dirt, dust, spills and high foot traffic makes wood and carpeted floors look dull, dirty and distressed. Polish your hardwood flooring when you list your home. Weekly vacuuming can pick up topical dirt from your carpets, but it takes professional equipment and cleaning solutions to remove stains, pet odors, allergens, dust mites, and deeply embedded dirt. Your carpets will look like new and last longer, too.

Crown molding and trim can transform a room, and it’s available already painted or you can paint it yourself. Replace switch plates with modern ceramic. For small spaces, add decorative or modular shelving to an unused wall. Cut out drywall to make a recessed display for books or collectibles to eliminate tabletop clutter and make your home appear larger.