Bad idea to buy a new house right now?

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Long term (next 5 years) our family would like to make a move

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So you would buy a house and then move again in 5 years? If so, I'd probably just wait it out.

By staying where you're at you can probably make that ?second? move in 3 years as opposed to 5 years.

Think of how much you'll lose in movers, realtor fees, closing costs, and interest rate.

Why move twice when you can move once and come out ahead? Temporary discomfort long term success

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What is wrong with the current house you are living in?

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Just a little small as our kids get older. It’s 3 br 2 bath and we have four girls 7 and under (I know… ). Lots of room sharing happening now, but a little extra room would be nice.

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I mean we can make our current house work well for another 5 or so years, but as the kids get older, we’d like a little more room. The house we are looking at checks all our long term boxes.

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Wait.

Prices are starting to come down and interest rates are going up. Since you can stick it out for a few more years, do so.

The Fed still has at least another .5 in increases left this year and have mentioned another .5 is likely next year. Housing prices are likely to continue dropping at least until next year.

Once the Fed has inflation under some sort of control, they'll likely revisit lowering rates to spur economic activity (if it's needed). Hold out for that (so, at the soonest it MIGHT be late 2023 but probably slightly more likely in 2024, depending on the economy of course).

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Looks like the housing market is going that way again, so there could be some real nice bargains over the next couple of years.

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My concern is one of those “bargains” might be the house I’m selling too. But point taken.

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Prices are starting to come down and interest rates are going up. Since you can stick it out for a few more years, do so.

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If this is true(which I don't believe it is) if he waits, then the price of his current house will drop as well. So what's the difference in selling high and buying high as opposed to selling low and buying low.

As long as the ratio is about the same, I say do it and make your family and yourself comfortable and happy.

ETA: I posted before I read your last post. I think you hit the nail on the head.

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My concern is one of those “bargains” might be the house I’m selling too

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You don’t have to buy another house.

At some point, kids can share space.

I would not mortgage my future to give them their own room.

However, if you want more space, that is reasonable as well. I am not reflexively against getting a bigger house, but you don’t have to.

Sounds like you want to double your mortgage payment to possible gain an additional 25% in square footage? Guess it depends how cramped space really is.

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From most indications, home prices will not be declining. But the rate of increase has slowed. There is still more demand than supply for houses.

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This is all true. I told myself things would get better and prices would decrease drastically. Problem with that line of thinking is that we are wanting in an area that everyone else wants to be in also. Couple that with the lack of supply and the high demand that you mentioned, and you have a recipe for difficulties of finding what you want and not paying a price that's high as a giraffe's arse.

When homes would pop up, we kept feeling like we were having to possibly settle on a so-so house. We even looked at a number of houses, but none of them met our criteria for what we were ultimately looking for. We've basically been looking hard and heavy for the past six months. Fast forward to this past week...

My wife wound up finding some listing from a lady on some local damn Facebook page that was looking to sell her house. It met the square footage criteria, newer house, open concept design that we wanted, storage, high ceilings, cabinet space, covered back deck with entertaining area, on 3 1/2 acres, etc. Only thing that was missing was a shop....I'll have to build that.

She posted it that night, and I contacted the lady the next morning at about 8:30.

I saw it around mid morning the day after she posted it and someone had already been there at 6:00am and told her they would give her asking price. I was on my way out of town, so I didn't stay too terribly long, but didn't really need to study every minute detail of the house. I knew right off the bat it was exactly what we have been looking for and told her we could do 5K over asking. The lady was a little overwhelmed by the whole deal and she told me she'll have to think on it and didn't anticipate having two offers from the first two people that looked at it.

I texted the lady about 30 minutes after leaving and told her my wife wanted to come by at about 1:30 to see it, if that's ok. She was naturally fine with it. Luckily for me, the lady and my wife hit it off and visited for about an hour and a half. Long story short, the lady loved my wife to death and that's kinda what tipped the scale and is really why we even got the house.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the housing market is still crazy as shite, and having a little luck is sometimes what you need to get what you want.

Sounds like the best financial move would be to remodel and add on to your current home, unless the lot just will not ever fit your parking, additional cars as kids age, etc...