For the past few years, something unusual happened on the Seacoast — and everywhere else. People stopped moving.
Economists have a name for it: “The Great Stay.” Homeowners who locked in mortgage rates in the 2s and 3s looked at where rates went and made a understandable calculation: we’re not going anywhere. The house that was supposed to be a five-year starter home became a ten-year home. The retirement downsize got postponed. The extra bedroom that was supposed to arrive with the second kid… didn’t.
One important local note before you read a national headline and assume it applies here: it mostly doesn’t. Around the country, inventory has rebuilt and buyers have gained leverage. In the Northeast, inventory still lags behind pre-pandemic norms, and prices have continued to rise. Translation for Seacoast homeowners: if you’ve been waiting to sell, you’re not walking into a buyer’s market. Homes here are still in demand, still competitive, still selling.
So if you’re one of the many people who’s spent three years saying “we’d move, but our rate” — this might be the year that math finally changes. Not because you have to. Because the reasons you wanted to move in the first place are still there, waiting.
If you’re wondering what your home is worth in today’s market, or what a move would actually look like with the numbers in front of you — that’s a conversation we love having to give you the information you need to decide what’s right for you.
