<div id="readability-page-1"><div> By Quentin Fottrell 'They are tuned in to friends and colleagues, who are losing jobs, cognizant of shifts in company agendas and financial worries' &#34;There may be more inventory available by summer 2026.&#34; (Photo subjects are models.) Dear Quentin, Your Moneyist column has been so helpful in the past. I now have a question: My son and daughter-in-law want to purchase their first home in the Mid-Atlantic region. They plan to spend $600,000. But we all have economic jitters. They are tuned in to friends and colleagues, who are losing jobs, cognizant of shifts in company agendas and financial worries. They are thinking that there may be more inventory available by summer 2026, when home prices may come down. Should they wait? What do you think? A Helpful Parent You can email The Moneyist with any financial and ethical questions at qfottrell@marketwatch.com, and follow Quentin Fottrell on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Don't miss: 'I enjoy vacations to Europe': I'm 75 and have $1 million in an IRA. Why do I feel guilty? The housing market is becoming a slightly warmer, friendlier place for first-time buyers, but that does not mean it's easy. If I were a betting man? I'd wait. Dear Helpful, There is a theory that it's never a bad time to buy a house. There is, however, a bad time to sell one. Your son, by trying to time the market, needs to juggle a variety of factors that are beyond his control: interest rates, which are slowly coming down; inventory, which is slowly edging up; prices, which are rising or stagnating depending on the location; and the broader economic growth, which appears increasingly dependent on sectors like AI. Throw in the affordability crisis - from food to energy bills - and you have an economic outlook that Nostradamus would be hard pressed to predict. The housing market is becoming a slightly warmer, friendlier place for first-time buyers, but that does not mean it's easy. If I were a betting man? I'd wait. Mortgage rates have fallen this year - not by as much as many would have hoped - but it has led to a nearly $3,000 reduction in the annual cost of a new mortgage, according to the White House. Low inventory and high home prices persist, despite the recent easing in mortgage costs. The median age of first-time buyers is 40; in the 1980s, the typical first-time home buyer was in their late 20s. Mortgage rates have fallen, but not by as much as many would have hoped. Here's a simple calculation, which assumes a 20% down payment on a $600,000 purchase, 30-year fixed at 6.2%. A monthly payment would be $2,940 (annual mortgage payments of $35,278). If rates fell to 5.5%, and he secured a mortgage at that rate, his monthly payments would fall to $2,725 (annual payments of $32,705). That's an annual difference of $2,574. He would obviously have to include private mortgage insurance, property taxes, closing costs, lawyer fees etc., into the bargain too. The current 30-year mortgage rate is still 6.2% or thereabouts; that has added thousands of dollars to an average person's annual mortgage payments. The Federal Reserve cut the benchmark interest rate last Wednesday by a quarter percentage point, making it the third consecutive cut this year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the three rate cuts this year have put the central bank's benchmark interest rate closer to &#34;neutral,&#34; meaning it is neither boosting nor holding back the economy. The Mid-Atlantic region The Mid-Atlantic housing market, as big as that is, is still in a state of uncertainty and flux. &#34;Buyers and sellers remained cautious across the broad Mid-Atlantic region in November, even as mortgage rates have inched downward in recent weeks,&#34; Bright MLS, a real-estate agency in North Bethesda, Md., said in a report earlier this month. Completed sales were down 4.6% year-over-year, and new pending sales were 1.6% lower than a year ago, &#34;signaling that many prospective buyers are still waiting on the sidelines.?&#34; &#34;Average mortgage rates in November were about a half of a percentage point lower than they were last November, but that improvement has not translated into stronger sales activity,&#34; the company added. &#34;Instead, buyers remain very sensitive to both affordability constraints and news about the broader economy, while many potential sellers are delaying listing their homes as they reassess their plans for 2026.? Sellers' hesitation is evident in the slower flow of new listings. In November, the number of new listings coming onto the market was 4.4% lower.&#34; The Mid-Atlantic market, as big as that is, is still in a state of flux. Your jitters are not unfounded. The European credit ratings agency Scope downgraded the U.S. credit rating from AA to AA- in October, citing &#34;sustained deterioration in public finances and a weakening of governance standards.&#34; In May, Moody's also downgraded its U.S. sovereign debt rating to Aa1 from Aaa. (A triple-A rating reflects a country's highest possible credit reliability, and suggests it is considered to be in strong financial health and has a strong ability to pay its debts.) This trickles down to companies that become reluctant to borrow, spend or hire. Without AI data centers and software, Harvard economist Jason Furman has said that gross domestic product growth would have been virtually flat in the first half of 2025. Unemployment is still relatively low - it's expected to average around 4.3% to 4.5% in November when the data is finally released - but there are significant variations in job openings across industries. The number of people who applied for unemployment benefits after Thanksgiving jumped to a three-month high, but it's foolhardy to judge the overall health of the labor market on holiday seasons. Labor-market anomalies There are anomalies in the labor market, which are leaving people like your son feeling perplexed. Job openings jumped to 7.7 million in October from 7.2 million in August, and yet, the number of people who were actually hired in October was basically the same as in August: approximately 5.1 million. It was, as my MarketWatch colleague, reporter Jeffrey Bartash described it, what economists call &#34;a low-hire, low-fire jobs market. Not good by any stretch, but not terrible, either.&#34; It's OK, for now. Nothing to write home about. Some analysts estimate that housing inventory will increase next year, by anything from 5%-10%. Redfin economists Chen Zhao and Daryl Fairweather have gone as far as to call it the &#34;Great Housing Reset.&#34; That sounds more promising than it actually is, as their actual analysis is rather more sobering. &#34;It won't be a quick price correction, and it won't be a recession,&#34; they say. &#34;Instead, the Great Housing Reset will be a yearslong period of gradual increases in home sales and normalization of prices as affordability gradually improves.&#34; Buy a home in an area where there may still be a strong rental market. &#34;It will start next year, with incomes rising faster than home prices for a prolonged period for the first time since the Great Recession era,&#34; Zhao and Fairweather add. &#34;It won't be enough to make homebuying affordable in the short run for Gen Zers and young families, who will be forced to make tradeoffs, from moving in with roommates or their parents to delaying having children. Politicians on both sides of the aisle will respond to the widespread housing affordability crisis, introducing policies to lower costs ... but they won't be an instant fix.&#34; So what can your son do in the meantime? Keep saving, and make sure he has a 6-to-12-month emergency fund in the event that he does lose his job. Buy a home in an area where there may still be a strong rental market (Plan B to rent a room or rent the house if he or his girlfriend should lose their jobs). If they can make a 20% down payment and avoid paying high private mortgage insurance, while still having some money left over after closing, that would also reduce their risk. If buying wipes out all savings, they'll be skating on thin ice. If your son does find a house that he loves, buy it. Related: My husband, 73, is giving me a life estate in his home, yet leaving his son a $200K Porsche. Is this cause for divorce? The Moneyist regrets he cannot reply to questions individually. More columns from Quentin Fottrell: My therapist said he was in-network. He's not. Am I obliged to pay out-of-network rates for all prior sessions? Can my husband contest his late brother's $600K will? He experienced oxygen deprivation due to COPD before he died. I have early Alzheimer's and my husband has stage 4 kidney disease. We just inherited $50K. How can this help us? Check out the Moneyist private Facebook group, where we look for answers to life's thorniest money issues. Post your questions or weigh in on the latest Moneyist columns. By submitting your story to Dow Jones &amp; Co., the publisher of MarketWatch, you understand and agree that we may use your story, or versions of it, in all media and platforms. -Quentin Fottrell This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones &amp; Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. <pre></pre> (END) Dow Jones Newswires 12-15-25 0531ETCopyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones &amp; Company, Inc.</div></div>

AOMR

The article discusses whether a son should buy a $600K house amid economic uncertainties. Factors include job losses, shifts in company agendas, and financial worries. The housing market is slightly more favorable for first-time buyers, but challenges remain. Mortgage rates have fallen, but not significantly. The Mid-Atlantic housing market is uncertain, with cautious buyers and sellers. The Federal Reserve's rate cuts aim for a neutral economic impact. The article suggests waiting due to current market conditions.

'We all have economic jitters': After the Fed cut rates, should my son buy a $600K house?