If you’re looking to buy a house this year, you may be wondering what the market looks like and if it benefits buyers or not. Bankrate’s Greg McBride has the answer. 

Saying, “The homebuying market isn’t great right now from an affordability standpoint, but it’s a lot better than it was a year ago from a negotiating standpoint. A year ago, the housing market was red hot, there were bidding wars.” McBride says now is a better time to buy a home because buyers have more time to do their research on the home that they’re looking at. 

But what about inflation? McBride said, “We’re not seeing an impact on home prices from concerns about a recession, or really even from an inflation standpoint for that matter. It’s not purely a buyer’s market, it’s maybe a little bit closer to a balanced market.” 

McBride saying that even though inflation is higher than 6% right now, it’s not affecting the market because increasing mortgage rates caused demand for homes to fall, bringing it back to where the supply of homes had been at for the past two years, but there’s a few things that new homeowners should be on the lookout for. 

McBride said, “Being a homeowner is a lot more than the principal and interest monthly mortgage payment. There are property taxes, property insurance, and ask any homeowner and they’ll tell you, stuff breaks and it breaks a lot.” 

He says the best homeowners are the ones who can save money consistently, and not spend all of their savings on the house itself.