Despite higher mortgage rates, is now the right time to buy a house?

ORLANDO, Fla. — You will soon start paying more to borrow money for big-ticket items like cars and homes.

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The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by half of a percentage point.

Kim Coburn has been a real estate agent in Central Florida for 40 years.

“It is definitely still a seller’s market. There’s no question about that,” she said. “I’ve never seen it like this. It’s insane.”

READ: Rising interest rates pricing buyers out of the housing market, realtors say

Homes for sale are being scooped up faster than ever.

“They’re selling usually within the first three or four days,” Coburn said. “Very hot market.”

But will the market cool off since the Federal Reserve announced its sharpest interest rate hike in more than two decades?

“I think we’re going to start seeing a little bit of flattening out. So the housing prices might not continue to rise quite as drastically as they have been,” Coburn said.

READ: Why Orlando’s housing market is so attractive to investors

Inventory is an issue. There are too many buyers and not enough homes on the market.

“Typically speaking, we have about 6,000 homes on the market. We have about 2,000. So we’re way under where we’re supposed to be,” said Andrew Yoerger, with the Bank of England Mortgage.

Yoerger said now is the right time to buy, even though mortgage rates are higher.

“We should buy now because we anticipate home prices still increased 10% year over year. So your $400,000 house might be $440,000 next year,” he said.

READ: Are investors driving Central Florida’s housing crisis?

Existing home sales slipped nearly 3% in March, according to the National Association of Realtors.

There is still a long way to go to bring balance back to the market.

“It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to take a long time for us to kind of settle in,” Coburn said.

For frustrated house hunters, Coburn has this advice: “Be patient. Be patient and try not to fall too much in love with a particular house. You know the right one will come along.”

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