Top broker warns buyers that springtime may bring buying spree, higher prices
While mortgage rates have been creeping back up a bit after the Federal Reserve announced its latest rate cut, combined with a potential rate hold in December, there is still an opportunity for mortgage customers.
In many markets, housing affordability has improved, as home prices have either increased slowly or decreased. With lower rates forecast for 2026, the window for this improved affordability may be short, according to one top broker.
Derek McGowan (pictured top), branch manager at McGowan Mortgages, said the next three to four months provide a great window for homebuyers to take advantage of lower rates and prices.
“I certainly feel this is a really good window of opportunity for buyers and people who own a house,” McGowan told Mortgage Professional America. “The seasonal aspect of it for buyers, naturally, there's a little bit less activity in the winter months, which means you can get that much better of a deal.”
A winter buying season?
While winter tends to be a slower time in the mortgage market, the current conditions might make it an ideal time for homebuyers to find a good deal. McGowan believes that, once spring rolls around, increased activity will likely push prices higher again.
“It's not uncommon for prices to pull back a little bit,” he said. “Also, rates are the lowest they've been in quite some time. It's not going to be for very long with both of those staying at the lower end of the range we've seen lately, because when the weather starts heating back up in the spring, and if rates are still here or better, it's going to be gangbusters. So I think there's a window the next 2, 3, 4 months where people should really jump.”
McGowan believes the market has started to balance out a bit. There are still deals to be had for buyers, but they may not see the seller concessions they were hoping for.
“I think there's been that ebb and flow back, that adjustment, back where they had to kind of re-correct, that you can't just ask for everything and get it anymore,” he said. “There was a time, and that's a little bit in the rearview mirror now. I think the market has balanced out and softened slightly.”
“If buyers this week are thinking they get $50,000 off the price of the house and get closing costs covered, no, it doesn't work. I think the pendulum swings further in one direction, then balances out. We try to take an approach as being more of a guiding light. This is what normalcy is now, and these are the latest things that are going on.”
A wave of refis
As rates have dipped in the second half of the year, mortgage refinances have started to surge. McGowan said homeowners are trying to get in and take advantage of the lower rates.
“We are refinancing more people right now than at any point in the last four years,” he said. “I think it's been night and day there. That market has certainly come back to people. Everybody who bought a house in the last few years is more than likely a candidate for refinancing.”
He noted that it doesn’t even have to be big monthly payment savings to make a homebuyer a good refinance candidate. With the holidays rolling around, the opportunity to potentially skip a payment or two during the refi process could be perfect timing.
“Even if they just save a few hundred bucks a month, it makes it worth it,” McGowan said. “And with the holidays coming up, they can skip a month's payment or two. There are a lot of combinations of factors there that can really help families.”
Following the Fed’s second consecutive rate cut, Melissa Cohn of William Raveis Mortgage said Jerome Powell’s remarks were a clear message for markets to stop guessing. https://t.co/mqifeOawYD
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) November 3, 2025
So many customers have been staying on the sidelines waiting for something to happen with mortgage rates. Whether they’re looking to buy a new home or refinance the one they’re in, McGowan is finally seeing some of those people get off the sidelines and into the market.
“Anytime rates have dipped a little bit the last few years, the faucet just turns on, like the phone starts ringing more,” he said. “It is definitely a direct correlation. I think that's the hot trigger word topic for so many people on the sidelines right now, and that they've been waiting for those moments.”
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