The Market Edit
The Mortgage Rate Obsession Is Costing Twin Cities Buyers More Than They Realize
Everyone is waiting for a better interest rate. Meanwhile, the housing market keeps moving—with or without them. And some of the most interesting opportunities may never make the headlines.
For financially prepared buyers, mortgage rates are only part of the decision. Evaluate the payment you can comfortably afford alongside local competition, property condition, negotiating opportunities, and lender-reviewed financing options. Waiting can still be the right choice.
I have a theory about the Twin Cities housing market.
And it goes against almost everything buyers have been conditioned to believe.
The very thing keeping people from buying homes right now may be the reason this is one of the most compelling times to buy.
Not despite higher mortgage rates.
In part, because of them.
Before you dismiss that as another real estate agent trying to convince the public that it's always a great time to buy, stay with me.
Because I think we've become so obsessed with the cost of borrowing money that we've stopped paying attention to something equally important.
The cost of acquiring the house itself.
And those are two very different conversations.
While buyers wait for interest rates to deliver the perfect moment, the housing market keeps moving around them.
Homes compete for attention. Sellers reconsider their expectations. New properties enter the market while others disappear. Negotiating opportunities emerge, evolve, and sometimes vanish before anyone has written a headline about them.
In certain pockets of the Twin Cities, buyers may have considerably more negotiating power than they've grown accustomed to.
This isn't a blanket declaration that every home is a bargain.
It's something far more interesting.
An entire generation of buyers learned how to compete for houses. Now some of them have an opportunity to learn how to negotiate for them.
And that changes everything.
The market never stops moving. The headlines just can't keep up.
One of the biggest misconceptions about real estate is that the market moves in clearly defined chapters.
A seller's market. A buyer's market. A market that's heating up. A market that's cooling down.
As though someone flips a switch and suddenly everything changes.
That's not how real estate works.
The housing market is constantly evolving. Every new listing, price adjustment, accepted offer, financing change, and shift in buyer demand influences the opportunities available.
What was true last month may not be true this week.
What was true for one neighborhood yesterday may not apply to the house down the street today.
And by the time a national headline announces what's happening in housing, the most interesting local opportunities may have already appeared—or disappeared.
The market doesn't wait for the headlines to catch up. And neither should your strategy.
That's why I don't believe in making real estate decisions based on sweeping predictions about where the market is headed.
I believe in understanding where it is, what's influencing it, and what that means for the individual buyer or seller sitting across from me.
For years, the story of residential real estate was largely about scarcity.
Not enough homes. Too many buyers. Multiple offers. Escalation clauses. Waived contingencies. Buyers making enormous decisions under enormous pressure.
Then financing costs increased, and some buyers stepped away, adjusted their budgets, or decided to wait.
And the national conversation became almost entirely about interest rates.
When will they fall? How far will they fall? Should everyone wait until they do?
Those are reasonable questions. But they're incomplete.
Because when buyers step away from a market, they don't just change demand.
They change the negotiating environment for everyone who remains.
In a highly competitive market, buyers are often trying to make themselves more attractive to sellers.
In a less competitive market, sellers may have to think harder about what makes their property attractive to buyers.
That shift can create opportunities involving price, timing, condition, repairs, closing costs, and other terms.
And a buyer who understands that has a very different strategy from someone who simply waits for mortgage rates to change.
I know exactly how this sounds coming from a REALTOR®.
Of course I do.
You've heard it before.
It's a great time to buy!
In a hot market, it's a great time to buy.
In a slow market, somehow it's also a great time to buy.
At some point, the public is entitled to wonder whether the advice has anything to do with the market at all.
And frankly, I think that's a fair question.
Real estate is a commission-based industry. When transactions slow down, agents can feel pressure. But that pressure has absolutely no business becoming a buyer's motivation to make one of the largest financial commitments of their life.
I don't need to manufacture a reason for you to buy a house. I need to recognize when there's a reason worth considering.
That's a distinction I take seriously.
I'm not suggesting everyone should purchase a home right now. I'm not suggesting that higher mortgage rates are harmless, or that buyers should stretch their budgets because they might refinance someday.
I'm saying that I believe something significant is happening beneath the surface of this market.
And if you're financially prepared to buy, I want you to understand it.
Because there's a difference between an agent who wants you to make a move and an advisor who knows when a move may work in your favor.
I'm not here to sell you on the market. I'm here to show you what the market is making possible.
And sometimes that means telling you not to buy at all.
The most valuable part of a transaction may be the part nobody is talking about.
Let's imagine two very different buying experiences.
In the first, a home receives immediate attention. Showings fill the calendar. Multiple buyers are interested. The seller has options, and everyone knows it.
The conversation becomes competitive.
How strong is your offer? How quickly can you close? What are you willing to give up to make your offer more attractive?
Now imagine a different property.
It's a good home, but the initial asking price may have been ambitious. It's been available longer than the seller anticipated. Perhaps the seller has already relocated, or the timing of the sale has become increasingly important.
The home hasn't necessarily changed.
But the conversation has.
Instead of competing against several other buyers, you may have an opportunity to understand what the seller actually needs and structure an offer that addresses it.
Maybe price is the issue.
Maybe timing matters more.
Maybe the property needs work, and an inspection gives everyone a clearer understanding of what that work involves.
Maybe a seller contribution toward eligible buyer expenses is worth exploring.
The most interesting opportunity isn't always a discounted house. Sometimes it's a seller who's finally ready to negotiate.
This is why I pay close attention to listing history, comparable sales, property condition, days on market, price adjustments, and the circumstances surrounding a sale.
A property that has been sitting on the market isn't automatically a deal.
It may be overpriced. It may have expensive problems. It may have a layout that doesn't appeal to the buyers in that price range.
Or it may simply be a property whose asking price and marketing strategy haven't connected with the right audience.
Those situations require very different approaches.
I don't want my buyers making offers simply because a house has been sitting.
I want to understand why it's sitting.
Because the explanation can tell us far more than the number of days on the listing.
There's a difference between knowing your mortgage rate and knowing your options.
This is where the right team becomes incredibly important.
I work with exceptionally knowledgeable lending professionals because I want my buyers to understand the financial possibilities available to them—not simply receive a preapproval letter and a maximum purchase price.
A good lender can help evaluate financing options based on a buyer's actual qualifications, goals, available funds, and comfort level.
And in a market where sellers may be more open to negotiating, those conversations can become even more valuable.
There may be opportunities to explore seller contributions, different financing structures, or ways to address upfront costs.
What makes sense for one buyer may be completely inappropriate for another.
What a lender can offer depends on the buyer's qualifications, the loan program, underwriting requirements, and the specific transaction.
That's why I don't make promises about mortgage products or tell buyers what a particular financing strategy will accomplish.
I bring the real estate strategy. My lending partners bring the financial expertise. Together, we make sure the buyer understands the possibilities before making a decision.
And then we look at how those possibilities interact with the seller's position.
Because an excellent financing option doesn't exist in a vacuum.
It has to work within the actual purchase agreement.
It has to make sense for the property.
And it has to fit the buyer's life after the excitement of closing day is over.
The goal isn't to get someone approved for the most expensive house they can technically purchase.
It's to help them understand what they can comfortably own.
There's a big difference.
The lower-rate fantasy has a competition problem.
Let's talk about the plan I hear from buyers all the time.
We're going to wait until rates come down.
I understand the appeal.
A lower mortgage rate can improve purchasing power and reduce borrowing costs. For some buyers, waiting is absolutely the right financial decision.
But I want to ask a question that doesn't get nearly enough attention.
What do you think everyone else is waiting for?
If mortgage rates fall meaningfully, it's reasonable to consider whether some buyers who stepped away might return.
And if enough of them return at the same time, the market could become more competitive.
That may mean more showings, more offers, stronger seller positions, and less room for negotiation on certain properties.
It doesn't mean prices are guaranteed to rise. It doesn't mean bidding wars are inevitable. And it certainly doesn't mean every buyer should purchase before rates fall.
It means the strategy of waiting deserves the same scrutiny as the strategy of buying.
Because waiting is also a decision.
And it carries its own uncertainties.
We cannot know precisely what mortgage rates, home prices, or available inventory will look like next spring.
We can only evaluate the market in front of us and consider how different scenarios might affect a buyer's options.
But here's the question I find fascinating:
What if the rate you're waiting for attracts the competition you're trying to avoid?
That's the paradox I think too many buyers are missing.
They're waiting for the financing environment to improve without considering that the negotiating environment could become less favorable.
Both matter.
And neither should be ignored.
Your Twin Cities market is probably smaller than you think.
Here's another problem with the national obsession over mortgage rates.
It makes people talk about housing as though every neighborhood is participating in the same market.
They're not.
Not even close.
A buyer searching for a rambler in Bloomington is navigating a different set of considerations than someone looking for a home in Mound near Lake Minnetonka.
A townhome in Hopkins doesn't necessarily compete with the same properties—or appeal to the same buyers—as a single-family home in Minnetonka.
In Minnetrista, lot size, location, condition, and the nature of the surrounding development can dramatically influence how a property is evaluated.
Even within a single city, price ranges can behave differently.
One segment may have relatively limited inventory and strong demand.
Another may have several similar homes competing for the same group of buyers.
And a property's condition can change everything.
A beautifully renovated home with a thoughtful layout and desirable location may still command significant attention.
A similarly priced home with substantial deferred maintenance may need a completely different strategy.
That's why I resist making sweeping claims about the entire Twin Cities market.
The broad statistics tell us what direction the region may be moving.
The local details tell us where an individual buyer may have an advantage.
And the individual property tells us whether that advantage is actually worth pursuing.
A ZIP code is a location. It is not a negotiating strategy.
When I evaluate a home, I want to know what else a buyer could purchase for the same money, how long comparable homes are taking to sell, whether recent price changes are meaningful, and what the property's condition suggests about future ownership costs.
I also want to understand what can't be changed.
The street. The lot. The setting. The relationship between the home and the neighborhood.
A new kitchen can be installed. A poor location is a considerably more complicated renovation.
These are the details that separate finding a house from making a well-informed purchase.
The power of being able to walk away
Here's something I think buyers underestimate.
Negotiating power isn't just about getting a seller to agree to something.
It's about being in a position where you don't have to agree to something that isn't right for you.
In the most competitive markets, buyers can become so focused on winning a house that they lose sight of whether they should be buying it in the first place.
The pressure is real.
You've already lost three houses. You've rearranged your schedule for another showing. You've pictured your furniture in the living room.
And now someone tells you there are four other offers.
Suddenly, you're making decisions you might not have considered under calmer circumstances.
Perhaps you overlook a concern.
Perhaps you compromise on a feature that was important to you.
Perhaps you agree to terms that leave you uncomfortable.
I don't believe that's how buying a home should feel.
There are times when a competitive offer is absolutely warranted. There are also times when the strongest decision is to walk away.
And in a market where some properties are attracting less competition, buyers may have more room to make those distinctions thoughtfully.
They can investigate. Compare. Ask difficult questions. Consider the cost of repairs. And decide whether the home deserves their commitment.
A buyer who can walk away is a buyer who can negotiate from a position of clarity.
That isn't just a negotiating tactic.
It's a form of protection.
And protecting my clients' interests is every bit as important to me as helping them find a home they love.
So, am I saying this is the best time to buy?
I'm saying something more specific.
I believe this market may offer financially prepared Twin Cities buyers opportunities that are easy to overlook precisely because the headlines make buying feel uncomfortable.
That's my professional opinion.
It's based on how financing costs influence buyer behavior, how competition affects negotiations, and how differently individual properties can perform within the same market.
It isn't a prediction that prices are about to rise.
It isn't a promise that mortgage rates will fall.
And it isn't an argument that everyone should buy a house.
For someone without adequate savings, with uncertain income, or with a payment that would create financial strain, waiting may be the smartest move.
For someone who is prepared, understands their budget, and plans to own a home for a meaningful period of time, I think the current market deserves serious consideration.
Not because buying is automatically the right answer.
But because dismissing the entire market based on mortgage rates alone may be the wrong question.
The better questions are:
What opportunities exist in the neighborhoods and price ranges that matter to you?
What is the actual competition for the homes you're considering?
Which sellers may be open to negotiating?
What financing options are available based on your qualifications?
And what would make a purchase financially comfortable and strategically sound?
Those are the conversations worth having.
The headline everyone is waiting for may be the wrong one.
Someday, mortgage rates will be different.
The housing market will be different.
The competition will be different.
And people will look back at this period with the benefit of hindsight, identifying opportunities that were difficult to recognize while they were happening.
That's always easier after the fact.
What interests me is what we can recognize now.
I see opportunities emerging and disappearing in real time, as inventory, competition, seller expectations, and financing conditions continually reshape the choices available to buyers.
Where prepared buyers may have room to negotiate.
Where the ability to evaluate a property carefully can be just as valuable as the ability to move quickly.
And where the right combination of local knowledge, financial expertise, and thoughtful negotiation can make a meaningful difference.
The opportunity isn't that money is cheap. It isn't.
The opportunity is that competition may be giving buyers something money alone cannot buy: leverage.
That's the distinction.
That's what I want buyers to understand.
And that's why I refuse to reduce this entire market to a conversation about interest rates.
Because the most interesting part of real estate has never been the headline.
It's what happens beneath it.
Everyone is watching the interest rate. I'm watching what it's doing to the market.
And I think the buyers who understand that distinction are going to have a much more interesting conversation about what comes next.
Before you decide to wait, let's look at what's actually possible.
If you're considering buying in Bloomington, Hopkins, Mound, Minnetonka, Minnetrista, Eden Prairie, or elsewhere in the Twin Cities, let's examine the opportunities in the neighborhoods and price ranges that matter to you.
I'll bring the local market analysis, property insight, and negotiating strategy. I'll also connect you with knowledgeable lending professionals who can help you understand the financing options available based on your individual circumstances.
And if the right decision is to wait, we'll talk about that, too.
Because my goal isn't simply to help you buy a home. It's to help you buy well.
Kara Zahasky | REALTOR®
eXp Realty | The Antonov Group
RealtorKara.com
The Kara Edit — Real estate insight, local perspective, and the art of feeling at home.
The market context behind this edit
Data checked October 14, 2026
For the week ending October 3, 2026, Minneapolis Area REALTORS® reported 12,636 homes for sale in the Twin Cities region, up 13.1% year over year, and 782 pending sales, down 21.0% year over year.
More inventory alongside fewer pending sales is consistent with the possibility of more choice for buyers. One week of regional data does not establish a lasting trend, prove that mortgage rates caused the change, or determine the negotiating position on a particular home. Neighborhood, price range, condition, and competing offers still matter.
Read the October 12, 2026 report from Minneapolis Area REALTORS®. The association reports NorthstarMLS data for the 16-county Twin Cities region unless otherwise noted.