Insider Today: You should buy a house now

October 23, 2023 • 5 min read

with Dan DeFrancesco

Welcome back! If you’re feeling bummed about not having a doomsday bunker like the ultra-rich, don’t worry. OpenAI’s Sam Altman joked they won’t really matter if there is an AI apocalypse.  

In today’s big story, we’re looking at why it’s a good time to buy a house. (No, that’s not a typo.)

What’s on deck:

But first, mortgage rates be damned.

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AP

The big story

Buy, buy, buy

It’s a pretty terrible time to buy a house these days, which is why it’s a good time to buy a house.

That sentence might not make much sense, but stick with me.

The housing market is an absolute mess. For the first time since 2000, mortgage rates hit 8%. Existing home sales are expected to close at their lowest levels since 2011. So whether you’re buying or selling a home, you’re probably pretty frustrated.

But you shouldn’t necessarily throw in the towel on your homebuying dreams just yet. The housing market’s rough waters mean the brave few willing to navigate them will have an easier time finding a house than when everyone piles back in once rates start to fall.

Insider’s Jennifer Sor detailed why it’s a good time to buy a house. And Insider’s Jacob Zinkula spoke to housing experts about the advice they’d have for homebuyers willing to jump into the fray.

Part of the issue is that mortgage rates won’t magically drop overnight. And when they do start to come down, they’re still not going to drop as low as you might hope.

Henglein and Steets/Getty

If that’s not a compelling argument, don’t forget the competition will only get stronger the longer you wait. 

As Gen Zers start considering buying homes, that just means another wave of people to compete with houses for. And while home builders have seen some bright spots, they won’t solve all the supply issues that’ll come when buyers ramp back up.

Instead, more people are queuing to buy a finite amount of houses with every passing day. If you thought the bidding wars a couple of years ago were bad, imagine what it’ll be like with people flush with cash after being sidelined for the past year.

As someone who’s trying to buy their first home, I can’t tell you how maddening an experience it’s been. I’d like to think all this time on the sidelines gives me a chance to save more money to buy a better house, but then I realize that’s what everyone else is thinking.

So yes, the housing market may not be pretty right now, but maybe that’s a good thing.

3 things in

Markets

🔔 Before the opening bell: US stock futures fall early Monday as investors await the release of corporate earnings from tech giants. 

Konoplytska / Getty Images

1. A former Point72 president who resigned after a #MeToo scandal is raising a new fund. Doug Haynes is hoping to raise $1 billion for Norias Research Group, a new fund based in West Palm Beach, Fla. Haynes resigned from Steve Cohen’s Point72 in 2018, a month after being named a defendant in a sexual discrimination lawsuit.

2. Billionaire Leon Cooperman isn’t very bullish on the S&P 500. The famed investor said stocks are overpriced and the S&P 500 won’t hit a new high for a long time. Instead, a “rolling correction” will occur that will "take a long time for us to work out the problems,” he said.

3. Investments set to take off in 2024. Some of the top minds at Ameriprise Financial outlined how to maximize gains heading into 2024. Sectors on the rise next year include financials, industrials, and materials.

3 things in

Tech

Arantza Pena Popo/Insider

1. People are grieving the “death” of their AI lovers after chatbot app Soulmate abruptly shut down. They’re making digital memorials, forming ad hoc support groups, and collectively mourning on Reddit. Soulmate’s closure highlights the perils of entrusting your deepest emotions with a smartphone app.

2. The auto industry overestimated EV demand this year. Now companies are scrambling. The industry experienced multi-year growth. But that’s started to slow, leaving some wondering if carmakers pushed EVs too early.

3. Amazon shut down a Slack channel where thousands of employees discussed performance improvement plans. #focus-and-pivot-info was deleted about a month ago. But another channel appears to be the new gathering spot.

3 things in

Business

Tyler Le/Insider

1. The new way insurance companies are ripping you off. Insurance companies sell their policies as friendly neighbors that can offer you peace of mind. But that neighborly charm begins to wane when they start using loopholes and exclusions to deny your claims.

2. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella dishes on AI, Activision Blizzard deal, and more. He sat down with Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Insider’s parent company, Axel Springer, for an in-depth interview. They discussed cricket, Marxism, familial love, mistakes, Microsoft, and other wide-ranging topics.

3. Nvidia CEO gave a super honest look at what it’s like to start your own company. Jensen Huang says he wouldn’t do it again if he had to go back. He said that “to this day, I trick my brain into thinking, ‘How hard can it be?’ Because you have to.”

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The Insider Today team

Dan DeFrancesco, senior editor and anchor, in New York City. Diamond Naga Siu, senior reporter, in San Diego. Hallam Bullock, editor, in London. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.

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