Lowering the rates didn’t do a thing for Japan’s market, except maybe extend the length of time it took to correct.
Stabilizing the interest rate won’t do anything (locally) for the people who are both fully extended and are facing an ARM reset. It isn’t going to bring an infusion of job or wage increases, and it won’t restore the misconception among the gambling class that RE always goes up and never goes down.
This last aspect is the one that’s most telling. A buyer has no incentive to bet everything on a purchase unless they’re confident the short term pain is going to have an outsized long term gain. Without that kind of upside they’ll avoid the risk.
The current buyer psychology is already in motion. In my opinion, the only thing that could make it reverse course right now is….nothing.
