Yes, I too agree with your posts, HLS. Except I believe that some areas are much more “interest-rate sensitive” than other areas. Those more sensitive areas are the newer tract development built since 2000, where the family-raising cohort habitually flock to en masse. It doesn’t matter the median value in the tract or condo complex. It could be $250K or $1M+. If it was built after 2000, it attracts the same type of buyer that that buyer typically uses as high of a PM loan they can get without having to pay PMI or MMI. And many do bite the bullet and pay the exorbitant mortgage insurance premiums just to get into the newer tract.
Many, many of the very established areas still have a proliferation of all cash buyers and buyers using <50% PM mortgages.
IOW, I believe that interest rates, high or low, don't have much bearing on actual "worth" of properties in a given area unless high LTV mortgages are the norm in successfully consummated sales.
Therefore, the degree of the impact MIR's have on area sales and values is entirely local.
