Every year it happens like clockwork.
July rolls around and everyone in Portland collectively decides productivity is optional. People are floating the Clackamas River, drinking beer in someone’s backyard, camping on Mount Hood, heading to the coast, or pretending they don’t have a mortgage, a job, or kids who are about to go back to school. Honestly, I get it. We spend nine months living under gray skies wondering if the sun still exists. When summer finally shows up, we’re squeezing every damn second out of it.
Then August hits.
Suddenly you’re standing in Target wondering why a sixth grader apparently needs $300 worth of school supplies, your vacation photos are already buried on your phone, and reality comes crashing back like your fantasy football team after Week 3. That’s also about the time my phone starts ringing.
“Hey Kevin… I think we’re ready to start looking.”
Translation?
“We’ve procrastinated long enough and now we’re freaking the fuck out.”
The Race Against the School Bell
If you’ve got kids, moving before school starts feels like the finish line of a marathon. Nobody wants to unpack boxes while trying to figure out bus routes, school registrations, soccer practice, and why your kid suddenly needs seventeen different colored folders that all look exactly the same.
Parents want their kids settled before classes begin. Kids want to make friends from Day One instead of being the new kid halfway through September. It makes perfect sense, and every year there’s a rush of buyers trying to squeeze a home purchase into the last few weeks of summer.
Here’s the problem.
Buying a house isn’t like ordering a new TV on Amazon. Even if you find the perfect place tomorrow, you’ve still got inspections, the appraisal, underwriting, title work, loan documents, and enough paperwork to make you question whether you’re buying a house or applying to become an astronaut. Can it happen quickly? Absolutely. But counting on a lightning-fast closing usually isn’t a great strategy. Especially if the lender you teamed up with sucks! Call me for references please!
If buying before school starts is your goal, awesome. Just know the earlier you start, the better your odds of pulling it off without your blood pressure hitting dangerous levels.
Good News… Buyers Have Tons of Leverage
Now here’s where people get surprised.
Even though buyers start feeling more urgency in August, we’re still in a market where they have negotiating power. Inventory around the Portland metro has remained healthy compared to the insanity we lived through a few years ago, and there are still homes sitting on the market longer than sellers would like.
That means buyers still have opportunities to negotiate closing cost credits, repairs, interest rate buy-downs, or price reductions on the right property. I’ve seen buyers save thousands of dollars simply because they were willing to ask the question that other buyers were too nervous to ask.
Just because you’re motivated doesn’t mean you need to panic. Those are two completely different things.
Motivated buyers make smart decisions. Panicked buyers overpay. There’s a big difference.
Life Doesn’t Give a Shit About Mortgage Rates
Families aren’t the only people shopping this time of year. Plenty of buyers are simply exhausted from waiting for the mythical “perfect” time to buy. For the last couple of years, people have been hearing the same thing over and over again: “Just wait a little longer. Rates are coming down.”
Maybe. Maybe not. The truth is nobody knows.
Meanwhile, life keeps moving whether mortgage rates cooperate or not. People get new jobs. They get married. They have babies. They get divorced. They retire. Parents get older. Commutes become unbearable. Families outgrow the house they’re in. None of those things stop just because Jerome Powell decided to say something that made Wall Street lose its collective mind.
Eventually people realize they’re buying a home because it fits their life, not because CNBC finally flashed the number they’ve been waiting to see. Could rates come down? Sure. They could also go back up. Nobody has a crystal ball. What I do know is that spending another year in a house that no longer works for your family has a cost too, and people rarely factor that into the equation.
The Buyers Who Usually Win
Here’s something I’ve noticed after years of doing this.
The buyers who get the best deals usually aren’t the ones running around like their hair’s on fire trying to beat the school calendar. They’re the ones who quietly prepared weeks or months before everyone else.
They already talked to a lender. They know what they can comfortably afford. They understand the neighborhoods they’re interested in. When the right house comes along, they don’t need three days to debate whether the kitchen island is exactly the right shade of white or if the guest bathroom has enough room for Aunt Linda to visit once every four years.
They’re ready.
Preparation beats desperation almost every single time.
Kevin’s Take
Every August I see the same thing happen. Buyers wake up from summer vacation mode and suddenly remember they wanted to move this year. The pressure starts building, and it’s easy to convince yourself that every house is “the one” because the calendar is getting shorter.
Don’t do that.
Buy the right house, not the fastest house.
If you’re hoping to get settled before the holidays or you’re trying to make one last move before school routines take over, now is the time to get serious. Get pre-approved, start looking, ask questions, and make a plan. You don’t have to sprint through the process, but you also don’t want to be standing in October wondering where the hell the summer went.
As I’ve been saying for months now, buyers still have leverage in today’s Portland market. That’s not going to last forever. Markets always swing back eventually. Nobody knows exactly when that’ll happen, but history says it always does. If buying a home makes sense for your life today, don’t spend another year waiting for perfect conditions that may never actually show up. Sometimes the best deal isn’t the lowest interest rate. Sometimes it’s buying the right damn house before everyone else realizes it’s a good time to buy too.
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