| It might sound like a rich-person problem: You want to sell your home and buy another one, but doing so would mean giving up a 3% mortgage rate. Yet that's a big reason the housing market is grinding to a halt right now. You can thank the low mortgage rates during the pandemic. A huge number of Americans either refinanced or purchased homes when borrowing costs were historically low. Now, they're staying in houses they've outgrown and putting life decisions on hold instead of moving, as my colleague Paulina Cachero writes about here. It's a big part of why potential buyers are facing a shortage of listings, especially affordable homes for people trying to crack into the market for the first time. The problem is expected to continue at least until mortgage rates drop. A recent survey from Zillow found that US homeowners are nearly twice as willing to sell if their mortgage rate is 5% or higher. Those with lower rates are staying put. So what can you do if you're trying to buy a home right now? Although I personally am very far from that situation (thanks New York real estate prices), I asked some experts for their best tips and tricks. Jeremy Eppley, fiduciary financial planner at Silverstone Financial in Maryland, recommends setting up Zillow alerts, so you can catch reasonably priced homes when they first hit the market. When you see one you like, make sure to have everything prepped and in order: A competitive offer, solid 20% down payment and a swift closing timeline, said Alvin Carlos, financial planner at District Capital Management. Try not to let emotions get in the way — set your price limit, and be willing to walk away if you end up in a bidding war. And make sure that the price limit is reasonable. Some people buying homes outside their price range justify it by saying, 'we can refinance when rates go down,' explained Richard Cooke, financial planner at 2Point0 Financial. "Although I'm optimistic rates will eventually come down, they may not for a very long time and that can be devastating to someone's financial wellness," he said. It's important to remember that homeownership has downsides too — the required repair and maintenance, the mental burden, being tied to a geographic location, plus the volatility of the housing market, noted Laura Lynch, founder of the Tiny House Adviser. Don't be afraid to consider nontraditional strategies. "Sharing the costs and responsibility of a home with friends is a story I have heard about several times recently," she said. Maybe I just need to convince my friends to buy a home with me. — Claire Ballentine Send us questions about your own financial dilemmas to bbgwealth@bloomberg.net. In Bloomberg Opinion this week, Matthew Yglesias says elite colleges should increase their enrollments: There is a relatively simple way to reduce tensions and build on one of America's great national strengths: Make these schools larger. And the main obstacle to doing that isn't necessarily some quasi-conspiratorial effort to preserve exclusivity. It's the much more banal force of NIMBYism. Harvard, for example, has expanded its campus footprint aggressively in Boston in recent years because that's where it's been able to get permission to grow. But the historic center of the university is in Cambridge, on the other side of a river, so the expansion doesn't include new dorms for undergraduates or the larger class sizes they could accommodate. Yale, located in much poorer and more growth-friendly New Haven, has built new residential colleges and expanded admissions. Thus the quintessential local issue of zoning squabbles ends up generating a national scarcity of elite college admissions slots, fueling zero-sum competition and ultimately reducing America's ability to increase global "exports" of its best-in-class high-end higher education product. Read his full argument here.
What's the best way for me to track my spending each month? You want to use something that provides organization and allows you to not only track your spending but to separate and label the types of expenses and the regularity of the expenses. There are many programs and apps that provide this, or even Microsoft Excel would work. Keep track of fixed expenses and don't forget those once-a-year or bi-annual payments like auto insurance. I tell folks to always budget in a variable amount each month as well. We all run into unexpected expenses, and it can be a stressor if those unexpected costs continually make your budget look off. Tracking regularly also keeps you aware of any hidden expenses or items that may go unnoticed like monthly subscriptions. Those smaller expenses can really add up over time. I'd encourage folks to not only look at budgeting for expenses, but to budget in savings as well. It's good to know that all your savings for emergency funds, investments or that next family vacation are being covered. — Brandon Gregg, financial advisor at BBK Wealth Management in Indiana Send us questions about your own financial dilemmas to bbgwealth@bloomberg.net. | 
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