Chuck Barberini Real Estate

  With economic headlines, global events, and near constant talk about affordability, you may be wondering if this is the right time to move. But here’s what you need to remember. While recent events do have some impact on the housing market, they don’t take buying off the table. You just have to use a different strategy. Mortgage Rates Have Been Up Slightly – Here's Why After trending down for most of 2025, mortgage rates have been higher again for over roughly a month now. And experts say it’s a result of what's happening overseas and in the broader economy. As Mark Fleming, Chief Economist at First American , explains: “Mortgage rates have recently moved higher, driven by geopolitical uncertainty and rising energy costs that are contributing to inflation concerns.” But what does that really mean for you? Should you wait for everything to settle back down before you buy a home? The short answer is no . You don’t have to wait. Your Window To Buy Didn’t Close It’s true that a m...

Check Out This Weeks Newsletter Best Interest Financial and Clever Real Estate survey shows 35% of sub-6% homeowners won’t sell, 47% can’t afford today’s rates, and inventory remains stuck. One in three homeowners with a rate under 6% say they wouldn’t give it up for  any  reason. It’s not just your imagination. Plenty of sellers still have rates below 6% locked in. And the majority of them? Not budging.  Not without a life-altering motivation, anyway. And sometimes not even then.    According to a recent survey of 1,000 mortgage holders from Best Interest Financial and Clever Real Estate, a large share of homeowners are holding tight to the rates they locked in during the pandemic era. Inventory feels tight. Listings aren’t showing up the way they used to. Even when homeowners talk about moving, a lot of those conversations stall out before anything actually happens. This goes beyond a simple supply problem. Mortgage rates and affordability pressure a...

“Just Thinking" I know it’s a cliché, but the older I get, the faster time seems to move. Only now do I fully understand the life lessons my parents tried to teach when I complained about being bored as a child. I remember watching the classroom clock crawl forward, where seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours, each passing moment weighed down by the impatience of my youth. Time, of course, doesn’t slow down for anyone. Or, as Dr. Seuss so perfectly put it, “How did it get so late so soon?” It feels like we were just celebrating the holidays, Christmas blending into the New Year and yet here we are with the first quarter already in the rearview mirror. Winter has quietly slipped away, giving way to spring, which arrived with warm and beautiful days. We celebrated Easter just last weekend and are now enjoying the longer evenings that come with Daylight Saving Time, how quickly the milestones pass. As April unfolds, several landmark moments have already emerged, event...

For a lot of people, the math on buying a home just doesn’t really work right now. Maybe that’s how it feels for you too. You look at the cost of buying. Then you look at the cost of childcare. And it starts to feel like you have to choose one or the other. But some families are finding a way to make both work by doing something a little different: teaming up to purchase a multi-generational home . One Reason This Is Becoming More Common It’s no secret that affordability has been a challenge in recent years. But for families with young kids, there’s an added layer that can make it feel even harder: childcare. According to the Department of Health and Human Services , childcare should take up no more than 7% of your monthly income. But in reality, the average married couple spends closer to 10% ( see map below ): When you combine that with the cost of buying a home, it’s easy to see why things can feel stretched. That’s exactly why more families are starting to rethink how they approac...

  If you’ve been looking for a home lately, you’ve probably felt how tough affordability still is. And that's exactly why more buyers are opting for adjustable-rate mortgages , or ARMs. Here's what you need to understand about how they work, and whether they make sense for you. What Is an Adjustable-Rate Mortgage? Since a lot of people aren’t familiar with this type of loan, let’s start with a definition. This is how Business Insider explains the main difference between a fixed-rate mortgage and an adjustable-rate mortgage: “With a fixed-rate mortgage, your interest rate remains the same for the entire time you have the loan. This keeps your monthly payment the same for years . . . adjustable-rate mortgages work differently. You’ll start off with the same rate for a few years, but after that, your rate can change periodically. This means that if average rates have gone up, your mortgage payment will increase. If they’ve gone down, your payment will decrease.” Basically, one d...

  When your house sits on the market longer than expected, it can get frustrating fast. You start asking: what now? And for a growing number of homeowners, that turns into: should I just rent it instead? While it sounds like a simple backup plan, becoming “ accidental landlord ” is actually a much bigger decision than most people realize. That’s when someone planned to sell, didn’t get the price or traction they hoped for, and decided to rent the house out instead. And lately, that's happening more often. Why the Number of Accidental Landlords Is Rising If you’re faced with the same choice to rent or to sell, here’s what you need to know. First, you’re not alone. And that should actually be some comfort. According to Zillow about 2.3% of homes available for rent were previously listed for sale. That may not sound like a lot, but it’s actually the highest share in almost 6 years. Before you go that route yourself, it’s worth slowing down and looking at the full picture. Ask yourse...