NEW BEDFORD — Prospective homebuyers are keeping real estate professionals busy as they watch and wait in an up-and-down market in Bristol County and across the state.

What should homebuyers know about the housing market?

Bob Sullivan, a broker associate with Bay Market Real Estate in Swansea who works in Bristol County, is also a member of the board of directors of Massachusetts Association of Realtors and regional vice president and secretary of the South Shore Realtors Association.

Sullivan said the housing market has changed in that the sellers he works with aren’t quite used to the fact that their houses aren’t going to sell overnight right now.

“It’s a very strong market, it’s just not a crazy overnight market,” he said. “I’ve been in this for over 30 years, and I’ve seen it all. When we sign a listing, we usually sign for six months for a reason, and that’s because it’s the average marketing time.”

He said homes had been selling in a few days, and in a matter of weeks before that, but now it’s about 30 to 45 days on average.

The mortgage rates are going up, but tend to jostle up and down, he said. According to bankers he has spoken with, it’s not expected to be a long-term rise and will go down again next year.

“One of the terms a banker used in a meeting on Friday was ‘You marry the house, you date the rate,’’’ he said. “In other words, you get into the housing market now because prices are going to continue to escalate as rates come down so you can refinance later."

Buyer's market? Not yet.

Sullivan said the inventory is still low relatively speaking, and it’s not a buyer’s market contrary to what many buyers think. He said the prices have adjusted a bit because listing prices have adjusted to the rise of prices over the last two years.

However, the market has leveled a bit and some buyers have been priced out of the market because of the rates that for a time had been historically low.

“As the inventory increases, it could shift to a buyer’s market, but we don’t see a tremendous amount of inventory coming out,” he said. “We see a slight increase over what was very low.”

Property transfers:These five area homes sold for more than a million-dollars.

Commuter rail's impact on Bristol County real estate

Sullivan said Bristol County in particular is in transition with the rail coming in 2023 and people coming from other parts of the state, mainly from Greater Boston, because it’s still less expensive for them, while homeowners here may consider the prices to be high.

“There’s kind of a catch 22,” he said. “We don’t want to price locals out of housing either.”

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Sullivan said there is still housing available in Bristol County. Every town has its own economy, and some are moving fast still, while others like New Bedford and Fall River are in the 35 to 40 day range, taking more time to decide and not having to decide on the spot.

Keep credit card bills low

He said one piece of advice often shared with prospective buyers is to not run up your credit card bills if inflation is affecting you because it will diminish your buying power. Those buyers likely won’t be able to qualify for a mortgage because they have debt that they maybe didn’t have before.

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Generally speaking, during the first year of the COVID pandemic, many people were saving money and not spending and may think they have saved enough to buy a house, he said. Unfortunately, many Realtors think the rates went up too high too fast.

“We understand the increase, but if you stall the market completely, you’re going to stall the economy because housing sales in Massachusetts do account for a large percentage of the GDP,” he said. “We want a nice, strong, level market similar to what we have right now.”

He said it’s still a good time to sell, and it’s easier on buyers than it was a few months ago because they no longer have to rush into a decision and decide on the spot. Even when it’s a challenge, some buyers can find ways to make it work.

“It’s a fair and equitable market,” he said. “Prices are definitely higher than they were in 2019, the last pre-COVID year.”

Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at kgallerani@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgallreporter. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: SouthCoast Realtors respond to jump in mortgage rates