Rising Tide?

If a rising tide lifts all ships, then what do rising interest rates do? Unless, like us, you assiduously avoid television news and talk radio, you've already heard about Fed Chairman Bernanke's comments regarding eventual and inevitable increases in interest rates. Here's the article about it in the Times. When rates go up, lots of things will happen; some bad and some good and all depending one your point of view. But they won't all happen at once and they won't all happen right away. One thing we think we can say with relative confidence...if you're thinking about buying and you plan to hold on to your investment for a good long while, this might be the time to act. Conforming loan rates are under 5%. Even if prices fall, higher rates will mean higher cost of ownership over the long haul. Unless you're a cash buyer, you may look back on Q1 of 2010 as that rare moment when prices and interest rates were both low.