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Clemson | Culture > News

Rising Housing Prices: Perspective From A Prospective House Owner

Isabella Taylor Student Contributor, Clemson University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Clemson chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Isabella Taylor

As someone who’s in college right now, and is planning on buying a house soon or right out of college, I’m a little concerned about the current housing market. If you’re in college, I bet you’ve heard your professors (especially if you have Economics) hammering into your head that housing is virtually impossible for our generation. I was curious about the true depth of housing prices, so I did some research on my own.

TheStreet.com accounts for rising housing prices in 2026 as being due to many homeowners turning their houses into rentals and Airbnbs rather than selling. In my opinion, this trend is beneficial to tourists and vacationers in the area, but in a zone with little tourism, it shouldn’t be as widely accepted as it is. 

According to Newsroom.com, about “Two-thirds of US Census tracts are home to Airbnb listings but no hotels.” This emergence of Airbnb properties in low-tourism areas is primarily seen after the COVID Pandemic. 

A shock of rental properties dilutes the housing market and removes possible listings, affecting the housing market negatively. Some other possible effects that have influenced the housing market are mortgage rates. According to Jeffrey Quiggle from TheStreet:

“March has been a rough stretch for mortgage rates, and since March 11, they have delivered some of the sharpest increases of the month. “During that time, our daily rate index went from 6.09% on Tuesday to 6.41% today — the highest since September 4th, 2025,” wrote Mortgage News Daily. “While that’s certainly not the fastest jump we’ve seen, it’s the worst 3-day stretch since early April, 2025.””

However, according to J.P. Morgan, “While fixed-rate mortgage rates are projected to stay elevated at 6+%, adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) rates could tick downward if the Fed decides to ease, thereby making homes more affordable.” This essentially means that the average mortgage rates, and the ones most widely used in statistics, are around 6% and rising. But the mortgage rates that are adjustable, or that initially start at a fixed price, then are shifted due to market conditions, might begin to lower if the Federal Reserve changes its prediction for the Federal Funds Rate.

Both outlooks considered, the housing market is something that’s always in heavy flux. There will always be something pulling and pushing it, and the prospective homeowner (myself included) should aim to be prepared for anything.

Isabella Taylor

Clemson '29

Isabella Taylor is an undergraduate working towards her B.S. in Economics with a Political and Legal Theory Minor at Clemson University. She is a Lyceum Scholar and a member of the CUBS Living Learning Community at Clemson. Isabella's mother owns a lavender farm in Lenoir, NC that Isabella works on seasonally, so the idea of hard work is nothing new to her.

Isabella's late father was a decorated Captain in the US Air Force, and his unfortunate passing in 2012 has given her a strong desire to uplift those around facing similar hardships. She is also the middle of five daughters, all of which have always created a strong female network for her throughout her life. Without her younger sister, Olivia, Isabella wouldn't have made it as far as she has.

Isabella loves reading, especially books by Jane Austen and Sarah J. Maas. She is also an avid writer and lover of creative non-fiction, having developed this affection through reading her mother's many published personal memoirs. If not writing or reading, Isabella can be found studying at the library with friends, preferably with a PSL (Pumpkin Spice Latte) on her desk.