For more than a year, the Federal Reserve has been struggling to tame inflation with a seemingly endless series of interest rate increases. Yet the U.S. economy roars on.

Many sectors are still experiencing robust job growth, while consumer spending remains strong. That’s why economists think the Fed will continue its rate-cutting strategy until inflation is finally vanquished.

Though the Fed has had limited success in slowing inflation, higher mortgage rates have meant a gut punch for would-be homebuyers, because every jump in mortgage rates reduces the buying power of wannabe owners.

Still, many buyers, including those who’ve long lived in rental housing, are pushing on with their purchase plans.

“No one wants to bury their homeownership dreams, no matter how discouraged they are with the mortgage pricing situation,” says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at HSH Associates (hsh.com), which tracks mortgage markets across the country.

Ironically, he says those with well-paying jobs may be technically entitled to borrow more than they can truly afford. Even now, with tight lending standards, people who have professional livelihoods and strong credit scores can take on more mortgage debt than would be prudent.

“It’s very possible to put yourself behind the eight ball when you finance a house,” Gumbinger says.

Of course, as always, there are many potential buyers who must struggle to gain approval for a home loan of any size. These include self-employed people and those with blemished credit reports.

Yet at the same time, other borrowers are offered the chance to take out a larger mortgage than is wise in their case, says Sean Sebold, a veteran financial planner.

“There are lots of reasons to be conservative on how much you spend for a house. One factor is that if you overbuy and can’t afford it, you’ll be hit with major transaction costs to sell your home and buy a smaller one,” says Sebold, who’s advised clients since 1994.

Among the buyers who should be especially careful not to overspend are single people and couples supporting a household on just one income, he says.

How is it possible to borrow more than is wise for a home purchase?

The explanation is that lenders don’t know everything about their borrowers’ living costs. For example, buyers seeking a mortgage needn’t disclose that they face high costs for their toddler’s day care or that they’re helping cover a father’s nursing home bills.

“The lender is blind to everything but the income and liabilities on your record,” says Sebold, who’s affiliated with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (napfa.org).

Granted, many people are now more attentive to inflation than before the pandemic. But Sebold says some financially stretched buyers are still willing to borrow up to the ceiling set by their lenders -- on the assumption they’ll cut their discretionary expenses later.

“The problem is most people don’t actually reduce their spending the way they expected to after moving to their new house. They keep spending as much as ever on restaurant meals, travel and expensive hobbies,” he says.

Why do buyers continue to spend more than planned --even after taking on a big mortgage? Sebold believes most Americans are inherently optimistic about their finances.

Here are a few pointers for buyers:

-- Avoid mortgage brokers who push hard for your business.

With the run-up in interest rates, the home loan industry has gone through a major contraction in employment. That’s because mortgage demand, including from those attempting to refinance their loans, has dropped off dramatically.

Although there are fewer people working in mortgage lending, those still in the field are now competing as aggressively as ever for loans, Gumbinger says, and many work on commission, meaning they don’t get paid unless their deals go through.

“Brokers are absolutely hungry for business,” he says.

-- Review your finances prior to taking out a mortgage.

Sebold suggests that before looking at property, you do a careful analysis of your income and outflows to ensure you’ll have adequate funds to cover both your mortgage payments and your nonhousing expenses.

Because reducing your expenses could be even harder than reducing your weight, Sebold advises that the best way to determine how much you can afford for housing is to examine your spending over a recent three-month period. Then assume you’ll spend as much or more after you buy a home, adding in extra costs for the property, such as for hardware and garden supplies.

-- Establish an upper limit on how much you’ll spend for a home.

Are you working in a field with high levels of unemployment -- such as at a tech firm that’s doing a lot of layoffs? If so, Sebold says you should keep regular contributions to savings in mind when calculating how much you can afford to put into housing.

“If you’re working in an insecure job, you’d better have a year’s worth of living costs set aside if you’re in a one-income household,” he says.

Even if your household has two incomes -- and you believe both parties’ jobs are secure -- Sebold says you’ll want to add in a financial buffer when calculating what you can afford for housing.

After gaining mortgage preapproval, he urges you to set a firm upper limit on how much you’ll spend before heading out to look at property. Put this number on an index card and carry it in your pocket when you’re searching for the right home, he says.

“You should always know that number before going out to buy,” he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

More than two years ago, a young family with four spirited children bought a large lot and hired a builder to construct a custom house. They hankered for five bedrooms and two home offices. Their plan? Sell the cramped split-level where the whole brood now live and move to a much bigger space with a bedroom for each child.

“They’re overflowing their little house. Also, their need for home offices became urgent when both parents started working from home,” says Stacy Berman, the family’s real estate agent.

But due in large measure to supply chain issues, the family’s building plans hit multiple snags when both construction materials and labor proved tough for their contractor to obtain. Hence completion of the new place -- scheduled to be done this month -- has been delayed indefinitely.

“Now the family is in a bind. Should they sell their split-level immediately to help finance the new construction? Or should they wait until they’re certain about a move date, in the hope that their split-level won’t fall in value? Both options seem problematic,” Berman says.

The quandary facing this family is shared by countless Americans in doubt as to how to time a potential home sale. Young families especially have always preferred to avoid the need for a disruptive interim rental prior to a move. Also, most wish to sync a move to their kids’ school schedules.

But the issue of timing a sale has become all the more vexing due to economic uncertainties now facing the country. In some areas where home values are still rising, owners are considering a more hurried sale, assuming the good times can’t last. Still, in areas where values are slipping, owners hope a delayed sale will mean greater proceeds if they hold out past a potential recession.

“Timing a sale is always a judgment call. But I encourage people not to postpone if that means putting their dreams on hold,” says Berman, who’s sold property since 2003.

Here are a few pointers for sellers:

-- Ask for consultations with local real estate pros.

Eric Tyson, a personal finance expert and co-author of “Selling Your House for Dummies,” says the best sources of information about a local market are usually real estate agents active in the area.

He grants that many in the field are inclined toward optimism “given that they have a bias toward doing transactions.” But he says you can minimize the effect of any such bias by seeking advice from more than one agent.

“And obviously, take any one agent’s opinion with a grain of salt,” Tyson says.

Besides real estate agents, other solid sources of market intelligence include appraisers, mortgage lenders and real estate attorneys who do business in your area.

-- Seek up-to-date market data.

Because national numbers bear little relevance to your market prospects, housing specialists urge you to review local statistics.

“You want to look at numbers for your neighborhood only. If you live in New York, that could be just one building. But in a rural area, that could be a radius of 10 or more miles around your house,” says Sid Davis, author of “A Survival Guide to Selling a Home.”

Once you’ve defined your neighborhood, he recommends you ask local agents for key data. In particular, request local “list-to-sale” numbers for the last 90 days. These show the difference between asking and selling prices. If this gap is narrowing, the local market should be stable or gaining strength. If it’s widening, the market could be weakening.

Another key set of statistics that Davis uses involves “days on market.” If many properties in the community are languishing unsold for weeks or months, it’s likely real estate demand is weakening. But a quickening pace of home sales could suggest the opposite.

-- Avoid reliance on “average sales price” statistics.

Many market observers depend heavily on data about average sales prices. But Tyson cautions against relying too heavily on these numbers.

“The problem with average sales prices is that the mix of properties that happen to have sold during any given period can really impact the results. For example, if a few unusually high-end homes have sold recently, that could give you an unrealistically rosy view,” he says.

He says a better measure of the relative strength of any market focuses on median sales prices. In this case, the median would be the price difference separating the higher half of the homes sold from the lower half.

-- Take note of home improvement activity in your neighborhood.

Ashley Richardson, a veteran real estate agent affiliated with the Residential Real Estate Council (crs.com), says you can sense whether your local real estate market is on the upswing through simple observation.

“Are people spending money on home improvements? If so, these are signs that they have confidence in the neighborhood and its future,” Richardson says.

-- Don’t base your selling decision solely on market intelligence.

Why consider selling even before your market stabilizes? Because, as Tyson explains, it’s likely any price discounting you’d have to do to sell will be more than offset by savings on the home you buy, especially if you’re moving within the same area or to a lower-cost region of the country.

“If you’re trading up -- or even making a lateral move -- your two transactions will probably come out as a wash or better,” he says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)

A health care analyst and his social worker wife plan to retire later this year. That’s why they’re constructing a small bungalow on family-owned land in Honolulu, where the analyst grew up. But looking forward, this California couple is stumped about what to do with their contemporary place in Los Angeles.

Their options for the L.A. property are several. They could sell as soon as the Hawaii place is done -- likely this summer -- or delay the sale until market conditions improve in California.

“We’re hoping that by waiting we could get a higher price. Our L.A. neighborhood is slow right now. Maybe that’s because buyers, who are limited by high mortgage rates and economic uncertainty, are waiting for the country to stabilize after the next presidential election,” the analyst says.

Fred Meyer, a longtime real estate broker and appraiser, doesn’t know the couple in this true story. But he advises owners who can afford to delay a home sale to seriously consider that course.

“When you’re weighing the pros and cons of selling now versus later, it’s great to gather data in support of your options,” says Meyer, who lists property near Harvard University.

While it’s true that appraisers are trained to calculate the value of a property, Meyer says active real estate agents are typically better at evaluating current market trends.

“Call in agents who are top sellers in your immediate area. At this early stage, tell them you’re not yet ready to sell but want their opinion. To encourage their objectivity, offer to pay them a couple hundred dollars for their help,” Meyer says.

For your meeting with the agents, ask them to bring key statistics on the health of your market. One set of data should track the number of available homes in your area and whether that number is expanding or shrinking. Another involves the number of days it takes to sell a place there.

“If the ‘days on market’ are shrinking, that’s a good sign for your area. If the opposite is true, you may wish to wait for an indefinite time until you list. In that case, you may choose to rent out your house while waiting for the ideal time to sell,” he says.

Here are a few other pointers for sellers:

-- Don’t count on major price increases.

Sid Davis, a real estate broker and author of “A Survival Guide to Selling a Home,” says that even in some exceptionally strong markets, demand has started to recede.

It’s not that would-be purchasers from the millennial generation are surrendering their homeownership dreams for good. Indeed, Davis believes most are as motivated to own as were their parents at the same stage of life. But some young adults are now exiting the market temporarily, if only to give themselves a break from the stress of home shopping during the red-hot pandemic-era period.

All this is not to say that popular neighborhoods are bereft of wannabe purchasers. But smart sellers know that pricing right from the outset is always crucial to a successful sale.

-- Review an agent’s track record on pricing.

If you’ve made a firm decision to sell in the near-term, it’s important to price correctly from the beginning.

Do you live in an area where property values are now flat or slipping slightly? In that case, it’s unlikely you’ll receive your full asking price at the closing table. But if your property was marked correctly from the outset, you should still come quite close.

“The idea is to try to hit the bull’s-eye from the beginning rather than letting your house become shopworn,” Davis says.

How can you judge whether an agent has a good record on pricing? One way is to review a few key numbers on their past listings, such as “list-to-sale” statistics. Then compare the original asking price versus the sum ultimately received by the sellers.

If the agent is routinely making realistic recommendations, there should be little difference between the original list price and the final sale price.

“Don’t listen to any agent trying to flatter you into a ‘feel-good price’ that’s much higher than other pros are suggesting,” Davis says.

-- Look to guidance from real estate pros in your neighborhood.

When it comes time to sell a home, many owners think it’s wise to hire a trusted family member as their listing agent. But Davis cautions against choosing someone from your inner circle.

“Would you automatically hire a relative to manage your retirement fund, or search for the best expert you can find? The same principle applies when selling your home,” he says.

Even if your family member has a proven track record in real estate, choosing that individual as your agent could be a mistake.

“Your relatives probably won’t tell you if your place is a dump that needs to be decluttered or that it’s worth a lot less than you think,” Davis says.

He recommends you restrict yourself to choosing agents who work in your area to determine the right one to list your house. Ask each to give you an honest evaluation of both the condition and current worth of your place. And question all the agents on how they came up with their pricing recommendations.

“You want to see the actual comparable sales used to support the agent’s recommendation. In a changing market, it’s especially important that these sales be very recent -- preferably for houses sold within the last month,” Davis says.

(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)