Tenacious homebuyers have reason for optimism, so long as they’re patient. That’s according to Robert Reffkin, the CEO of Compass, one of the nation’s largest real estate brokerages.

Reffkin allows that the country is suffering a severe shortage of available listings. He estimates that fully a third of current homeowners are hanging onto mortgages locked in at around 3%.

“They view those mortgages as a financial asset” at a time when prevailing rates are pushing up against the 7% mark. That’s why they’re not willing to move now, he says.

But he projects that as soon as mortgage rates fall back into the 5% range -- as financial analysts expect -- that could unleash a surge of new listings that will intensify sales.

“This will bring a ... buying craze all over again,” Reffkin predicts.

Who’s hankering to list their home as soon as the timing is right?

Stacy Berman, a longtime real estate agent in the Washington, D.C., region, says many seniors who’ve owned their property for decades would soon be ready to sell once mortgage rates moderate.

“It’s not uncommon for seniors who are moving to a different part of the country to take out a new mortgage for their next purchase. So it’s logical many are rate-sensitive,” Berman says.

But so far, retirees in the baby boomer age cohort, born between 1946 and 1964, have been reluctant to list their properties, a primary reason why available listings are currently scarce.

“I’m practically begging potential sellers to list, especially those in the more affordable price point, because those are the homes buyers are hungry for,” says Shauna Pendleton, an Idaho agent who specializes in first-time buyers.

Who is feeling an urgent need to get on the property ladder? Most eager are young people in their 20s and 30s, along with adults of all ages facing job changes or military reassignments.

“What’s more, there are numerous recent college and grad school graduates who are anxious to buy their first home,” Berman says.

Besides the expectation that home listings will become more plentiful, financial analysts anticipate that listing prices will soon moderate, even in areas where multiple offers are now common.

“The velocity of price increases will certainly diminish significantly,” says Melissa Cohn, a vice president for William Raveis Mortgage, a Connecticut-based lender.

Here are a few pointers for determined buyers:

-- Inform yourself about local property values.

Eve Alexander, a longtime real estate broker who works solely with buyers, says buyers need context on prevailing values to make certain they don’t bid too much.

“For comparisons, try to identify five to 10 comparable properties that have sold recently in the area where you’re looking,” Alexander says.

If you’re seeking to buy in a neighborhood with widely varying properties, it’s helpful to compare the homes on your list on a price-per-square-foot basis. Then adjust for differences in size and home features.

After estimating the current market value of the home you wish to buy, it’s time to decide how aggressive an offer you want to make.

“You won’t want to push the limits if you’ve fallen in love with the property and feel it’s a do-or-die situation,” she says.

On the other hand, you might choose to make a lower offer if there are other available homes in the area that would meet your needs equally well.

-- Ignore comparables from “market testers.”

Eric Tyson, co-author of “Home Buying for Dummies,” says in every market there are a few sellers who won’t budge from an unrealistically high price.

“It’s a given that some supposed sellers aren’t really motivated to make a fair deal,” he says.

How can you tell which sellers are merely testing the market and will never negotiate seriously with anyone who bids less than their lofty list price?

Tyson recommends you ask your agent to find out if previous offers have come in on the property you want. If the owners have already rebuffed one or more decent offers without so much as a counterbid, this indicates they’ll probably resist reason with you, too.

The good news for buyers is that information on past offers is often readily available through the listing agent.

While there’s no harm in trying to reason with market testers, Tyson says you can waste a lot of time and energy trying to budge people who won’t even entertain a fair offer. Better to look for someone truly anxious to sell -- perhaps because they’re making an out-of-state job move.

-- Seek information about the seller’s equity position.

Are you seriously interested in a home but have yet to submit an offer on it? If so, Alexander says it’s wise to inform yourself on the sellers’ ownership stake before you bid. As she says, those with more equity have more potential room for compromise.

“What you’re looking for are insights into the mindset of the sellers,” Alexander says.

One source of clues on the owners’ equity position can be found by searching local government land records. At the minimum, these records (usually available online) should tell you when the current owners purchased the property and the original price they paid.

“If the sellers bought the house a couple of decades ago and haven’t refinanced, they should have a lot more equity,” Alexander says.

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

It was just a few weeks ago that real estate pros were predicting a robust springtime home sales market. Buyers, including first-timers, hoped prices would slip and that they’d finally gain a degree of leverage with sellers. But the situation is not quite as buyers hoped.

Granted, prices have cooled in some formerly overheated markets, such as Austin and San Jose. But in many high-demand markets, buyers have actually lost sway due to a severe shortage of inventory.

“We’ve gone from hot to not,” says Jeff Tucker, a senior economist for Zillow, the national real estate company. As he notes, buyers are scooping up what they can find, but a lack of choices is holding them back.

“Unfortunately, many potential sellers have ghosted the market this spring, concentrating buyer demand in the few listings that do come on the market and fueling price growth, especially for more affordable and well-priced houses,” Tucker says.

Lindsay Katz, a Los Angeles-based agent for Redfin, the national realty brokerage, says, “The total number of homes for sale has declined over the last month, going against the typical spring inventory bump.”

There are several underlying reasons why available homes are so scarce. One long-term factor is that many baby boomers are clinging to their properties rather than downsizing.

“Whether it’s real or delusional, lots of folks in their 60s and 70s expect to stay put in their properties forever,” says Mark Nash, the author of “1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home.”

Another factor causing homeowners to hang on rather than sell is that they wish to keep the low-rate mortgages they acquired during the pandemic. If they were to buy anew, their new mortgage would carry a much higher rate.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (nar.realtor), blames higher mortgage costs on the Federal Reserve, which has steadily lifted interest rates in hopes of calming inflation.

Yun claims that the Fed’s latest rate hike, on May 3, was unnecessary and is repressing housing sales.

“We have to stop the bleeding before improvement takes place. We need to get more inventory, and the long-term solution is more home building,” he says.

Though affordability is still a monumental challenge for would-be homeowners, they’re not backing off. Rather, they’re pushing ahead in hopes of finding that rare and well-priced property.

Here are a few pointers for buyers:

-- Acknowledge that not all sellers are equally motivated.

Tom Early, a former president of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents (naeba.org), says that although the overall economy is faring well, financial duress is still a common reason why many homeowners decide to sell their property.

Nash, a veteran real estate broker, advises buyers to determine as much as possible about the sellers’ situation before making an offer.

“More than 90% of the motivation for a deal comes from the sellers’ circumstances and has nothing to do with the buyer,” he says.

-- Request help from your agent on “due diligence.”

“Before making an offer on any property at any time, you’ll want to learn as much as possible about the sellers’ equity position,” Nash says.

He suggests that would-be purchasers ask their agent to research public records to determine when the present owners bought their house, what they paid and how big a mortgage they took out. Much of this information is freely available on the internet.

If they bought long before the big housing crash of 2008, the odds are good they still have substantial equity -- unless they gutted most of that with a big home-equity loan or a cash-out refinance.

“Sellers with lots of equity have much more latitude for bargaining. They can cut you a reasonable deal and still move away with a check in their pocket,” Early says.

-- Learn what you can from the seller’s listing agent.

Listing agents are sometimes surprisingly candid in responding to questions about their clients’ situations.

“If the owners are under extreme pressure to sell, the listing agent may even tell your agent their true bottom-line price to let the house go,” Early says.

But what if you find out the sellers are not under duress to sell quickly? That, too, can be useful in setting the pace for your negotiations.

“I remember when one of my clients tried to buy a family home from a retired couple who wanted to move to their vacation place. Because the sellers owned the house free and clear, they could afford to wait. So we paced our negotiations with their timing in mind,” Early recalls.

-- Don’t scratch stale properties off your list.

Have you fallen in love with a place that went on the market months ago at a bloated price? Are you confident the sellers must move soon and will eventually have to take a price cut to get their place sold?

If so, Early urges you to prepare to submit an immediate bid on the property as soon as its owners face reality and take their reduction. Make sure you have a preapproval letter from a reputable lender showing you have the income and good credit to go through with the deal.

“Sellers who’ve just sobered up and finally cut their price to a realistic level will sometimes succumb to a substantial reduction. It’s at that moment that you should pounce quickly with your fair offer,” Early says.

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

A hairstylist and his federal contractor wife -- both in their 30s -- lucked out when they bought their small Spanish-style house in January 2020. That was before the pandemic-fueled housing market frenzy pushed up prices. They’ve already amassed substantial equity in the place.

Now, the couple craves larger quarters. But they’re reluctant to trade up to a different house, given that they have a very low-rate mortgage, and a new first mortgage would undoubtedly cost them more in monthly interest charges.

“We’d be fools to trade our sweet 2.5% mortgage for one that would likely be over 6%,” the stylist says.

This couple is now exploring an alternative. They’re now working with an architect to design an addition that would add about 600 square feet to their current property.

“We love to have parties, and it would be great having an ‘indoor-outdoor’ room where we could host friends for brunches and barbecues. Our backyard is large and flat so this would be a relatively straightforward addition,” the stylist says.

The couple has already ruled out tapping equity for the renovation through the classic refinance of their first mortgage, which has more than $300,000 still outstanding. Instead, they’re pondering a home equity line of credit (HELOC), a type of second mortgage that works like a revolving credit line and is secured by a property.

“Of course, the interest rate on a HELOC would be higher than on a plain vanilla refi. But our loan amount would be far smaller. We only need about $30,000 for the addition,” the stylist says.

Demand for HELOC is very gradually building among millennial homeowners, according to Marc Zitelman, a mortgage broker who has worked in the lending field since 2002. He says many young adults, including those with growing families, would like to tap their equity but are reluctant to face the interest rate penalties associated with moving.

“Owners don’t want to disturb that low-rate primary mortgage they have,” he says.

Here are a few pointers for HELOC borrowers:

-- Research the HELOC market.

“It’s best to think through what you want before you shop around for the best type of home loan for your needs,” says Keith Gumbinger, a vice president at HSH Associates, which tracks mortgage markets throughout the United States.

As a first step, buyers can inform themselves through online resources. For instance, Gumbinger suggests that mortgage shoppers seek home loan information through his firm’s website: hsh.com.

-- Don’t settle for a lender offering shoddy service.

Gerri Detweiler, a consumer finance blogger and author of “The Ultimate Credit Handbook,” encourages first-time buyers to seek a lender who will instruct them on the complexities of all types of home loans.

“In just 30 to 60 minutes spent with a friendly lender, you can learn a lot about the fundamentals and maybe even get help to identify and fix flaws on your credit reports,” Detweiler says.

How do you find an empathic lender?

Gumbinger says real estate agents are often a good source for names. But he advises you to look beyond their suggestions.

“If you reach out in your neighborhood, you’ll probably find someone down the street who’s bought a house or refinanced lately. You can also canvass friends and family,” he says.

-- Arrive at your lender’s office prepared.

To save time, there’s no substitute for gathering key documents in advance of your meeting. Ideally, these should include recent pay stubs, your latest W-2s and a couple of years’ worth of federal tax returns, as well as bank and savings account statements.

Gumbinger says an in-person tutorial will help you clarify the whole lending situation and bring it into sharper focus.

What if the lender you contact resists your request for a tutorial? In that case, he says you should move on to another lender.

“You deserve to have all your questions answered in plain English,” Gumbinger says.

-- Look into your credit standing to get the best available mortgage rate.

Under federal law, you're entitled to one free credit report every 12 months from the three largest credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You can easily request these online (annualcreditreport.com).

In addition to your credit reports you'll want to access your "credit scores." Such scores, which draw on data from the credit bureaus, seek to provide lenders with a quantitative measure of credit risk. Most lenders still use FICO scores, pioneered by the Fair Isaac Corp.

You may not need to pay a fee to obtain your credit scores because some banks and credit unions are now offering them free of charge. Another way is to buy them through the Fair Isaac website (myfico.com). In addition, you can also obtain them directly through the three large credit bureaus. FICO scores range from 300 to 850, and the higher the score, the greater your odds of getting the best available rate.

As Gumbinger says, you may want to begin the rate-shopping process with the lender who tutored you on the basics. But he urges you to extend your search beyond the first lender.

“The more the merrier when it comes to rate quotes. But always remember you’re looking for competent service along with low rates,” Gumbinger says.

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