Maria Hopkins, Maria Hopkins Associates

Whether you were for or against our president elect we all are routing for him now since our lives and our children’s lives depend on what happens now going forward. Hopefully values will stay the same. But we can not know the answer for sure. While the stock market hates uncertainty, the real estate market hates rate changes. While there has been a slight increase in rates, which affects refinances, the rates are still historically low and real estate continues to do well. The factors that will affect a purchaser’s ability to buy and for how much will be the cost of health insurance and student loans. Student loan debt will affect first time homebuyers which then affects buyers all the way up the chain.

The hope is that Trump will take into consideration the affect to the economy when figuring out what to do with health insurance and hopefully it won’t be too sudden or too drastic of a change. And as we’ve learned from history, a war could have a major impact. So let’s hope the Trump team will be more diplomatic as he sounded before the election.

Republicans that feared and disliked him before seem to be willing to become part of his team, probably to stay in the loop and help ensure our safety and the stability of the country.

The president is only as effective as those he surrounds himself with since he can’t do it alone. We can already see that everyone appears to be playing nice in the sandbox to unite the country and set an example for those who were all riled up during the election.

One can only hope that Trump will never intentionally do anything to negatively affect the real estate market because, let’s face it, that’s what he’s lived for his whole life- real estate.

We shall see.

Maria Hopkins, SRA, RA, is president at Maria Hopkins Associates, Spencer, Mass.