On the house hunt? Here are some of the most affordable areas in the Valley

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- For the first time since 2002, the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage is above 7%, and it will likely continue to climb after the Fed announced another rate hike Wednesday afternoon. For some buyers, the sticker shock is forcing them to put the house hunt on hold, but it doesn’t have to.

“There are still affordable single-family homes out there,” said Trevor Halpern, a Phoenix-based real estate agent. “When you look at the most affordable neighborhoods, the median home sale price is somewhere in the mid-$450,000s,” he said.

Located near Downtown Phoenix, Garfield is one of the most affordable neighborhoods, with a median home sale price of $435,000 dollars. In the Deer Valley neighborhood, it’s $455,000 dollars, according to data from mid-September. Buyers have options outside of Phoenix city limits, too:

• Buckeye - Median Home Sales Price: $442,950
• Glendale - Median Home Sales Price: $440,000
• Mesa - Median Home Sales Price: $460,000
• Peoria - Median Home Sales Price: $512,500
• Tempe - Median Home Sales Price: $452,500

“What’s really interesting about the neighborhoods that fall in that price range is they are all really established areas of town,” Halpern said. “They’re places with bigger yards. They’re places with homes that have been around for a while. They’re places that are a little bit more central to each area.”

As the holiday season approaches, there’s something else buyers and sellers have to factor into the equation. “As soon as people start smelling turkey in the oven, they start slowing down their home search, and that ends about the second week in January, so if you’re an active buyer out there, you typically have a better pick of things because competition has gone away,” Halpern said. “If you’re the one that keeps your home on the market, if you’re the one that is staying the course, you have a higher likelihood of connecting with one of those really motivated buyers that’s out there buying during the holiday season.”

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