Is Now The Time to Buy or Sell A Home? Ft. Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather [BAQA]

Brown Ambition

iHeartPodcasts

Careers, Education, Self-improvement, Investing, Business

4.9 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The U.S. housing market feels impossible to navigate — high prices, rising taxes, low inventory, and mortgage rates that just won’t budge. This week on Brown Ambition, Mandi sits down with Daryl Fairweather, Chief Economist at Redfin, to cut through the noise and explain what’s really going on.

From the “lock-in effect” keeping homeowners stuck, to why renting may actually be more affordable than buying in many cities, Daryl offers insights grounded in both data and behavioral economics. She also shares practical advice for first-time buyers, discusses the hidden costs of homeownership, and explores how systemic challenges continue to impact Black and Brown communities.

And before she goes, Daryl gives us a sneak peek into her new book Hate the Game: Economic Cheat Codes for Life, Love and Work — an empowering take on how to use economics to outsmart unfair systems and claim your wins.

What You’ll Hear in This Episode:

Why so many homeowners feel “stuck” with low-rate mortgages
The growing affordability gap between buying and renting
How return-to-office mandates are reshaping housing choices
The hidden costs of owning a home (taxes, insurance, maintenance)
Programs that can help first-time and minority buyers
How zoning and local government decisions impact affordability
Why Black households are seeing declining homeownership rates
Insights from Daryl’s new book Hate the Game

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Transcript

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0:47.0	Hey, hey, BA fam.
0:48.5	Welcome back to Brown Ambition.
0:50.4	This is a very special episode.
0:52.0	I like to call the BAQA,
0:53.7	where we take your questions and try to offer some answers. And usually I will qualify that by saying answers with like a lowercase A. Please don't sue me. You know, no, I'm not your financial planner, not your investment advisor. Definitely not your real estate agent or your attorney. So, you know, just here, hosting a show for 10 years, talking to some badass
1:11.7	brown women about their finances and their career. But I am joined today by someone who is a bit of an
1:18.4	expert in her field, probably at the top of her field. And it's not every day you just talk to a badass
1:23.8	brown woman who is in economics and working at one of the largest real estate,
1:29.0	I don't know, technology firms in the country, but I am very honored to be joined today by
1:33.6	Darrell Fairweather. She is a chief economist at Redfin, and she's here to talk to us and hopefully
1:39.9	help us bring a little bit of sanity and understanding to what is actually happening in the U.S. housing market right now. So, Daryl, thank you so much for joining me on Brown Ambition. Thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted to be here. So tell us a little bit about what you do at Redfin. What does one as a chief economist, and especially in your particular kind, you said you focused a lot on behavioral economics. So what do you
2:01.2	up to over there at Redfin? Yes, I study the housing market. We have so much great data that I have access to at
	...

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