ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – “I feel very lucky right now to have the house because I don’t know how people are doing it right now,” said Kelsey Norris.

Kelsey Norris and her family have been in their Albuquerque home for five years, and she’s grateful they were able to purchase it before the pandemic hit in 2020. They’ve started to think about upgrading, but the market hasn’t looked great.

“It’s unbelievable, I cannot believe what it’s like. Honestly, the house that we’re in is a little small for us, it would be nice to move into a larger house, but we’re priced out right now at this point,” she said.

Thousands of New Mexicans are in the same catch-22, and they have been for years. But Shelley Padilla with Realty One of New Mexico said things may be looking up.

“When there’s more on the market, sometimes the prices will maybe sometimes drop a little bit. We are noticing a little bit in dropping in the list price,” said Shelley.

Padilla says buyers have more options, and potentially more negotiating power, this year compared to last.

She claims there are about 1,000 more homes on the market in the metro than this time last year, and lending agent Marty Padilla said there was another good sign for buyers this past weekend.

“We saw rates come down to the lowest in almost a year. So in that aspect, you’re going to see a lot more people getting into the market to purchase homes,” said Marty.

Marty says there’s also hope for first-time home buyers. He added state programs are filling in more financial gaps and obstacles.

“Right now, the state has allowed and are assisting with down payment and closing costs. It’s not always been like that. They used to help with a certain percentage, but now they’re helping with down payment and closing costs,” Padilla said.

Even with the market moving in her direction, Norris said her family is going to wait it out just a little longer.

“We’re always checking Zillow, but right now we’re just trying to pay down our other debts, student loans things like that. Hopefully build up more cashflow so that maybe when the market gets a little bit better that’s something we can eventually think about,” said Norris.