There are two kinds of regret in real estate. The regret of doing something. And the regret of not doing something. Most people fear the first. The data consistently shows they should pay more attention to the second.
If you're a Saratoga Springs homeowner sitting on a decision — whether to buy, sell, move up, or stay put — this post is for you. Not because there's a right answer. But because the fear of regret is shaping decisions in ways that the actual numbers don't support.
The Seller Who Waited Too Long
The most documented pattern in real estate regret belongs to sellers.
A survey by Realtor.com and Censuswide found that 79% of recent home sellers believe they would have been able to take advantage of a hotter housing market had they listed sooner. More than 80% of those planning to sell had been considering it for between one and three years before they finally listed. Three years of deliberation. One year of regret.
Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, described the pattern this way: "Plenty of homeowners have been eagerly waiting for mortgage rates to come down so that they can sell their current home and more affordably upgrade to a new one." The wait is understandable. But the data suggests it often costs more than the thing being waited for.
In Saratoga Springs specifically, homes spent an average of 80 days on the market in December 2025 — up from 41 days the prior year. That's a market where sellers who overpriced or delayed are feeling it. As I covered in my Saratoga Springs overpricing guide, the sellers who waited for the "perfect moment" in 2021–2022 and are now listing are often doing so in a meaningfully different market.
The regret isn't always about price. Sometimes it's about life. A seller who stayed in a home they'd outgrown for two extra years because rates weren't right didn't get those years back.
The Buyer Who Waited for Prices to Drop
The mirror image of seller regret belongs to buyers — particularly those who waited on the sidelines for conditions to improve.
A November 2024 survey of 1,000 millennials conducted by Clever Real Estate for Newsweek found that 67% of Americans who don't yet own a home regret not buying one when prices were lower. Two-thirds. Not buying when they had the chance is now one of the most commonly reported financial regrets in the country.
A 2025 Clever Real Estate survey of recent buyers found that 87% are happy they purchased when they did — despite challenges, despite rates, despite uncertainty. The fear of buying was worse than the reality of buying.
And for those who held out, the picture is often harder. From community discussions across r/Utah and r/SaltLakeCity, the pattern is consistent: people who were seriously considering buying in Saratoga Springs in 2019 or 2020, decided to wait for a better time, and are now watching those same homes sell for $150,000–$200,000 more. The "better time" they waited for never came.
One perspective that circulates regularly in real estate forums comes from a post on Real Estate in Austin that captures it well: "I don't often hear people say they regret buying real estate. On the contrary, I hear far more often, 'I wish I'd bought real estate.'" The author notes that in hindsight, there are very few periods of time that weren't a great time to buy — with the notable exception of 2006–2010. Saratoga Springs in 2019 or 2020 now looks obvious in hindsight. It didn't feel obvious then.
The Seller Who Regretted Selling
This side of the equation deserves equal airtime, because it's real too.
According to Clever Real Estate's 2025 American Home Buyer Report, 65% of buyers have at least one regret about their home purchase — with the most common being financial. One in five regret taking an interest rate that was too high. One in eight feel they spent too much.
The sellers who acted at the height of the 2021–2022 frenzy and immediately bought something else at peak prices with a higher rate sometimes find themselves in this category. The sale was well-timed. The purchase that followed it was not.
There are also sellers who sold for life reasons — a job move, a divorce, a family situation — and found that the emotional relief of the move was worth more than the financial optimization they left on the table. Not all regret is financial. Some sellers regret the house itself more than the timing.
The pattern in community conversations — on Saratoga Springs Facebook groups, on Nextdoor, and in Utah County real estate forums — is that the sellers most at peace with their decisions are those who sold for a clear reason (a life need, a financial goal, a defined next step) rather than those who tried to time the market perfectly and rarely felt satisfied with the result.
What Frozen Looks Like — and What It Costs
A 2024 IPX1031 homeownership survey found that 45% of current homeowners now consider their homes to be their permanent residence because of their interest rate. Not because the home is perfect. Because the rate makes moving feel impossible.
And a 2026 IPX1031 survey found that 41% of homeowners say high interest rates have led them to view their current house as a forever home — up seven percentage points from the prior year.
That's a lot of people living in homes that don't fit their life, because the fear of a worse financial outcome is greater than the discomfort of the current one.
The cost of staying frozen is rarely calculated. It usually looks like:
- Extra years in a home you've outgrown, waiting for rates that may not return
- Watching your equity sit while life continues to change around it
- Delaying a move that life circumstances were already calling for
- Missing a window in the destination market while waiting for a perfect exit from the current one
None of these costs show up on a mortgage statement. But they're real.
The Framework That Actually Helps
The research is clear on what distinguishes people who feel good about their real estate decisions from those who don't. It's not timing. It's clarity about the reason.
Sellers who sold because they had a specific next step — a defined home they were moving toward, a financial goal they were working toward, a life change they were responding to — are far more likely to feel settled about the decision than sellers who sold trying to catch a market peak.
Buyers who bought because the home fit their life and their budget — not because they thought they were buying at the perfect moment — are far more likely to report satisfaction even when the market moved against them afterward.
The fear of regret isn't the problem. The problem is making decisions out of fear of the wrong kind of regret.
The seller who stays for two more years waiting for rates to drop may be avoiding the regret of a higher payment. But they may be accumulating a different regret — of time spent in the wrong home, in the wrong life stage, waiting for a market that never cooperated.
The buyer who waits for prices to fall before buying in Saratoga Springs may be avoiding the regret of paying too much. But they may be accumulating the regret of sitting on the sidelines while the community they wanted to be part of continued without them.
What This Looks Like in Saratoga Springs Right Now
Saratoga Springs is a community where families choose to put down roots deliberately. The decision to buy or sell here is rarely casual. And because the stakes feel high, the fear of regret tends to be acute.
The buyers who are at peace with their decisions in this market are those who got a real picture of what the home was worth, understood their financing options completely — including assumable mortgages and what today's payment actually looks like with their down payment — and made a decision grounded in their actual life, not a projected market.
The sellers who are at peace are those who knew their home's real value — not a Zestimate, but an MLS-based valuation — priced it correctly, and moved for a reason that was real.
Neither group timed the market perfectly. They just made a clear-eyed decision and moved forward.
That's the antidote to the fear of regret. Not perfect information. Not perfect timing. A real understanding of where you are, where you want to go, and whether this move serves that.
Want to Know Where You Actually Stand?
If you're in that in-between place — thinking about buying or selling in Saratoga Springs but not sure the timing is right — the most useful thing isn't more waiting. It's more information.
I'll put together a personalized home valuation for your Saratoga Springs home — based on real MLS data, not automated estimates — within 48 hours. No pressure. Just an honest number to work from.
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Related reading:
- Why Your Zestimate Is Wrong in Utah — Saratoga Springs Edition
- What Does Overpricing Do to Your Saratoga Springs Home?
- Should You Sell If You Have a Low Interest Rate?
- What Is an Assumable Mortgage and Could It Help?
- What Can You Get in Saratoga Springs Under $500,000 in 2026?
Sources: Realtor.com/Censuswide seller regret survey via The Almanac, April 2024; Newsweek — Millennial homebuying regrets, February 2025; Clever Real Estate — 2025 American Home Buyer Report; IPX1031 — 2024 Homeownership Data Report; IPX1031 — 2026 Homeownership Statistics; Real Estate in Austin — I Regret Buying Real Estate; Redfin — Saratoga Springs housing market data, December 2025.