Homebuyers are proving to have some pretty thick skin.

Home prices are still rising, supply is getting leaner, mortgage rates are going up and competition is intense.

Yet despite all the headwinds, buyers seem to be largely resolute.

“Buyer demand is still there and strong,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at Redfin. “The only thing slowing demand is the lack of things to buy.”

Homes sold 7% faster in March compared to a year ago, according to realtor.com, while prices were 8% higher. At the same time, housing supply was down 8%.

Related: Renting vs. Buying: What can you afford?

And it doesn’t look like the search will be getting easier anytime soon.

“Very strong home prices are due to a real lack of supply … and prices are likely to continue to run well above inflation and income growth all over the country,” said Leonard Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac.

The rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage climbed to 4.47% last week, the highest level since 2014.

“The same $250,000 budget won’t buy what it would have bought you last year,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist for realtor.com. “But people are still finding ways to make that $250,000 work.”

Experts predict rates will climb to around 5% by the end of the year. That could be the thing that finally cools off the market and pushes some buyers onto the sidelines, according to Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com.

“There is an important psychological point when you cross 5%,” he said.

But buyers aren’t giving up yet.

Related: Looking to buy your first home? Good luck with that

Chris Gaudreau and his fiancé, moved up their plans to buy a home as they watched prices and interest rates move higher.

“We figured we had to pull the trigger before we get priced out of the market,” Gaudreau, 39, said.

They were looking in the Denver area and set a budget of $400,000, but were really hoping to stay around the $380,000 mark. They started their house hunt in February, and the search was intense.

Their mornings started with reviewing new inventory that hit the market overnight. On good days, there would be 20 new listings. But on other mornings there were no new homes available.

“That was frustrating,” he recalled. He estimated that they looked at more than 70 homes over five weeks. Once they saw nine in a single day.

Their list of “must haves” evolved over their search as they came face-to-face with the reality of what was available.

“It was insane and so much pressure. And if you liked something, you couldn’t go home and sleep on it — you had to put an offer in right away,” he said.

Related: Home sellers are making huge profits. So why aren’t more selling?

The lack of homes on the market is constraining sales as sellers are hesitant to list.

Supply at the starter home level is particularly weak in markets across the country.

“Entry-level buyers are going to have the biggest challenge because that is where inventory declines have continued to decline the most, and that is where the market is most competitive,” said Hale.

Selling the home will likely be easy, but finding a place to move into is another story.

Plus, many current homeowners have likely refinanced to lock in rock-bottom rates, and taking out a new mortgage could mean higher borrowing terms.

Home buyers need to act fast when they find a home. Last year, almost a quarter of all homes sold for more than the asking price, according to a recent report from Zillow.

That’s one reason experts recommend knowing exactly how much you can afford and are comfortable spending on a home. It’s also a good idea to get pre-approved for a loan to make your offer stronger and be ready to move right away.

Gaudreau and his fiancé ended up bidding on eight houses. Their winning offer was for a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half home in Aurora. The home was listed at $360,000 and they offered $370,000. They are set to close this week.

Are you currently looking to buy a house or recently become a homeowner? We want to hear from you. Tell us about your experience and you could be included in a future story

CNNMoney (New York) First published April 25, 2018: 10:13 AM ET

If you’re hoping to buy a home in Seattle, be prepared for rejection.

A lot of it.

Homes frequently sell for well over asking and receive multiple offers.

“For buyers, we are typically making six to 10 offers before we get a house,” said Rob McGarty, who has been a real estate agent in Seattle for 14 years. “The amount of emotional energy going into preparing these offers is huge.”

Home prices in Seattle are on fire: rising nearly 13% in February from the same time a year ago, according to the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.

Prices have risen so fast that it’s led to an affordability crisis, with no relief in site.

“Seattle seems to be defying all the laws of housing market trends,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at real estate data firm ATTOM.

Related: Home prices are on an epic run

The problem is simple: there are more people looking to buy homes than there are homes available for sale.

Seattle’s population has been rapidly growing recently thanks in part to its large homegrown businesses like Amazon (AMZN) and Starbucks (SBUX).

Amazon in particular has played a major role in Seattle’s economic growth and strength. The company employs more than 40,000 workers at its Seattle headquarters and pays out nearly $26 billion in compensation.

“Amazon has amassed a huge talent pool of employees that has caused other companies to open offices here,” said McGarty. “We have a ton of [San Francisco] Bay area companies that now have offices in Seattle … those transplants have driven prices up.”

Home values in King County, which is where Amazon is located, have appreciated twice as fast as the national average, according to Blomquist. Average annual home price appreciation from 1995 (when Amazon first launched) to 2018 was 6%, according to ATTOM. Over the same time period, the national average was just 3%.

Life as a buyer

After months of online searching, open houses and having several offers rejected, Kayela Robertson and her husband, Cody, had hit their limit.

She said it was common to see the homes they lost out on go on to sell for at least $100,000 over the asking price with multiple offers. They were about to expand their search radius when they made their seventh offer.

“If we were going to be in Seattle, we had joked that we needed to get this house. This was the make it or break it offer,” she said. “If we didn’t, I would have to cave and move farther out.”

Fortunately, their seventh offer was accepted. To close the deal, they offered $140,000 more than the list price of $590,000. They also dropped all contingencies, included an escalation clause, put $100,000 in escrow and promised to close within two weeks.

Related: Looking to buy your first home? Good luck with that

The couple sold their home in Spokane in January for full asking price, and the money from the sale helped make their offer competitive. They closed on the new home a month ago.

“The house we sold was much nicer and bigger and was much less [than the Seattle home],” Robertson said. “It is still an adjustment that we are paying more than two times more for this house.”

Where Seattle goes from here

Despite being a seller’s market, Seattle homeowners are hesitant to sell.

Last year, the city was among the best markets to sell a home, and the average home seller return on investment was 64%, according to ATTOM. But even if they get a good price, sellers are struggling to find a home to trade up to.

While the demand is clearly there, there’s only so much room to build in Seattle. It’s bounded by water and mountains.

The city also has strict regulations when it comes to building apartment and condos, and 70% of the land mass in the city is zoned for single family homes, according to Matthew Gardner, chief economist at Windermere Real Estate.

“We aren’t very dense at all,” he said.

The home affordability problem could make the city less appealing to businesses. The city recently passed a new tax on big businesses that will help pay for affordable housing and fight homelessness.

At some point, the housing affordability issues and high cost of living, plus the new business tax, could cause companies to think twice about starting or expanding in Seattle.

“The two most important things when companies think about growing in a market is whether there is a suitable talent pool and how much they have to pay people, and the biggest part of salary is the local cost of living,” said Gardner.

CNNMoney (New York) First published May 16, 2018: 12:08 PM ET

I want to buy my first house, but I live in an expensive area and I don’t want to end up house poor. What can I do to lower my monthly mortgage payments?—Frank

The leap into homeownership is a big change, especially on your finances.

Buying a home is likely the biggest purchase you’ll ever make, so it’s important to keep your payments in line with what you can afford.

When your mortgage eats up too much of your budget, it can affect your long-term financial security by limiting your ability to save for retirement, pay down debt or follow other dreams like traveling or starting a business.

The general rule of thumb is to aim to have your monthly housing costs add up to less than 30% of your monthly before-tax income.

No doubt that in the country’s more expensive housing markets that’s hard to do, but buyers can take steps to help reduce their housing payments.

Improve your credit score

Your credit score plays a major role with lenders in deciding the terms of your home loan (or whether they’ll give you one at all).

The better your score, the more likely you are to get a lower interest rate, which means you will be paying less over the life of your loan.

A credit score of 750 and up is generally considered excellent and will make you the most attractive borrower.

Calculate: How much home can your afford?

Home buyers with credit scores below 620 tend to have very high interest rates and risky features on their home loans, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

But a good credit score doesn’t happen overnight.

“It means that for a couple years before you really want to purchase a house, you start working to get your score as high as possible, said Nicole Theisen Strbich, a certified financial planner and director of financial planning with Buckingham Financial Group. “It’s not a switch you can flip.”

Start by reviewing your credit report to identify outstanding debt and create a game plan on how to reduce it as quickly as possible. Be sure to also look for any errors on your report since they can take time to fix.

Shop around … a lot

When it comes to getting a mortgage, it pays to shop around.

The interest rate for similar loans can vary by more than half of one percentage point from one lender to another, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And while that number might sound small, it can save you thousands of dollars over the life of your mortgage.

The difference between the average person’s mortgage rate and the lowest rate available to them came to an extra $300 a year, a CFPB report found. That means paying an extra $9,000 over a 30-year mortgage.

Get quotes from a variety of lenders, traditional banks, online-only banks and community banks to find the best rate, the experts advised.

Don’t worry about hurting your credit score: Multiple credit checks from mortgage lenders within a 45-day window are recorded on your credit report as a single inquiry.

Related: 4 things first-time homebuyers need to know

Put down a large down payment

The larger your down payment, the less you need to borrow and the smaller your monthly mortgage payments will be.

It also means paying less in total interest.

If you can put down at least 20% of the home price, you can also avoid paying private mortgage insurance — which protects the lender in case you default — saving thousands of dollars a year.

If you put more money down, you can also avoid paying points and other loan fees.

While you’re saving to hit that 20% mark, be sure to keep those funds safe.

“If you are planning on purchasing in the next five years, save it in a place not subject to stock market volatility,” recommended Strbich. “Find the highest interest-bearing account with FDIC insurance. Online banks are a great option for that.”

Think shorter

The 30-year fixed rate mortgage is the most common home loan, but there are other options available.

“I try to steer young people away from 30-year mortgages,” said John Cooper, certified financial planner in South Carolina. “The extended maturity on the loan gives buyers a lower monthly payment, but it may in reality cause them to buy more of a home than they can afford.”

A 15-year mortgage comes with higher monthly payments, but also has a lower interest rate, which can bring significant savings.

Related: Looking to buy your first home? Good luck with that

Shorter loans also mean more of your payments are going toward the principal of your loan and less toward interest compared to a 30-year loan, so you’ll build equity faster.

For some buyers, an adjustable-rate mortgage could also make sense.

ARMs offer a fixed, lower interest rate for a set period of time. But after that introductory period expires, the rate can rise (or drop) to current rates. So it’s important to evaluate the risks and make sure your income will be able to cover a higher interest rate.

Cooper said an ARM could work for buyers who know they won’t be living in the home long term, or are in occupations where they aren’t making a lot of money at the start, but will see a significant increase in a few years.

CNNMoney (New York) First published May 24, 2018: 12:00 PM ET