CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates once again this week, as Americans continue to deal with continued inflation.

The Federal Reserve is projected to approve a 0.25 percentage point increase, which means Americans will have to pay a higher price to borrow.

22News spoke with a local real estate agent about what this means for people looking to buy a home.

“The number one thing that buyers should be doing is understanding the numbers,” Steven Laplante of ERA M. Connie Laplante Real Estate recommends. “It’s not just going to the lender and finding out how much you can get as a pre-approval, but to make sure that you are comfortable with that monthly payment.”

Since last March, when the Federal Reserve began raising rates, the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage has increased from 4.40% to 6.66%.