Market Trends

Buyer Tips & Strategy, First-Time Home Buyer Tips, Market Trends, Real Estate Market Stats and Info

With Home Values Surging, Is it Still Affordable to Buy Right Now?

Housing inventory is at an all-time low. Realtor.com just reported that there are 39% fewer homes for sale today than there were last year. At the same time, buyer demand remains strong. In a recent newsletter, research analyst Ivy Zelman explained: “Although the headwind of severe supply constraints in most markets has contributed to slight moderation in seasonally-adjusted and year-over-year new […]
Buyer Tips & Strategy, Market Trends, Real Estate Market Stats and Info, Seller Tips & Strategy

A New Way to Shop for Homes in a Virtual World

In a year when we’re learning to do so much remotely, homebuying is no exception. From going to work to attending school, grocery shopping, and even seeing our doctors online, digital practices have changed the way we live. This year, rather than delaying their home purchases, buyers – alongside their trusted real estate professionals – […]
1st Time Home Buyer, Buyer Tips & Strategy, Market Trends

Buyer Interest Is Growing among Younger Generations

The demand for homes this year is extraordinary as record-breaking numbers of hopeful buyers continue to shop for homes. In a normal year, the peak homebuying season comes to a close by early fall. However, 2020 is anything but a normal year, and the housing market is no exception. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of […]
1st Time Home Buyer, Buyer Tips & Strategy, Market Trends, Seller Tips & Strategy

Housing Market on Track to Beat Last Year’s Success

Back in March, as the nation’s economy was shut down because of the coronavirus, many were predicting the real estate market would face a major collapse. Some forecasts called for a 15-20% decline in transactions. However, six months later, it seems as though the housing market has fully recovered. Mark Fleming, Chief Economist at First American, announced last week: “Since […]

Buyer Tips & Strategy With Home Values Surging, Is it Still Affordable to Buy Right Now? Housing inventory is at an all-time low. Realtor.com just reported that there are 39% fewer homes for sale today than there were last year. At the same time, buyer demand remains strong. In a recent newsletter, research analyst Ivy Zelman explained: “Although the headwind of severe supply constraints in most markets has contributed to slight moderation in seasonally-adjusted and year-over-year new […]

Buyer Tips & Strategy A New Way to Shop for Homes in a Virtual World In a year when we’re learning to do so much remotely, homebuying is no exception. From going to work to attending school, grocery shopping, and even seeing our doctors online, digital practices have changed the way we live. This year, rather than delaying their home purchases, buyers – alongside their trusted real estate professionals – […]

1st Time Home Buyer Buyer Interest Is Growing among Younger Generations The demand for homes this year is extraordinary as record-breaking numbers of hopeful buyers continue to shop for homes. In a normal year, the peak homebuying season comes to a close by early fall. However, 2020 is anything but a normal year, and the housing market is no exception. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of […]

1st Time Home Buyer Housing Market on Track to Beat Last Year’s Success Back in March, as the nation’s economy was shut down because of the coronavirus, many were predicting the real estate market would face a major collapse. Some forecasts called for a 15-20% decline in transactions. However, six months later, it seems as though the housing market has fully recovered. Mark Fleming, Chief Economist at First American, announced last week: “Since […]

1st Time Home Buyer Builders & Realtors Agree: Real Estate Is Back When shelter-in-place orders brought the economy to a screeching halt earlier this year, many believed the residential housing market would follow suit. Countless analysts predicted buyer demand would disappear and home values would depreciate for the first time in almost a decade. That, however, didn’t happen. It appears the opposite is taking place. After the […]

Market Trends The Latest Unemployment Report: Slow and Steady Improvement Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its latest Employment Situation Summary. Going into the release, the expert consensus was for 1.58 million jobs to be added in July, and for the unemployment rate to fall to 10.5%. When the official report came out, it revealed that 1.8 million jobs were added, and the unemployment rate fell to 10.2% (from 11.1% […]

Buyer Tips & Strategy Why Foreclosures Won’t Crush the Housing Market Next Year With the strength of the current housing market growing every day and more Americans returning to work, a faster-than-expected recovery in the housing sector is already well underway. Regardless, many are still asking the question: will we see a wave of foreclosures as a result of the current crisis? Thankfully, research shows the number of foreclosures is expected to be much […]

Buyer Tips & Strategy Homes Are More Affordable Right Now Than They Have Been in Years Today, home prices are appreciating. When we hear prices are going up, it’s normal to think a home will cost more as the trend continues. The way the housing market is positioned today, however, low mortgage rates are actually making homes more affordable, even as prices rise. Here’s why. According to the Mortgage Monitor Report from Black Knight: “While home […]

Buyer Tips & Strategy Homeownership Rate Continues to Rise in 2020 So far, it’s been quite a ride this year, and our nation has truly seen its fair share of hurdles. From COVID-19 to record unemployment and then the resulting recession, just to name a few, the second quarter of 2020 has had more than a few challenges. Amidst the many roadblocks, however, the U.S. homeownership […]

1st Time Home Buyer Guidance and Support Are Key When Buying Your First Home In June, the number of first-time homebuyers accounted for 35% of the existing homes sold, a trend that’s been building steadily throughout the year. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR): “The share of first-time buyers increased in March through June—right into the heart of the pandemic period and the surge in unemployment—and is now trending […]

Market Trends Thinking of Selling Your House? Now May be the Right Time Inventory is arguably the biggest challenge for buyers in today’s housing market. There are simply more buyers actively looking for homes to purchase than there are sellers selling them, so the scale is tipped in favor of the sellers. According to the latest Existing Home Sales Report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), total housing inventory is down […]

Coronavirus Two Reasons We Won’t See a Rush of Foreclosures This Fall The health crisis we face as a country has led businesses all over the nation to reduce or discontinue their services altogether. This pause in the economy has greatly impacted the workforce and as a result, many people have been laid off or furloughed. Naturally, that would lead many to believe we might see a […]

Buyer Tips & Strategy A Real Estate Pro Is More Helpful Now than Ever Some Highlights A recent study shared by NAR notes that both buyers and sellers think an agent is more helpful than ever during the current health crisis. Expertise and professionalism are highly valued and can save buyers and sellers time and effort along the way. If you’re thinking of buying or selling a home this year, let’s […]

Investor Tips & Strategy Americans Rank Real Estate Best Investment for 7 Years Running [INFOGRAPHIC] Some Highlights Real estate has outranked stocks, savings accounts, and gold as the best long-term investment among Americans for the past 7 years. The belief in the stability of housing as a long-term investment remains strong, despite the many challenges our economy faces today. Of the four listed, real estate is also the only investment you can also […]

Buyer Tips & Strategy What Are Experts Saying about Home Prices? Last week, a very well-respected real estate analytics firm surprised many with their home price projection for the next twelve months. CoreLogic, in their latest Home Price Index said: “The economic downturn that started in March 2020 is predicted to cause a 6.6% drop in the HPI by May 2021, which would be the first decrease in annual […]

Buyer Tips & Strategy Mortgage Rates Hit Record Lows for Three Consecutive Weeks Over the past several weeks, Freddie Mac has reported the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropping to record lows, all the way down to 3.03%. Last week’s reported rate reached the lowest point in the history of the survey, which dates back to 1971 (See graph below): What does this mean for buyers? This is huge for homebuyers. Those […]

Coronavirus New Index Reveals Impact of COVID-19 on Real Estate Earlier this month, realtor.com announced the release of their initial Housing Recovery Index, a weekly guide showing how the pandemic has impacted the residential real estate market. The index leverages a weighted average of four key components of the housing industry, tracking each of the following: Housing Demand – Growth in online search activity Home Price – Growth in asking […]

Coronavirus What Are Experts Saying About the Rest of 2020? One of the biggest questions on everyone’s minds these days is: What’s going to happen to the housing market in the second half of the year? Based on recent data on the economy, unemployment, real estate, and more, many economists are revising their forecasts for the remainder of 2020 – and the outlook is extremely encouraging. Here’s […]

Coronavirus A Historic Rebound for the Housing Market Pending Home Sales increased by 44.3% in May, registering the highest month-over-month gain in the index since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) started tracking this metric in January 2001. So, what exactly are pending home sales, and why is this rebound so important? According to NAR, the Pending Home Sales Index (PHS) is: “A leading indicator of housing activity, […]

Market Trends Is a Recession Here? Yes. Does that Mean a Housing Crash? No. On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) announced that the U.S. economy is officially in a recession. This did not come as a surprise to many, as the Bureau defines a recession this way: “A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, normally visible in production, employment, and other indicators. A recession begins when […]