The increased amount of time we are spending at home makes the residence more intrinsically valuable than at any time in people’s lives today. Coupled with record-low interest rates, new and existing home sales and refinance lending volumes continue to grow – with total residential lending now forecast by Fannie Mae to hit a record …Read more
Talk to almost any homebuyer today and ask the top hurdles facing them, it is all but guaranteed that affordability hits at or near top of their list of challenges. A strong headwind for homebuyers in the past 12-months was the 11.4 percent jump in the median sales price of existing homes when comparing August …Read more
It’s an election year, so things are always different – correct? Housing sales will be down no matter what? Right? The high-end market always slows – right? Both are myths – but are they true? MythBusters was one of my favorite TV shows years ago, but analyzing these housing sales myths is not going to …Read more
Each month Fannie Mae and the MBA forecast interest rates, residential lending, and both existing and new home sales. Freddie Mac does a quarterly forecast covering lending, interest rates and total home sales – existing plus new. The following tables summarize the latest forecasts as of June 2020. Interest Rates Differing expectations of interest rates …Read more
The economic impact of the Coronavirus varies from one city to the next just like medical symptoms and severity of those infected by the virus differs from one person to another. A myriad of factors affect how each local housing market will respond under these pressures and economic uncertainties. My favorite economic and real estate …Read more
In this day and age of mathematical precision and faster-than-light calculation speeds, answering the question as to existing home sales numbers and direction almost makes one stutter. The following bullets summarize November existing home sales statistics. Pick a number — pick any number — and what you saying is probably correct. Each of these data …Read more
While the U.S. has seen all-time record-high employment, the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, and rising wages, home sales stuttered in 2018 and the first half of 2019 due to affordability. Home price increases in the past decade have out-sprinted income gains, negatively impacting affordability. Prices changes are not uniform nor consistent across the …Read more
Falling interest rates have, at least for now, taken off some of the pressure of rising home prices in the affordability equation. The U.S. quarterly existing single-family median home price rose to a record $279,600 in Q2 2019, a 12-month gain of 4.3 percent according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR). The following table …Read more
Summary – Combined Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac-Mortgage Bankers Association Forecast July 2019 Existing Home Sales – -Change from Prior Year +0.3 Percent 2019, Median Price Up 3.1 Percent +1.7 Percent 2020, Median Price Up 3.1 Percent New Home Sales – Change from Prior Year +6.5 Percent 2019, Median Price Up 1.1 Percent +0.4 Percent 2020, Median …Read more
For most people the housing question is either to rent or buy. Buying is not for everyone, however. It has material transactions costs, typically requires a down payment, pre-requisite for relatively good credit and an income net of existing debt service to pay the monthly principle and interest along with property taxes, insurance, homeowner or …Read more