Affordability is the big issue in housing today. From 2010 to 2017, median household income rose from $49,445 to $61,372, up 24.1 percent. Median home prices, however, jumped from $172,400 to $259,600, a gain of 50.6 percent. Home values in this eight-year interval rose at more than double the rate of income, literally pricing many …Read more
The business of selling houses is not a small-change enterprise. Total existing home sales in 2018 tallied 5.34 million single family houses, condominiums and townhouses that sold at an average $298,200 each, tallying to $1.592 trillion. Add in the 617,000 new home sales at an average $385,000 per dwelling ($237.5 billion) and total dollar volume …Read more
Existing home sales are down 6.6 percent in the first three months of this year, but that is not deterring a positive outlook for the remainder of the year according to the April 2019 forecasts from Fannie Mae, Freddie and the Mortgage Bankers Association. Each month these three update and revise their forecasts for new …Read more
Interest rates rose each and every week in the past four weeks according to the Primary Mortgage Market Survey from Freddie Mac, with the 30-year, fixed-rate conventional loan hitting 4.20 percent the week ending April 25, 2019. Rates, however, were still 38 basis points less than 1 year ago when the conventional loan was at …Read more
New single family residential (SFR) home sales of 667,000 on seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR) in February far exceeded analyst expectations and were up 4.9 percent sequentially from January, but essentially unchanged from a year ago (up 0.6 percent). There were an estimated 318,000 new homes available for sale at the end of February 2019 …Read more
Change is inevitable and constantly occurring. While the speed of change varies, change goes on – another Axiom (truth) regarding the U.S. economy and demand for real estate. Each month, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association update and revise their forecasts for new and existing housing sales and median prices, with Fannie …Read more
One year ago the expectation was for rising interest rates and plunging refinance lending volumes. Yet as of March 28, 2019, the 30-year conventional mortgage interest rate fell 22 basis points from the prior week to 4.06 percent according to Freddie Mac’s Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The drop was the largest one-week decline seen …Read more
Existing home sales jumped 11.8 percent from January 2019 to February 2019 on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, the largest one-month gain seen since December 2015. Sales rose to 5.51 million on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis (SAAR) according to National Association of Realtors® (NAR). February sales, however, were off 1.8 percent on a year-over-year …Read more
Axioms are truths, and my primary Axiom is that Jobs Are everything to the economy and the ultimate demand for real estate. Period. That is also my speech topic for 2019. Hence the relevance of this blog. Job growth, however, is not systemic across the country by state, Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) or Division. Just …Read more
Millennials remain the largest homebuying segment for the fourth consecutive year in the U.S. As the largest population demographic ever in the country, where Millennials locate, live and work will impact the economic landscape of the country for decades to come. With a median age of 29, Millennials are not at the peak age of …Read more