Category: Real Estate

March’s Hot List: The 20 Top Performers | Realtor Magazine

Spring sprang early in the housing market this year. The buying season’s annual start came about a month earlier than usual. Homes in March are expected to sell 22 days faster than last month, or in 69 days, according to realtor.com®’s latest data release.

“Calendars might say this is the first week of spring, but we’re already right in the thick of the most frenzied spring home-buying season on record,” says Javier Vivas, manager of economic research at realtor.com®.

Would-be buyers are facing a dearth of choices this spring. For-sale housing inventories plunged to record lows, according to realtor.com®. About 492,000 new listings are expected to enter the market in March, but the added inventory is expected to fall short of buyer demand.

“While the story keeps revolving around low inventory, prices are now also taking center stage, reaching all-time highs and keeping waves of buyers at bay,” Vivas says.

The median list price is $260,000, which is 8 percent higher than it was one year ago.

Which metros are generating the most buzz? Realtor.com®’s economic data team identified the largest metro areas where homes are selling the fastest and garnering the most views at realtor.com®. California markets continue to dominate. Some new metros were added to this month’s list: Santa Cruz, Calif.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, Mich.

Spring sprang early in the housing market this year. The buying season’s annual start came about a month earlier than usual. Homes in March are expected to sell 22 days faster than last month, or in 69 days, according to realtor.com®’s latest data release.

Read more: Comeback Markets Among Housing’s Healthiest

“Calendars might say this is the first week of spring, but we’re already right in the thick of the most frenzied spring home-buying season on record,” says Javier Vivas, manager of economic research at realtor.com®.

Would-be buyers are facing a dearth of choices this spring. For-sale housing inventories plunged to record lows, according to realtor.com®. About 492,000 new listings are expected to enter the market in March, but the added inventory is expected to fall short of buyer demand.

“While the story keeps revolving around low inventory, prices are now also taking center stage, reaching all-time highs and keeping waves of buyers at bay,” Vivas says.

The median list price is $260,000, which is 8 percent higher than it was one year ago.

Which metros are generating the most buzz? Realtor.com®’s economic data team identified the largest metro areas where homes are selling the fastest and garnering the most views at realtor.com®. California markets continue to dominate. Some new metros were added to this month’s list: Santa Cruz, Calif.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, Mich.

Contract Signings Jump to Near Decade High | Realtor Magazine

Pending home sales posted a strong rebound in February, soaring to the highest level in nearly a year and the second highest level in more than a decade, the National Association of REALTORS® reported Wednesday. All major regions saw an uptick in sales contracts last month.

Sales Contracts By Region

Here’s how pending home sales fared across the country in February:

• Northeast: Pending home sales increased 3.4 percent to a reading of 102.1 on NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index. Pending home sales are now 6.6 percent higher than a year ago.
• Midwest: Pending home sales rose 11.4 percent to a reading of 110.8. Contract signings, however, remain 0.6 percent lower than a year ago.
• South: Pending home sales increased 4.3 percent to an index reading of 127.8. Contract signings are now 4.2 percent above February 2016.
• West: Pending home sales rose 3.1 percent last month to an index reading of 97.5. Pending home sales are just 0.2 percent higher than a year ago.

 

NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 5.5 percent month over month to an 112.3 reading in February. The index is now 2.6 percent higher than a year ago and is at the highest level since last April (113.6) and the second highest since May 2006 (112.5).

“Buyers came back in force last month as a modest, seasonal uptick in listings were enough to fuel an increase in contract signings throughout the country,” says Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist. “The stock market’s continued rise and steady hiring in most markets is spurring significant interest in buying, as well as the expectation from some households that delaying their home search may mean paying higher interest rates later this year.”

Further, the warmer-than-usual weather across the country may have helped give an earlier start to the spring buying season. Yun notes that last month was the warmest February in decades, which may have also “played a role in kick-starting prospective buyers’ house hunt.”

Yun expects activity to fluctuate over the spring season, however, as the lack of supply continues to limit the number of homes sold, particularly in the lower and mid-market price ranges.

“The homes most buyers are in the market for are unfortunately the most difficult to find and ultimately buy,” Yun says. “The country’s healthy labor market is translating to greater job security, but affordability is not improving because home prices in some areas are still outpacing incomes by three times or more because of tight supply. How much new and existing inventory there is on the market this spring will determine if sales can reach their full potential and finally start reversing the nation’s low homeownership rate.”   

The Home-Buying Process in 10 Simple Steps | realtor.com®

Wouldn’t it be great if buying a home were as simple as it is in a game of Monopoly? All you’d have to do is find a desirable neighborhood, hand the bank a few bucks, and you’d receive a house. Of course, the home-buying process is a bit more complicated in real life (especially for first-time home buyers), but it’s not impossible. Competition among buyers in many markets has gotten intense, so if you’re serious about homeownership, you’d better get your act together. To point you in the right direction, we’ve prepared a road map of the home-buying process. From choosing the right professionals to signing that final contract, here are the typical steps you need to be aware of.

Step No. 1: Chose an agent

Step No. 2: Find a lender

 

Step No. 3: Clean up your credit

 

Step No. 4: Apply for mortgage pre-approval

Step No. 5: Create a home wish list

Step No. 6: Search the listings

 

Step No. 7: Make an offer

Step No. 8: Get final mortgage approval

Step No. 9: Do your due diligence

 

Step No. 10: Attend the closing

Where Homes Sold the Fastest in February | Realtor Magazine

Forty-two percent of homes sold in February were listed for less than a month across the country, according to the latest data release from the National Association of REALTORS®. Properties, on average, stayed on the market for 45 days last month, down significantly from a year ago when the nationwide average stood at 59 days.

Some hot markets—notably in California—are seeing homes sell much faster than the national average.

The metro areas where listings stayed on the market the shortest amount of time in February, according to inventory data from realtor.com®, are:

Forty-two percent of homes sold in February were listed for less than a month across the country, according to the latest data release from the National Association of REALTORS®. Properties, on average, stayed on the market for 45 days last month, down significantly from a year ago when the nationwide average stood at 59 days.

 

Some hot markets—notably in California—are seeing homes sell much faster than the national average.

The metro areas where listings stayed on the market the shortest amount of time in February, according to inventory data from realtor.com®, are:

Home buyers must stand ready to face the competitive market this spring, NAR President William E. Brown warns. He emphasizes it’s important for buyers to get a preapproval from a lender, know their budget, and begin talking to a REALTOR® early on about their housing wants and needs.

“Homes in many areas are selling faster than they were last spring,” Brown says. “A buyer’s idea of a dream home in a popular neighborhood is probably the same as many others. That’s why they’ll likely have to decide quickly if they see something they like and can afford.”

Home buyers must stand ready to face the competitive market this spring, NAR President William E. Brown warns. He emphasizes it’s important for buyers to get a preapproval from a lender, know their budget, and begin talking to a REALTOR® early on about their housing wants and needs.

“Homes in many areas are selling faster than they were last spring,” Brown says. “A buyer’s idea of a dream home in a popular neighborhood is probably the same as many others. That’s why they’ll likely have to decide quickly if they see something they like and can afford.”

5 Tips for Buying a Home in Spring | Total Mortgage Underwritings Blog

While some may argue about what season is the best for real estate transactions, there’s no debating that some serious home buying buzz gets created every spring.

So if you’re a potential home buyer looking to get in on the action, read on and find out how to maximize your chances of moving into your dream home by summer.

Spring 2017: A Seller’s Market

One of the trends this spring is a lack of inventory. There’s almost always a flood of buyers in spring, which creates competition, but with a relative scarcity of new homes for sale the competition is compounded.

Spring 2017 is definitely a sellers market, so buyers need to act accordingly in order to optimize their chances of getting the home they want at a satisfactory price. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Be decisive

Just because it’s a sellers market doesn’t mean that they want to wait all day until they get the offer of their lives. Few homeowners like cleaning for showings and holding open houses for strangers to come and inspect every corner of their home.

That means if you show up to view homes right as they hit the market and proceed to swiftly make offers, you will probably be better off than buyers who are going to showings late in the weekend and hesitating to make offers.

As the saying goes: fortune favors the bold.

2. Prepare yourself for disappointment

Not to be a downer, but a competitive market means it’s likely that there will be several offers on the home.

A bidding war is riddled with uncertainty, as you never know who you’re going up against. Unless you’re planning on putting in an offer that’s well-above asking price, you face the very real possibility of losing the house to another buyer. It’s a fact of the home buying process, and it can be extremely frustrating.

One way to lessen the blow is to accept beforehand that it might happen.

It can be tough when you’re falling in love with a newly renovated bathroom or kitchen, but trying to stay emotionally unattached during the process can help mitigate stress, and will ultimately make for a more enjoyable home buying experience.

3. Make a strong offer

To build off of the previous tip, you’re definitely not doing yourself any benefit by tossing out low-ball offers in a seller’s market. With multiple offers on the table, sellers are less inclined to play games with buyers.

Everyone always wants to get the best deal on anything they’re buying, so it’s natural to want to see if you can haggle your way into a sale below asking price. And that might even work during other times of the year when there are less buyers, but it’s not a smart strategy in a seller’s market.

So take your time, think about things, and come in with a strong opening offer.

4. Give yourself some room to bid

It’s been established that there’s a very real possibility of getting into a bidding war. And while making a firm first offer is a step in the right direction, chances are you will have to go higher.

That’s why you should search for homes that are below the top-end of your budget. This way you can make a strong initial bid and still have room left to run, if need be. Looking at homes that are all at the limit of your budget can leave you feeling frustrated and dejected when you can’t compete with other bidders.

5. Get Pre-Approved

Sellers want to know that the buyers they are dealing with are for real. They are living in a world of unknowns, and have no idea about your income, credit score, or debt to income ratio.

That’s why you need to get pre-approved: so they know for sure that you are a qualified and capable buyer.

With so many buyers on the market it’s virtually guaranteed that you will be competing with borrowers who are pre-approved. And when it comes down to filtering out prospective buyers, anyone with a pre-approval has a much higher chance of making the cut.

Not only will it show that you are pre-approved at a certain loan amount, but it tells sellers that you are a serious house-hunter who isn’t going to delay the transaction.

Bottom Line

Spring is kicking into gear and that means many buyers and sellers are getting ready to make a deal. Buying a home this spring might be a challenge for some house-hunters, but if you follow the tips outlined above, the only thing you’ll have to worry about when summer comes are your tan lines.

Home Seller and Buyer Tips – bubbleinfo.com | bubbleinfo.com

Are you thinking of selling this year?

Here are some ideas to hopefully give you an edge in conquering what usually ends up being the 1% to 2% difference between the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat!

Home Sellers

1.  Our listing agreement suggests getting a home inspection prior to hitting the market. It’s a good idea; fix what’s wrong in advance, and then give buyers a copy to demonstrate your pride of ownership.
2.  Know where you are going to move, and only hit the open market when you are 100% committed to selling. You might get an offer the first day!
3.  Showing the house is inconvenient but necessary – the more you do it, the better your chances.  Be ready to show the house on the day it hits the open market – and expect dozens of lookers to visit in the first 7-10 days.
4.  Do two things to make a great first impression; spruce up the curb appeal and insist on top-quality photos.
5.  Be smart about price – make it attractive, and you’ll stand out.
6.  Ask agents about bidding war strategies, and recent experiences.  Spreading out the offers on your coffee table and picking one isn’t a strategy.
7.  Avoid gimmicks like range pricing or ‘coming soon’.  A clean, straight-forward approach is attractive to buyers.
8.  Determine if a company brand name is a benefit or a crutch.
9.  Real estate ‘teams’ means you get passed around. Make sure to identify who handles the buyer inquiries, and that they are top-notch sales people.
10. The buyers you want to attract – the ones that pay too much – are represented by lousy agents who don’t know the difference.  Get Good Help – hire a listing agent who can carry any agent to the finish line.

Mortgage Rates Retreat Slightly This Week | Realtor Magazine

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased slightly, following two months of steady rises.

“The 10-year Treasury yield fell about 10 basis points this week,” says Sean Becketti, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “The 30-year mortgage rate moved with Treasury yields and dropped 7 basis points to 4.23 percent. This marks the greatest week-over-week decline for the 30-year mortgage rate in over two months, a stark contrast from last week’s jump following the FOMC announcement.”

Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending March 23:

• 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 4.23 percent, with an average 0.5 point, falling from last week’s 4.30 percent average. Last year at this time, 30-year rates averaged 3.71 percent.
• 15-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.44 percent, with an average 0.5 point, dropping from last week’s 3.50 percent average. A year ago, 15-year rates averaged 2.96 percent.
• 5-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages: averaged 3.24 percent, with an average 0.4 point, dropping from a 3.28 percent average last week. A year ago, 5-year ARMs averaged 2.89 percent.

NAR’s Yun: This Is How to Slow Rising Rates | Realtor Magazine

The Federal Reserve has made two swift rate hikes in just four months and vows of more to come. But there’s a way to slow the pace of interest-rate hikes: Build more homes, Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®, writes in his new column at Forbes.com.

Building more apartments and single-family homes would help slow down inflation, Yun says.

The nation has typically added 1.5 million new housing units each year to meet demand. After all, about 1 million to 1.2 million new households are formed nationally each year and about 300,000 to 400,000 homes are demolished or newly uninhabitable each year. As such, about 1.5 million new units are required.

However, over the past decade from 2007 to 2016, average housing starts were 900,000 per year.

“That is grossly inadequate,” Yun notes. “That is why there is a housing shortage across the country.”

The inventory supply of homes available for sale is near all-time lows. Rental and vacancy rates have dropped to below 7 percent, the lowest since the mid-1980s, he notes.

“The faster the homebuilding recovery, the slower the housing inflation,” Yun says. “Consequently, the broader consumer price index will also slow and thereby allow more breathing room for the Fed to temper the pace of rate hikes.”

Energy Efficiency Weighted More in Appraisals | Realtor Magazine

Energy efficiency scores will soon be included on appraisal forms in a handful of states. Builders are applauding the change, saying that will help give more credit for energy-saving features.

A collaboration between the Residential Energy Services Network and the Appraisal Institute is bringing HERS scores—Home Energy Rating System—on appraisal forms in a few states.

The HERS Index is a numerical rating system that measures energy consumption compared to a standard house. The standard house has a score of 100. But a house that has a HERS index of 70, for example, would use 30 percent less energy. A home with a HERS index of 130, on the other hand, would consume 30 percent more energy. As such, the lower the HERS score, the lower the energy costs.

“One of the largest barriers to the building and selling of high energy performance homes is that the value of energy upgrades is too often not reflected in the real estate appraisal of a home,” RESNET Executive Director Steve Baden told the Insulation Institute. “Many of the features that make a home energy-efficient are hidden behind drywall and aren’t obvious to home buyers. Our goal is to make information, such as the HERS score of a home, visible in the appraisal so that consumers have more facts available to make their decisions.”

The HERS score will be added to an existing green-building addendum that appraisers use.

ARMs Rise in Popularity as Rates Increase | Realtor Magazine

More borrowers are turning to shorter-term adjustable-rate mortgages as interest rates rise, but that may be a riskier move than your clients realize. While these mortgages offer lower interest rates, the rates reset after a certain preset time. Still, a five-year hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage averaged a 3.28 percent rate last week compared to 4.30 for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage market survey.

The share of ARMs in total mortgage application volume has doubled to 9 percent since November 2016. This marks the highest level of ARM applications since October 2014. “Home buyers in a strong housing market are looking for ways to extend their purchasing power, and ARMs are one way to do that,” says Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association. “While the ARM share got as high as 35 percent pre-crisis, it is really unlikely it will get nearly as high now, given [new] regulations, which effectively prohibit many types of ARMs that were prevalent then.”

Total mortgage application volume—including for home purchases and refinances—dropped 2.7 percent compared to the previous week, the MBA reports. Applications are now nearly 12 percent lower than a year ago. Broken out, refinance applications dropped 3 percent last week, while applications for home purchases fell 2 percent. Applications for home purchases, however, remain up 5 percent compared to a year ago, the MBA reports.