Elections…. man…..they sure are fun! I’m not sure what’s better, the debates, excess junk mail, campaign commercials, or the excess arguing on social media? It’s just all so much fun to experience every 4 years….

 

Truthfully, regardless of how you feel about the presidential options or your political affiliation, it’s amazing that we do get to a vote for the future of our Country. Unfortunately however, elections bring about a lot of turmoil and unrest for our Country. This unrest bleeds into every aspect of our lives during election season, which is likely why it feels so tumultuous. The real estate industry is always interesting in election years, add in higher interest rates (that are finally starting to come down, yay!) and you’ve got a mix of weird and weirder.

 

I’ve been in the real estate industry for 5 election cycles and I’ve learned that each election year has a similar impact on the real e. ...

Mortgage rates have been THE topic in home ownership and affordability over the last 2 and a half years. In January of 2022 rates began a steep incline from historic lows (3.05% in Dec 2021) to historic highs, reaching 7.79% in October 2023. Since October, rates have been relatively unaffected with only slight dips and peaks landing us at 6.77% as of July 18th, 2024.

It's been over 2 years of high mortgage rates and homeowners and would be homeowners alike have been begging for a reprieve. Many who purchased in mid 2022 – 2023 expected to be able to refinance to a lower rate in the matter of 6-10 months, but that time has come and gone without so much as a sign of impending relief. Homeowners who have wanted to sell for the last 3 years have been handcuffed to their mortgages because they’re just too good a of deal to let go. Everyone’s asking, when are rates coming down?

There’s no crystal ball. No genie. No time machine. We do have plenty of speculation . ...

What’s going on with the real estate industry NAR settlement and interest rates?

This last week has been one wild ride for the real estate industry and I’m here to break down the announcements and shed some light on recent events.

First, on Friday of last week it was announced that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has agreed to a $418 Million settlement in the case pertaining to collusion amongst real estate agents and the commissions they charge. This case was presented against NAR and others claiming that Realtors have set fixed commission rates and that sellers should not be responsible for compensating a buyer’s broker. The settlement outlines some important changes to the way Realtors can advertise commissions through the MLS and how Realtors representing buyers will need written agreements, all to go in effect in July of this year.

Second, the FOMC announced that it would leave rates alone this past week citing hotter than anticipated consumer index data and in ...

What does this mean will come from the FOMC in their March Meeting?

The trend of all housing market discussions for the last 2 years has been all about mortgage rates. What to expect? When will they drop? Will they ever go back to 2%? Are they going higher? You name it, we’ve read about it or discussed it. In October of 2023 we began to see signs of reprieve with rates dropping from their highest point at 7.79% to 6.6% in January. Now, rates are climbing, reaching 6.9% just last week. The big question now is how has this affected the housing market and what can we expect from here?

First, the housing market has been completely unphased by the rate increase this month, and nearly for the entire year of 2023. With our spring markets underway buyers and sellers are ready to do business. The average days on market in the Charlotte region is down to 20 days in January compared to 26 days in January of ’23. The average sales price has also taken a jump, up $14,450 (3%) to $409,450 in t ...

And they are Only Growing

The term “institutional investor” wasn’t used frequently in the real estate industry prior to the COVID housing boom of 2020. Now, it’s a term I use almost daily when connecting with my buyer and seller clients about housing. For those of you that don’t know, an institutional investor in the real estate industry is a company that purchases homes for the purpose of investment by turning homes into rental properties. An institutional investor is essentially a large-scale landlord, who today, have become some of the largest holders of Real Estate in the United States.

The large-scale investors have a very simple approach: Purchase real estate in growing and affordable areas and create rental properties to seek returns through rental income and equity growth. This approach has been around for decades, but it’s only recently been applied in such a large scale thanks to companies like Blackstone and Invitation Homes. It’s very important we take note of what th ...