Do these seem like lazy days of summer or what! School graduations, parties for the grads, vacation trips, heat that’s too hot. Perfect lazy days!
Personally I am ready to get roaring again. I have 2 listings to sell (1411 Carlos Court and 5671 Monte Verde Dr. – hint hint) and want them to sell TODAY.
I’m pulling myself up by the boot straps and getting to work. Here are some “blogs” that got me going – because they have some good, true info for potential home buyers and they just make sense…..
Otto Kobler, Branch Manager of Summit Funding Mortgage Bankers in Santa Rosa sent out an email on current rates:
“RATES as of JUNE 17, 2013- SLIGHTLY DOWN for the week (Sweet!!). Finally a week that ended with rates a little better than the previous. Wow, that was six solid weeks of rates moving up. Hopefully rates pause and hang out at this rate for a long time.”
I also recently read this article on www.KCMBlog.com and thought you might find it interesting:
Buying a House: Is Now the Time?
http://www.kcmblog.com/2013/06/10/buying-a-house-is-now-the-time/
The real estate community is often criticized for always seeming to have a Pollyanna attitude
about the housing market. Many believe that the industry’s current call ‘to buy now’ is nothing
more than a scare tactic with the sole purpose of creating more commissions for the industry.
Let’s take a look at whether or not that advice was good advice over the last year.
The ‘cost’ of a home is determined by two major components: the price of the home and the
current mortgage rate. According to the most recent Case-Shiller Home Pricing Index, home
values have risen over 10% in the last year. If we look at Freddie Mac’s.
Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey®, the 30 year mortgage rate has increased from
3.67% to 3.91% during that same period.
The table below compares the cost of the same exact house over the last twelve months:
We can see that the advice to buy a year ago made complete financial sense.
What About Moving Forward?
Most experts are not only calling for prices to continue to rise but are also
upgrading their projections as the housing market is showing strong signs of recovering.
Regarding interest rates, the 30 year mortgage rate has soared by over a half point already
this year and many believe that the increases will continue. Even those trying to be the voice
of reason on this issue are projecting higher rates.
For example, Polyana da Costa, senior mortgage analyst at Bankrate.com said: “Rates are
unlikely to keep going up so quickly and should remain below 5 percent.”
Bottom Line
The next time a real estate professional says that now is the time to buy they may not be
giving you a ‘sales pitch’. They may be giving you nothing but excellent advice.
Best, Lynn
