Home Prices Continue to Rise
Despite recent events affecting the real estate industry and the world as a whole, the prices of homes have continued to rise across the country. According to the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the home price index is up 5.5% from this time last year. On an annual basis prices have risen across all regions of the country. The pricing of the housing market regionally in the last month has been a slightly different story. When you examine the housing market region by region, two parts of the country experienced a slight dip in home prices from March to April of this year. The South Atlantic region, which includes Florida, experienced a 0.5% decrease from March to April. This slight drop is much different than the increases in price seen month to month across the rest of the country. The FHFA predicts a return to normal levels of demand in the housing market as the year ends, assuming that the original spring bump in sales is just being pushed back later in the year due to COVID. In a report from Zillow it was predicted that a downturn in home prices may come in the second half of the year, but only time will...Rent Appreciation Haulted
Apartment List, a rental listing platform, reported last week that the national rent index fell by 0.1% from May to June. Since March, that index has fallen a total of 0.3%. Year-to-year the rent index is up only 0.2% which is the lowest increase year-to-year in the last five years. The rent decrease in what would normally be peak season for rental activity is indicative of the financial hardships and shifting preferences in 2020. Low interest rates may be another determining factor in people choosing to purchase homes as opposed to rent, which in turn decreases rent demand and lowers the ability for landlords to increase...Signs Point to Big Rebound in Summer Real-Estate Market
The volume of mortgage applications reached an 11-year high last week marking a complete return to pre COVID-19 levels. Pending sales activity has continued to rise heading into the summer as well. The supply of homes available for sale is dropping recently, causing a constricted effect on sales activity as a whole, but should more properties become available demand will carry sales activity to much higher...Will Millennials Find it Harder to Buy Homes?
Due to COVID-19 layoffs, over 13% of millennials find themselves without jobs. On average it takes nine months for a millennial to save a month’s worth of expenses, using the national savings rate of 6% per paycheck. What this means, is that without a job for six months, it will take millennials over four years to save the amount they’ll spend on six months of monthly expenses. Even with unemployment benefits and possible side hustles, they will need to dip into savings to cover groceries, car payments, and rent. Moving to the suburbs or more affordable metro areas could help millennials be able to buy sooner. Low mortgage rates should make buying a home more affordable should they have money left for a down...Fannie Mae Predicting Record-Low Mortgage Interest Rates Through 2021
According to Fannie Mae, the average mortgage interest rate for 2020 will be 3.2%, a small decrease from the average rate of 3.9% in 2019. In 2021 they expect that average mortgage interest rate to drop even lower to 2.9%. This same forecast predicts a refinance volume of $1.78 trillion this year, which would be the highest volume since 2003. As of the end of May, over 14 million mortgage holders could lower their rate by at least 0.75% by refinancing, saving consumers a combined $3.95 billion per month. This low interest rate environment could push refinance volume even higher as the year...Connect With Us
