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Will We See Mortgage Rates of 6%?
One of my favorite economists is Brian Wesburg at First Trust Portfolios. You need to watch his video below. He believes inflation will average 3% to 4.50% over the next 18-24 months. If he is right we will see mortgage rates less than 5% and probably 6% in the next 2 years. Why? Our M2…
Denver is Not Alone
The Denver real estate market is NOT alone in experiencing a housing shortage and soaring home prices. Across the country home inventory levels are down 40% and dropping. According to Black Knight the median single-family home sales price has risen by 16% across the country. In fact, nearly 75% of the largest 100 metro areas…
“How to Fix the Housing Market Inventory Crisis”
This column appeared in Housing Wire on April 6th and was written national housing economist Ralph McLaughlin. Ralph acknowledges that the $15k FTHB tax credit would only make housing inventory scarcer and prices rise even more. Instead he says D.C. needs to use a carrot-based approach to homeowners, such as capital gains tax exemptions for…
Why Denver Home Price Growth May Finally Slow in 2021
This story appeared in the Westword on April 7th based on a new report by Core Logic. Their deputy chief economist believes metro Denver home prices will only increase by 1.9% between now and next February. Why? Because soaring prices and rising mortgage rates are making housing more unaffordable. Second, she believes more people especially…
Only 9 Days of Homes for Sale
Here are the latest 7 county MLS stats for the month of March courtesy of REColorado and SMDRA. · 4,931 properties closed last month, up 10.5% from March of last year and an increase of 17.2% from March 2019. · Detached homes saw the smallest increase in sold properties with 3,271 sales, a 5.4% increase from last…
Should Your Clients Consider a Townhome?
This was the topic of a very personal story on Housing Wire written by a Millennial who had recently purchased a single family home in desperate need of remodeling who watched a friend of hers buy a townhouse instead. “They ended up closing on a townhome, and while this wasn’t their original plan, the perks…
Many Second Homes May Need to Be Financed as A Rental Home
Effective with loan applications on May 1st Fannie and Freddie have new more restrictive requirements for loans on Second Homes as follows- Property must be a 1-unit property, no 2-4-plexes anymore. The borrower MUST HAVE EXCLUSIVE CONTROL over the property. The property can’t be rented out at all. The property can’t be subject to any…
Who’s in Charge in D.C.?
Effective with loan applications on July 1st Fannie and Freddie will no longer buy conventional loans under the 8 year long GSE Patch which allowed lenders and Fannie and Freddie to close loans with debt to income ratios above 43%. Instead, the CFPB’s new definition of Qualified Mortgage Rule will apply even though the CFPB…
What Does It Take To Get Under Contract?
Redfin released a study based on pre-pandemic sales from September 2019 through February 2020 versus sales from September 2020 through February 2021. These are national numbers for Redfin agents. Here are some highlights- · Down payments have grown by 28% from an average of $32k to $41k during the pandemic. The typical down payment is…
We Can Close Loans in 10 Business days
I want you to know that we can now purchase loans in as few as 10 business days now on conventional and FHA loans of single family homes as our appraisers can complete an appraisal in as soon as 2 days now. And we have the processing, underwriting, and closing staff to accomplish this too.…
What 3 Agents Are Seeing
I am starting to interview agents to ask for their “take” on our insane real estate market and what tips they might have. Here are my first three- · Mandy Jury-She has experienced multiple offers on homes at all price points up to $1.5 million. She told me, “Can we as an industry list homes…
Another Sign The Mortgage Rates Will Rise
I saw a great graph from Zelman & Associates on mortgage rate volatility during every year this century. This graph shows the difference the between the lowest weekly average rate during the year according to Freddie Mac and the highest weekly average rate during the year. Since 2000 the smallest difference between the 2 was…
