This is a question I hear a lot these days. Many buyers talk about waiting to buy, thinking interest rates will come down. Others have decided to try and buy now. Here are some thoughts to help you make a decision. In the housing market, there’s a longstanding relationship between mortgage rates and buyer demand. Typically, the higher rates are, you’ll see lower buyer demand. That’s because some people who want to move will be hesitant to take on a higher mortgage rate for their next home. So, they decide to wait it out and put their plans on hold. But when rates start to come down, things ch ..read more

There’s no denying the housing market has delivered a fair share of challenges to homebuyers over the past few years and again in 2023. With so many changes, you probably have questions about what it all means for your homebuying plans in spring 2024. Simply follow the link below to download your free copy of a 24-page eGuide that can answer many of your questions and likely bring up a few things you didn’t even know you should consider. Free Download – Things to Consider When Buying a Home, Spring 2024 Edition Please get in touch if you have any questions or we can be of help! Sharlene Hensr ..read more

March inventory continues to be well above the last two years, closer to May levels… good news for buyers struggling with a shortage of inventory available to buy. Inventory was helped by new listings coming on the market faster than closed sales taking properties off the market. March pending sales increased, meaning the situation could change in April… depending on how many new listings come on the market. Months supply of inventory increased 20% over last March, but has remained stubbornly constant the last four months… a sign of an increase in buyers who are finally tired of waiting and ..read more

New listings hit their highest point in eight months, heading in the right direction. Showing activity bounced up again following the dip caused by the snow storm… similar to last year, just at a different time. New listings are still above last year, will be interesting to see how the rest of the year plays out. Thinking about buying a new construction home? Average new home size rose from 983 sq ft in 1950 to 2657 sq ft in 2014. After peaking in 2015 it declined until 2020 and the start of the pandemic when people were wanting more space in their homes and interest rates were so low it wa ..read more

I am a long-time lover of the mid-century modern style, and curate a list of mid-century/modern homes listed for sale in the MLS each week as part of my weekly newsletter and market update. But what defines the mid-century modern style? The style is difficult to clearly define because it is actually a collection of design styles from roughly the 1940’s to the 1970’s. Mid-century modern architecture had roots in Frank Lloyd Wright’s principles of organic architecture combined with elements from the International and Bauhaus styles in Europe and embraced by Scandinavian designers. It was charac ..read more

This past week has been a little interesting with the bond market and so what is happening to interest rates? Mortgage rates look to the future and everyone is waiting to see when the Fed decides to cut interest rates. The issue right now is the Fed is watching the employment reports and inflation reports. So what does that mean to us? Last Friday we got the jobs report for March – it wasn’t friendly to the bond market. The expectation was for 200,000 new jobs – the actual number reported was 303,000 new jobs. Average hourly earnings were in line with expectations. The issue with the overall ..read more

From the early 1980s until the mid-1990s, many homes across the country were plumbed with plastic tubing called polybutylene, aka PB. It looks like PEX tubing, can have similar crimp rings at the fittings, and is installed in a very similar manner. All was good with this stuff… until it wasn’t. Homeowners all over the country started experiencing leaks in their plumbing systems, both at the PB fittings and the PB tubing itself. This led to a class-action lawsuit against the manufacturers of PB tubing, and this became a “thing” for home inspectors to report as a known defect. How to Identify P ..read more

As expected, real estate activity picked up again after the snow dump followed by Easter weekend. Give it a little more time to move up again… expect showings to rise even more next week. New and coming soon listings rose in tandem this week… spring market is here. Case in point… I have a new listing becoming active today. We already have 10 showings scheduled for today and 6 over the weekend. New listings bounced back this week. Thinking that you can price aggressively, now that spring market is here? Be careful… price reductions also rose this week to the highest weekly number this year ..read more

Joseph Eichler is known as one of the fathers of Mid-century modern design… one of the most influential developers of the Mid-century modern style tract housing for the masses, building some 11,000 tract homes, mainly across California, from 1949-1970s. His style is one that mid-century modern enthusiasts immediately associate with mid-century modern design. His own personal residence in Atherton, CA is currently for sale and gives a rare view into this iconic home where Eichler tested innovations including sliding doors, built-in furniture, and even the choice of materials… “making the ..read more

Are you thinking about buying a condo? Financing a condo involves more than just your income and credit, the association also has to be approved. Here is a list of things to know when you are looking at financing a condo. Condos may be approved by FHA and VA, there are websites for both programs that list approved and rejected condos. When you are looking at financing with a conventional loan, there are different factors that go into each approval. Here are some deal breakers for conventional financing: Does the site contain houseboat, manufactured homes or timeshare units? Do you have right ..read more