Source: The Hill
See the whole article here.
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Francis
About one-third of U.S. home purchases were paid in cash.
Nearly one-third (31.9%) of U.S. home purchases were paid for with all cash in October, according to a report from Redfin. That’s up from 29.9% a year earlier and the highest share since 2014.
Source: National Mortgage Professionals
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Down times are excellent times to be buying a home.
I always remind my clients: as long as you can afford comfortably the home you buy, you have a fairly
stable job, and you know you can find a new job should you lose your current one, then any time is good. If you know you may have to sell in one or two years, then it may be best to continue renting until you are more sure of your situation. Otherwise, why continue paying a mortgage - your landlord's mortgage?
This being said, buying a house
requires a significant amount of money and time. The journey isn’t always easy,
but when you get the keys to your new home, it can be one of the most rewarding
feelings ever.
Knowing the home-buying journey, what tools are at your disposal and creating
relationships with experts who can help you get the job done is the key to
getting there.
Francis
Conforming Loan Limits are raised to $1,089,300 by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and this is a big deal for home buyers in California.
Source: California Association of Realtors
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International buyers purchased $59 billion worth of U.S.
residential properties from April 2021–March 2022, up 8.5% from the previous
year and breaking a three-year streak of declines.
The average ($598,200) and median ($366,100) purchase prices
for international buyers were the highest ever recorded by NAR.
China, Canada, India, Mexico and Brazil were the top five
countries of origin by U.S. residential sales dollar volume. The top U.S.
destinations for foreign buyers were Florida, California, Texas, Arizona, New
York and North Carolina.
See the full article here by Troy Green, National Association of Realtors.
Francis
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These are the average and median prices for all sold homes combined in the County of Santa Clara over the past 2 and a half years, month after month.
In this graph we can see that:
- while January is always lower, the best months for a higher sales price (in average) are March to June. while we note that, we have to remember that January average prices are the results of DEC. sales, so all months graphs are the results of the previous months sales. It is not true of all transactions, of course, but we are talking "statistics" here. This is over a large number of transactions.
- the arrows point to the usual rebound in prices in September and October, after the months of July and August, which are traditionally slower.
- the months of November and December are traditionally slower and prices are down during these months - as an average. This was not true this past year though in 2021, and this is noteworthy. In fact, "in the trenches", us Realtors were surprised to see the level of activity in November and December. In general at that time of the year buyers can expect a more relaxed and slower market. Well, not in 2021!
- prices in 2022 are geared for an overall up year as an average; the market started very strong at the beginning of the year, and as we now know has slowed down significantly around may (which is more visible on the median price graphs). However the market is still very active, just not at the high of April-May. The market is now more balanced, with fewer multiple offers and prices which have scaled back at the level of six to nine months ago.
It is important to remember that:
1/ multiple offers depend on the asking price. A very low asking price will draw multiple offers.
2/ it is not expected that prices will "crash" as demand is still very strong, and interest rates are still historically low, as the 3rd graph shows.
3/ a recession, even if it comes around, does not equate necessarily to lower real estate prices - see the last graph.
4/ most analysts and banks forecast real estate prices up every year for the coming years.
Francis
Source: The Skimm
Read the full article here.
Francis
In some cases, a property’s chain of title may go hundreds of years, back to
when the government first granted the right of ownership of the land, by way of
Patent - and perhaps the home’s first owner. Today, when a new buyer closes,
and the paperwork is filed with the local office that handles real estate
records and filings, the new owner’s name will join that chain.
Francis
This article is: of the NAHB
According to NAHB analysis of quarterly Census data, the count of multifamily, for-sale housing starts increased during the first quarter of 2022. At 11,000 units started, this was the best quarter for condo construction since the third quarter of 2008.
This is particularly important for us in the Bay Area because land is so scarce. We do see a lot of new condos popping up, although a lot of the new construction in the past 3-4 years has been in apartment complexes, with high rents.
Francis
Source: Realtor.com
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These figures are Average sales prices for all houses, condos and townhomes combined.
SCC: +41% - between Jan. 2020 and Dec. 2021 - SMC: +40%
Along with these figures, here are a few data points:
Nationwide, borrowers had a record $9.4 trillion in tappable home equity collectively, or an average of $178,000 per borrower, according to Black Knight. In California, home sellers typically pocketed a net cash gain of $322,500 from the sale of their homes in 2021 – a 96% increase from the purchase price.
Francis
Tough times for buyers....
My advice, after working through several of those up and down cycles: save yourselves all the rookies mistakes in purchasing a home (like working with a discount agent): hire an experienced professional who is patient and persistent, and well-known in the Realtors community.
Francis
California Homebuying Behaviors - Pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic continued to drive strong homebuying interest and intensify market competition while changing consumers’ housing preferences and fueling sellers’ home equity, according to C.A.R.’s 2021 Annual Housing Market Survey.
With remote working becoming the norm, buyers’ reasons for purchasing in 2021
were unchanged since the Coronavirus outbreak, with the top three reasons
remaining the same as last year. More than one-fourth of REALTORS® said their
buyer clients purchased a home because they were tired of renting;
More supercharged buying info in this article from the CaliforniaAssociation of Realtors®
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Source: CNN Business
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What is the effect of landscaping on the value of your real estate?
A study by Trees.com surveyed real estate agents throughout the country to find out the impact of landscaping and hardscaping.
According to 43% of real estate agents, poor landscaping has a “very” negative impact on a home’s value. Another 35% say it will “somewhat” impact how much a home is worth.
Real estate agents have differing opinions on exactly how much a home’s value decreases with poor landscaping. Twenty-four percent say a home’s value decreases by 10%, while 22% estimate the value decreases by 20%. Eighteen percent predict that a home’s value drops by 30% or more if the property lacks an appealing landscape.
Also, it is interesting to note the findings on value-added elements of landscaping on this infographic:
Francis
Family Trusts and the Title Process
Note: Barbara Pronin is an award-winning writer based in Orange County, Calif. A former news editor with more than 30 years of experience in journalism and corporate communications, she has specialized in real estate topics for over a decade.
Francis
Home prices were up by "a lot" this past year, and according to forecasters, and the Real Estate Project Porch.com website, next year is going to be even more so an up year.
This article by Adriana Lopez lists the projected increase in prices in several smaller and larger metropolitan areas. Prices are slated to continue their way up!
Sacramento is supposed to go up about 18%, and Las Vegas about 23%.
Article by Adriana Lopez, dated Aug.19,2021.
Francis
Seasonality of median prices for single family homes shows well in those two graphs, one for the County as a whole, the other for the specific city of Los Altos.
A value for a month usually corresponds statistically to the sales price of the previous month's transactions. For instance a value for January would typically correspond to the aggregate sales started in December.
Click on any graph to see it larger.
Of course, as all statistics, one has to take them with a grain of salt. Some large single sales can skew the figures quite a bit, and the smaller the sample is, the less they are meaningful.
Francis
Good time to buy is at 18%, up 1 percentage point from last month and down 15 percentage points from last year, while good time to sell is at 72%, up 2 percentage points from last month and up 18 percentage points from last year.
Source: CAR.org
Francis
Palo Alto moving forward with short-term housing project for homeless near Baylands
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Article by the Mercury News, written by Louis Hansen.
Rental prices went down quite a bit in the past two years. What is the status right now? Louis Hansen from the SJ Merc gives his perspective:
The steep discounts in Bay Area rents triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic may be dwindling with the health crisis.
As California made reopening plans over the last three months, average prices for one-bedroom apartments climbed throughout the region, up 2.9% in San Jose, 3.6% in Oakland and 5.3% in San Francisco, according to listing site Zumper.
But rents are still below pre-pandemic levels, suggesting a slow return of renters back to cities and offices. Record high home prices may also have kept more families in apartments — or out of town — rather than buying single-family homes.
The creep up in rent signals a turn toward pre-pandemic conditions, but the Bay Area has been slower to rebound than other major cities, including New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.
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Here is the current Housing Sentiment in California:
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