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Found 179 blog entries tagged as Real Estate News Blog.

The Federal Reserve played Santa for Christmas this year and delivered the best gift for homebuyers nationwide, leading to lower mortgage rates. The 10-year yield and mortgage rates fell together after the Fed meetings, which gave us mortgage rates under 7% last week.

  •          Mortgage Rates hit 6.95%
  •          Median List Price up 1.5%
  •          Time on Market drops 4 Days.
  •          New Listings UP 6.8%

Homebuyers have a lot to be joyful for right now with mortgage rates have dipping below 7% for the first time since August.

For the week ending Dec. 14, rates for a 30-year fixed-rate home loan averaged 6.95%, according to Freddie Mac.

And odds are, mortgage rates will continue their long-awaited downward trend, providing some…

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Will 2024 will be the year the housing market finally becomes unstuck. The answer is sort of…

At long last we finally are set to say goodbye to 2023. This was a year where interest rates went from 6% to briefly topping 8% back in October. Adding to that, many builders worried about the economy scaled back the number of new homes being built. Additionally, millions of homeowners who locked in historic rates near 3% during the pandemic felt little compulsion to sell their homes and consider buying new homes at higher interest rates.

And all of this left buyers with few choices and the homes available continued to climb in price along with interest rates due to the lack of available inventory.

Looking back in a few years I honestly believe we…

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Market Recap

A slight decrease in interest rates has raised cautious optimism – interest rates now sit at around 7.2%, in comparison to 7.8% in October 2023, and a continuation of that decrease would have a positive impact on the market in general. However, the decline in seasonal inventory continues to drive home prices upward, spurring an increase of 4.6% in prices from November 2022:

  • NWMLS brokers reported 4,367 closed sales in November 2023, which is a 16% drop from closed sales in November 2022 (5,194). However, this is a slight improvement from October’s year-over-year change in closed sales, which decreased 18% when compared to October 2022.
  • While most counties in the NWMLS report (19 of 26) saw a decrease in the number of homes…

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Homebuyers who brave the cold to get out there and shop for homes right are finding something strange, really good news!

First up, increasing inventory.

A new report has found that 7.5% more home sellers listed their homes in November than this same month last year. It’s actually “the first-time inventory has increased this late in the fall season since our records commenced in 2016. This turnaround is a big deal, “ending a four-month streak of annual inventory declines,”. Plus, seasonal housing stock in November increased by 2.4% above October levels, which is another first.

November saw the first annual growth in newly listed homes in 17 months. If you look at total inventory—of both new listings and old—that’s improved, too, with the…

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Thanksgiving is almost here! So, before you sit down and eat your Thanksgiving meal, let's find out how well you know your Thanksgiving history...

1. FACT OR FICTION: IN 1863, ABRAHAM LINCOLN BECAME THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT TO PROCLAIM A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING.

2. FACT OR FICTION: NATIVE AMERICANS USED CRANBERRIES, NOW A STAPLE OF MANY THANKSGIVING DINNERS, FOR COOKING AS WELL AS FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES.

3. FACT OR FICTION: ONE OF AMERICA’S FOUNDING FATHERS THOUGHT THE TURKEY SHOULD BE THE NATIONAL BIRD OF THE UNITED STATES.

4.FACT OR FICTION: THE TRADITION OF PLAYING OR WATCHING FOOTBALL ON THANKSGIVING STARTED WITH THE FIRST NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE GAME ON THE HOLIDAY IN 1934.

Ready to check your answers?


1. Fiction - George…

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With everything going on from Holiday parties to shopping and visits from the in-laws we know that it’s easy to turn away from listing and selling your home during the holidays. Plus, almost everyone says the market slows down in the Winter and you should just wait until Spring, right? WRONG!

While it’s true the market is usually slower around the holidays, the current market trends of constrained inventory and desperate buyers have in fact made the Holidays an excellent time to put your house up for sale. With fewer sellers listing during the Holiday period, buyers are left sitting around with pre-approval letters in-hand just starving for inventory!

Here are 5 TIPS FOR SELLING YOUR HOME AROUND THANKSGIVING

1. Make Curb Appeal a Top…

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Home buyers and sellers face the prospect of major changes to how much and in what way they pay their real-estate agents, following Tuesday’s historic verdict against the National Association of Realtors and large residential brokerages.

Those changes could range from minor tweaks to the commission system to a more radical restructuring of the residential real-estate industry, such as more people buying homes without using agents or buyers paying their agents by the hour.

By way of a quick summary, a federal jury found NAR and large brokerages conspired to keep costs artificially high and awarded $1.8 billion in damages, which could be tripled to more than $5 billion under antitrust rules.

The Cascade Team provides buyers and sellers with…

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Homeowners Reveal the Frightening Facts About Haunted Houses:

Written by Jaime Dunaway-Seale

ARE HAUNTED HOUSES CHEAPER?

Nearly 2 in 3 home buyers (63%) would only offer below market value for a haunted home, with 1 in 3 (31%) offering at least $50,000 less and 1 in 9 (11%) offering at least $100,000 less.

UFOs sightings. Alien invasions. The zombie apocalypse. Paranormal beings are top of mind for many Americans in 2023.

With these topics dominating the cultural conversation — and the highest levels of government — belief in the supernatural is growing. Three-fourths of Americans (75%) think otherworldly beings exist — a 9% increase from 2022, when 69% said the same.

As Americans increasingly consume paranormal media on their…

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 KIRKLAND, Washington – October 5, 2023 – Northwest MLS, the source for the most current, accurate market listing data in Washington state, today released its Market Snapshot for the month of September 2023.

Market Recap As we head into the fall season, the number of transactions in Washington counties continues to decline, with limited growth in year-over-year median prices.

  •          When compared to the same month last year, September 2023 experienced a -20% change in active property listings on the market in Washington counties covered by the NWMLS.
  •          Most counties covered by the NWMLS (23 of 26) saw a decrease in the number of homes sold, with changes ranging from -2% to -50% year over year with an average decline of -24% and…

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 Active inventory fell by 32.6% year over year in Seattle last month — that’s among the highest rates of decline in the entire country, according to the latest NWMLS report.

 A year ago, prospective buyers had over 8,000 properties to shop through. Last month, however, active inventory fell to 5,422 properties.

Housing availability continues to plague the Puget Sound market, with buyer numbers growing month-over-month while the number of homes listed continues to languish. Contributing factors include seller disappointment that their homes have slipped in value since the last market peak and reluctance to trade a low-interest mortgage for current high rates.

Housing Market Locked Down

To illustrate, in the current market, a borrower…

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