Real Estate Blog - KCM

Market Updates: Why You Should Stop Renting & Buy Today!

There are many young people debating whether they should renew the lease on their apartment or sign a contract to purchase their first home.

Housing Cost & Net Worth

Whether you rent or buy, you have a monthly housing cost.

As a buyer, you are paying YOUR mortgage.

Every mortgage payment is a form of what Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies calls “forced savings.”

“Since many people have trouble saving and have to make a housing payment one way or the other, owning a home can overcome people’s tendency to defer savings to another day.”

The principal portion of your mortgage payment helps build your net worth through building the equity you have in your home.

As a renter, you are paying YOUR…

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Market Updates: Slaying Myths About Buying A Home

• Interest Rates are still below historic numbers.
• 88% of property managers raised their rent in the last 12 months.
• Credit score requirements to be approved for a mortgage continue to fall. The 723 average score is the lowest since Ellie Mae began reporting on scores in August 2011.
• The average first-time buyer down payment was 6% in 2015 according to NAR. 

 If you're curious about your home's market value, use our free Comparative Market Analysis tool! You'll get an instant home evaluation and even a free in-person assessment provided by one of our agents at your leisure.

Thanks to our friends at KCM for the awesome market information!

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Market Updates: Fannie Mae Introduces Home Purchase Sentiment Index

Earlier this month, Fannie Mae’s Economic & Strategic Research Group announced the launch of their Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI). The index will distill results from Fannie Mae’s consumer-focused National Housing Survey into a single, monthly, predictive indicator. According to Doug Duncan, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist at Fannie Mae, the goal for the new index is simple:

“The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index provides the market a single number to track consumer attitudes focused on the housing market. Utilizing our National Housing Survey, the only consumer sentiment survey of its kind focused on housing, the HPSI will offer insights regarding current and future-looking housing market outcomes and will complement…

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Market Updates: The Importance of Home Equity To A Family

There has been much written about how dramatically home values have increased over the last several years. With the increase in values, comes an increase in the equity each home owning family now has. The Joint Center of Housing Studies at Harvard University recently reported that, after taking inflation into account, aggregate home equity has increased 60% since 2010. Home equity is the major component of most family’s overall wealth.

Why is this so important?

Throughout history, families have tapped into their homes for many important reasons. Perhaps it was to get seed capital to start a new business; perhaps to help finance their children’s college education; perhaps to get needed medical attention not covered by insurance.

Up to ten…

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Market Updates: Credit Score Requirements LOWER as Interest Rates CREEP UP!

• The average 30-year rate for all loans closed in August eclipsed 4.3% for the first time since October 2014.
• The average FICO score for all closed loans in August reached a new yearly low at 724.
• The average down payment of FHA loans closed was just 4%.

 If you're curious about your home's market value, use our free Comparative Market Analysis tool! You'll get an instant home evaluation and even a free in-person assessment provided by one of our agents at your leisure.

Thanks to our friends at KCM for the awesome market information!

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Market Updates: The Impact of Rising Prices on Home Appraisals

The fact that residential home prices are increasing substantially in most regions of the country is music to the ears of homeowners. However, if you are in the process of selling your home, make sure you realize the major challenge a hot real estate market creates.

Each house must be sold twice; once to a buyer and a second time to an appraiser who represents the bank that will grant the purchaser a mortgage to buy the home (unless it is an “all cash” purchase). In a real market with escalating prices, the second sale may be the more difficult. And a recent survey by Quicken Loans reveals that the gap between what a homeowner believes is the value of their home compared to an appraiser is widening.

This could lead to an increase in the…

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Market Updates: Home-ownership Builds Wealth and Offers Stability

The most recent Housing Pulse Survey released by the National Association of Realtorsrevealed that the two major reasons Americans prefer owning their own home instead of renting are:

1. They want the opportunity to build equity.
2. They want a stable and safe environment.

Building Equity

In a recent article, John Taylor, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, explained that those who lack the opportunity to become homeowners have a weakened ability to reinvest their wealth:

“We traditionally have been huge supporters of homeownership. We see it as a way to provide stability for households but also as an asset-building strategy. If you continue to be a renter, locked out of the homeownership arena, increasingly those…

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Market Updates: Selling Your Home? Price It Right From The Start!

In today’s market, where demand is outpacing supply in many regions of the country, pricing a house is one of the biggest challenges real estate professionals face. Sellers often want to price their home higher than recommended, and many agents go along with the idea to keep their clients happy. However, the best agents realize that telling the homeowner the truth is more important than getting the seller to like them.

There is no “later.”

Sellers sometimes think, “If the home doesn’t sell for this price, I can always lower it later.” However, research proves that homes that experience a listing price reduction sit on the market longer, ultimately selling for less than similar homes.

John Knight, recipient of the University Distinguished…

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Market Updates: Where Are Mortgage Rates Headed? This Winter? Next Year?

The interest rate you pay on your home mortgage has a direct impact on your monthly payment. The higher the rate the greater the payment will be. That is why it is important to look at where rates are headed when deciding to buy now or wait until next year.

Below is a chart created using Freddie Mac’s October 2015 U.S. Economic & Housing Marketing Outlook. As you can see interest rates are projected to increase steadily over the course of the next 12 months.

How Will This Impact Your Mortgage Payment?

Depending on the amount of the loan that you secure, a half of a percent (.5%) increase in interest rate can increase your monthly mortgage payment significantly.

According to CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Index, national home prices have…

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Market Updates: Home Values - Where Are They Headed Over The Next 5 Years?

Today, many real estate conversations center on housing prices and where they may be headed. That is why we like the Home Price Expectation Survey.

Every quarter, Pulsenomics surveys a nationwide panel of over one hundred economists, real estate experts and investment & market strategists about where prices are headed over the next five years. They then average the projections of all 100+ experts into a single number.

The results of their latest survey

• Home values will appreciate by 4.1% in 2015.
• The cumulative appreciation will be 18.1% by 2019.
• That means the average annual appreciation will be 3.4% over the next 5 years.
• Even the experts making up the most bearish quartile of the survey still are projecting a cumulative…

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