Realtor Sandra Seymour Blog

  What You Need To Know About Home Price News The National Association of Realtors (NAR) will release its latest Existing Home Sales Report tomorrow. The information it contains on home prices may cause some confusion and could even generate some troubling headlines. This all stems from the fact that NAR will report the median sales price, while other home price indices report repeat sales prices . The vast majority of the repeat sales indices show prices are starting to appreciate again. But the median price reported on Thursday may tell a different story.  Here’s why using the median home price as a gauge of what’s happening with home values isn’t ideal right now. According to the Center for Real Estate Studies at Wichita State University : “The median sale price measures the ‘middle’ price of homes that sold, meaning that half of the homes sold for a higher price and half sold for less. While this is a good measure of the typical sale price, it is not very useful...

  Why Today’s Housing Market Is Not About To Crash There’s been some concern lately that the housing market is headed for a crash. And given some of the affordability challenges in the housing market, along with a lot of recession talk in the media, it’s easy enough to understand why that worry has come up. But the data clearly shows today’s market is very different than it was before the housing crash in 2008. Rest assured, this isn’t a repeat of what happened back then. Here’s why. It’s Harder To Get a Loan Now It was much easier to get a home loan during the lead-up to the 2008 housing crisis than it is today. Back then, banks had different lending standards, making it easy for just about anyone to qualify for a home loan or refinance an existing one. As a result, lending institutions took on much greater risk in both the person and the mortgage products offered. That led to mass defaults, foreclosures, and falling prices. Things are different today as purchasers face inc...

  The Impact of Inflation on Mortgage Rates If you’re reading headlines about inflation or mortgage rates , you may see something about the recent decision from the Federal Reserve (the Fed). But what does it mean for you, the housing market, and your plans to buy a home ? Here’s what you need to know. Inflation and the Housing Market While the Fed’s working hard to lower inflation, the latest data shows that, while the number has improved some, the inflation rate is still higher than the target (2%). That played a role in the Fed's decision to raise the Federal Funds Rate last week. As Bankrate explains : “ Keeping its inflation-fighting streak alive, the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates for the 10th time in 10 meetings . . . The hikes aimed to cool an economy that was on fire after rebounding from the coronavirus recession of 2020.”   While the Fed’s actions don’t directly dictate what happens with mortgage rates, their decisions do have an impact and contrib...

  What’s the Difference Between a Home Inspection and an Appraisal? If you’re planning to buy a home , an inspection is an important step in the process. It assesses the condition of the home before you finalize the transaction. It’s also a different step in the process from an appraisal, which is a professional evaluation of the market value of the home you’d like to buy. In most cases, an appraisal is ordered by the lender to confirm or verify the value of the home prior to lending a buyer money for the purchase. Here’s the breakdown of each one and why they’re both important when buying a home. Home Inspection Here’s the key difference between an inspection and an appraisal. Bankrate says : “In short, while an appraisal helps you understand a home’s value, inspections help you understand a home’s condition .” The home inspection is a way to determine the current state, safety, and condition of the home before you finalize the sale. If anything is questionable in the inspectio...

  Balancing Your Wants and Needs as a Homebuyer This Spring Though there are more homes for sale now than there were at this time last year, there’s still an undersupply with fewer houses available than in more normal, pre-pandemic years. The Monthly Housing Market Trends Report from realtor.com puts it this way:  “While the number of homes for sale is increasing, it is still 43.2% lower than it was before the pandemic in 2017 to 2019. This means that there are still fewer homes available to buy on a typical day than there were a few years ago.” The current housing shortage has an impact on how you search for a home this spring . With limited options on the market, buyers who consider what’s a necessity versus what’s a nice-to-have will be more successful in their home search. The first step? Get pre-approved for a mortgage . Pre-approval helps you better understand what you can borrow for your home loan, and that plays an important role in how you’ll put your list toget...

  Why Buying a Home Is a Sound Decision If you’re thinking about buying a home, you want to know the decision will be a good one. And for many, that means thinking about what home prices are projected to do in the coming years and how that could impact your investment. This year, we aren’t seeing home prices fall dramatically. As the year goes on, however, some markets may go up in value while others may lose value. That’s why it’s helpful to keep the long-term view in mind. Experts project a return to a steadier rate of price appreciation in the years that follow. Home Price Appreciation in the Years Ahead Over 100 economists, investment strategists, and housing market analysts were polled by Pulsenomics in their latest quarterly Home Price Expectation Survey (HPES). The report indicates what they believe will happen with home prices over the next five years. As the graph below shows, after mild depreciation this year, these experts forecast home prices will return to more n...

  Balancing Your Wants and Needs as a Homebuyer This Spring Though there are more homes for sale now than there were at this time last year, there’s still an undersupply with fewer houses available than in more normal, pre-pandemic years. The Monthly Housing Market Trends Report from realtor.com puts it this way:  “While the number of homes for sale is increasing, it is still 43.2% lower than it was before the pandemic in 2017 to 2019. This means that there are still fewer homes available to buy on a typical day than there were a few years ago.” The current housing shortage has an impact on how you search for a home this spring . With limited options on the market, buyers who consider what’s a necessity versus what’s a nice-to-have will be more successful in their home search. The first step? Get pre-approved for a mortgage . Pre-approval helps you better understand what you can borrow for your home loan, and that plays an important role in how you’ll put your list toget...