Living 48 Real Estate Team

One of the most frequent questions I get is: "When is the best time to buy or sell a home?" I’ll give you my thoughts on this in a second. But first, I want to challenge the idea that there is a “best” time to buy or sell. Here’s why: Mortgage rates jump around Mortgage rates fluctuate daily, much more quickly than the overall housing market. And even a small change in rates could mean a large difference in real home prices — whether you're selling or buying. These changes are unpredictable, making it hard to ever be sure of a “best” time to buy or sell. But that’s not all. Statistics only tell part of the story National and state real estate trends are the averages of millions of different transactions. When you boil them down to a few numbers, lots of details get lost. The fact is, home prices and demand can vary county to county, neighborhood to neighborhood, and even home to home. While it's nice to have a simple indication of where the real estate market is...

If you are the owner of a luxury home here in Arizona, you may be wondering why you haven’t seen the same appreciation in the median sales price of your home’s value. Here’s a great chart and explanation of why that is. Thanks to Chris Butterworth for this information. Median Median Price of Luxury Homes Remains Flat This is a very deceiving chart. We know that prices have risen over the last 3 years, and we know that the luxury market has grown during that time as well. So why hasn’t the median price increased? It’s because of these two reasons that the median price hasn’t changed. Rising Prices: Yes, a 20% increase means that $2,000,000 house is now worth $2,400,000. And that $1,500,000 home would be priced at $1,800,000. And of course, the $1,000,000 home increases to $1,200,000. Growing Market: This 20% appreciation also means the $900,000 home is now worth $1,080,000, and the $835,000 home is worth $1,002,000 today. These “lower priced” luxury homes weren’t part of the m...

National Snapshot: What’s Ahead for Real Estate The U.S. unemployment rate is at a 50-year low, and consumer confidence remains high. In fact, the University of Michigan’s latest Surveys of Consumers found that Americans have their most positive personal finance outlook since 2003.1 However, if you follow national news, you’ve probably heard speculation that we could be headed toward a recession. Global trade tensions and a slow down in the GDP growth rate has sparked volatility in the stock market, leading to economic uncertainty. Given these differing signals, you may be wondering: How has the U.S. housing market been impacted? Where is it headed? And more importantly … what does it mean for me? MORTGAGE RATES ARE NEAR HISTORIC LOWS In August, Freddie Mac reported that the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit its lowest level since November 2016, falling to 3.6%, down a full percentage point from a year earlier.2 Variable mortgage rates also fell when the Federal Reserve cut...