Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northwest Real Estate Federal Way & Puyallup

Some Highlights: The cost of waiting to buy is defined as the additional funds it would take to buy a home if prices & interest rates were to increase over a period of time. Freddie Mac  predicts interest rates to rise to 5.2% by the third quarter of 2019. CoreLogic  predicts home prices to appreciate by 5.1% over the next 12 months. If you are ready and willing to buy your dream home, find out if you are able to!

Get ready for another month of learning! October is right around the corner, so be sure to look at the digital or physical printouts of the calendar to pick/ choose what class you'll be taking. Let's get educated! 

We are beginning to see reports that more housing inventory is coming to the market and that buyer demand may not be increasing at the same pace it did earlier this year. The result will be many headlines written to address the impact that these two situations will have on home values. Many of these headline writers will confuse “softening home prices” with “falling home prices,” but there is a major difference between the two. The data will begin to show that home values are not appreciating at the same levels as they had over the last several years (softening prices). This does NOT mean that prices are depreciating (falling prices). Here is an example: Over the last several years, national home values increased by more than 6% annually. If you had a home worth $300,000 at the beginning of the year, it would be worth $318,000 by year’s end. If the appreciation rate “falls” to 4%, that $300,000 house would be worth $312,000 at the end of next year – a $6,000 difference. The p...

Saving for a down payment is often the biggest hurdle for a first-time homebuyer as median incomes, rents, and home prices all vary depending on where you live. There is a common misconception among homebuyers that a 20% down payment is required, and it is this limiting belief that often adds months, and sometimes even years, to the home-buying process. So, if you can purchase a home with less than a 20% down payment… why aren’t more people doing just that? One Possible Answer:   Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) Freddie Mac   defines  PMI as: “An insurance policy that protects the lender if you are unable to pay your mortgage. It’s a monthly fee, rolled into your mortgage payment, that is required for all conforming, conventional loans that have down payments less than 20%. Once you’ve built equity of 20% in your home, you can cancel your PMI and remove that expense from your mortgage payment.” As the borrower, you pay the monthly premiums for the insur...

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 know where rates are headed when deciding to start your home search. Below is a chart created using  Freddie Mac’s U.S. Economic & Housing Marketing Outlook .  As you can see, interest rates are projected to increase steadily over the course of the next year. 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 appreciated 6.2% from this time last year and are predicted to be 5.1% higher next year. If both the predictions of home price and interest rate increases become a reality, families would wind up paying considerably more for t...

Home values have risen dramatically over the last twelve months. In  CoreLogic’s  most recent  Home Price Index Report ,  they revealed that national home prices have increased by 6.2% year-over-year. CoreLogic   broke down appreciation even further into four price ranges, giving us a more detailed view than if we had simply looked at the year-over-year increases in national median home price. The chart below shows the four price ranges from the report, as well as each one’s year-over-year growth from July 2017 to July 2018  (the latest data available).   It is important to pay attention to how prices are changing in your local market. The location of your home is not the only factor which determines how much your home has appreciated over the course of the last year. Lower-priced homes have appreciated at greater rates than homes at the upper ends of the spectrum due to demand from first-time home buyers and baby boomers looking to do...

According to CoreLogic's latest Equity Report released  This  Week  in Real Estate  homeowner equity has nearly doubled in five years .  Below are a few  highlights from the third  week of September that influence our business :     *  Homeowner Equity Increased by About $1 Trillion Year-Over-Year .   The amount of equity in mortgaged real estate increased by about $1 trillion in Q2 2018 from Q2 2017, an annual increase of 12.3 percent, according to the latest CoreLogic Equity Report . Homeowner equity has nearly doubled in five years, increasing by $3.9 trillion from Q2 2013 to Q2 2018 . The nationwide negative equity share for Q2 2018 was 4.3 percent of all homes with a mortgage, more than 20 percentage points lower than the peak negative equity share – 26 percent – recorded in Q4 2009.  Over the past 12 months, 570,000 borrowers moved into positive equity.   Full Story . . .  ...

Some Highlights: Housing inventory is still under the 6-month supply that is needed for a normal housing market. Buyers are often competing with one another for the listings that are available. Perhaps the time has come for you and your family to move on and start living the life you desire. SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 / BY  THE KCM CREW

Some Highlights: The  Federal Housing Finance Agency  (FHFA)   recently released their latest quarterly  Home Price Index  report. In the report, home prices are compared both regionally and by state. Based on the latest numbers, if you plan on relocating to another state, waiting to move may end up costing you more! SEPTEMBER 7, 2018 / / BY  THE KCM CREW

Home prices are at the top of everyone’s minds. Can they maintain their current pace of appreciation? Will rising mortgage rates negatively impact home values? Will the next economic slowdown cause prices to crash? Let’s try to answer these questions based on what has happened in the past as well as what we know about the current real estate market. The Impact of Rising Interest Rates We  explained earlier this year  that rising mortgage rates have not negatively impacted home prices in the past and probably wouldn’t this time either.  Freddie Mac’s  comments were very direct: “In the current housing market, the driving force behind the increase in prices is a low supply of both new and existing homes combined with historically low rates. As mortgage rates increase, the demand for home purchases will likely remain strong relative to the constrained supply and continue to put upward pressure on home prices.” They were correct. So far this year, home val...