Real Estate Market Update: Mortgage Interest Rates and Home Sale Statistics

Today I am going to share with you a Real Estate Market Update for August 2013. We have a lot of things happening in the real estate industry. If you own a home or plan to own a home, please listen to this short video filled with graphs and statistics concerning the future mortgage interest rates, trends happening right now with house prices, and what you should expect to happen over the next couple months.

As you can imagine, being an expert in this New World of Real Estate, I want to make sure everyone understands what’s happening in the real estate market right now before you make a decision to buy or sell a home.

Let’s get started with what is happening with sales right now. The market is very strong. In January we were at 4.2 months of inventory, now we are at 5 months of inventory. As prices rise people with negative equity now can sell,  hence more homes are coming on the market. Looking at the pending homes graph, pending sales are skyrocketing.

More important than that is the latest projections from NAR over the next 6 quarters, sales are projected to continue on almost a straight line up. Here are Cardano Realtors our goal is to educate people to making the right decisions.

Watch the video to view various graphs that tell the story of what is occurring in the real estate industry.

Median days on the market graph. The graph shows that the days on the market is decreasing. So if your home not sold in the last 60 days on the market, bottom line, it is not priced right.

Case Shiller Report: Home Prices Over the Last 12 Months. This graph shows that yes prices are up from last year. However, in almost every city, they are down pretty dramatically from where the peak was in 2006. In 2006, home prices swung too high. Prices are now recovering, to where they should be and nowhere near where they were in 2006.

Mortgage Rates: Where are the mortgage rates headed?  No one expected interest rates to go up this past month, they went up almost 1 percent. This took everyone by surprise. Interesting enough, 4 major institutions projected the beginning of June this year that the interest rates in 3rd quarter 2014 would be 4.6 to 4.8%. . We hit those rates last month.  No one saw that spike coming.

Rates from January 2012 to Today. Rates were dropping for a good portion all the way to the beginning of this year, then they went up a little bit and came back down again. Then over the last 6 weeks they just skyrocketed.

Rate Change Effect on Monthly Mortgage Payment. Well how does that impact someone buying a $200,000 house. The cost of waiting a year is just over $200 a month. Over 12 months $2,600 a year and over a 30 year mortgage almost $78,000. So if you are looking for a home, it may be a good time to capture these low rates before they go up again.  Home Sellers it is a great time to sell this fall, you have a captive audience and if you are priced right you will find your home selling in less than 60 days. Our average here at Cardano Realtors is 26 days. We find our homes sell for half the time as the average and people who go to our seminars sell 3 times faster than home sellers who did not go to a seminar.

Distressed Sales Graph. Let’s talk about Distressed sales, good for us they are at 18%, the lowest they have been in years.  We are eating through that inventory right now. We are getting back to more normalized numbers, it is still high but nowhere near where it was a couple years ago.

Home Prices Appreciation Since June 2012. This graph from S&P Cash Shiller shows home prices going up every month sign June of last year. Let’s see what happens over the next couple months. If the amount of appreciate slows down that might be something we want to keep our eye on.

Price increases in 20 Metropolitan Areas. Philadelphia is not on this graph, however, I have been told we are around 5%. One thing I know about our area, our prices never get too too high or get too too low, we do not get the large fluctuation in prices as California, Arizona, etc.

That is this month's report, this is Diane Cardano from Cardano Real Estate Experts. We will see you next month with more statistics about the current real estate market.

Secret Formula to Secure a Buyer for Your Home in 26 Days or Less in Today's Market

Secret Formula to Secure a Buyer For Your Home In 26 Days or Less In Today’s Market

In this video, I share with you a TOP SECRET Formula on how to sell your home in 26 Days or less.

First as a Home Seller, you need to understand why it is so important Stage your home months to a year before it goes on the market. Some Sellers are just not coachable enough and do not want to do anything to prepare their home for sale. Others do some work to the home but do not know the real reason why they are doing anything to prepare their home for sale.

Understanding the reason why you should STAGE your home for sale will give you the energy needed to make your home shine for the prospective buyers. The most important reason why you should Staging your home for sale is………..

To Create Demand For Your Property!!!

You need to entice the buyer to look at your home online. The pictures online need to shine to get the buyers to want more!! If they want more, they request more information about the home or to request a physical viewing of the home. The idea is that your pre-market your home months in advance online to get as many buyers looking at your home BEFORE it goes on the market. Then, when the property is ready for showing, buyers will be waiting outside the door. There will be so much excitement that your home will sell quickly, for Top Dollar!!

Therefore, the Secret Formula to selling your home is: (See Video)

   Eyeballs + Foot Traffic = Sale in 26 Days

Eyeballs: The first showing for any home is online, therefore home sellers need to make sure they have the best pictures online. If buyers do not like the home from the website, they will never request more information. If your home is on the market and you are not getting any showings, you need to not only look at the price you are offering for your home, but what are you showing the buyers online.

Buyers will search for a home using an area of interest and a price range. If your home comes up in that search, you get a hit!! They browse through the homes that come up from the search and if the outside picture of your home intrigues the buyer, they will click on it…. ANOTHER HIT!!  Then,if they like what they see on the outside they will view the inside pictures!!

Most IMPORTANTLY, if they like what they see inside and outside, they will raise their hand and request more information and a physical showing of the property. Sometimes it takes 5,000 initial hits just to get 1 showing!!

Foot Traffic. The goal is get as many eyeballs looking at your home online, to get lots of foot traffic into the home. Once you have actual showings on your home, then you can get feedback from the buyer. Feedback tells you what to do next. What are they saying about the home?

Here are some examples of how to interpret feedback from buyers about your home on the market:

Too Small: They feel at that price and with the features that your home has, they can get more for their money.

Bedrooms or a specific room is too small, means at that price they feel they can find a home where the rooms are bigger, or they can afford more… so the home is overpriced.

Home is on a busy street…the home is overpriced. They can find a home on a quieter street and they can afford more.

Don’t like sloping of the backyard, or don’t like how the home is on a hill and has such a steep driveway…the home is overpriced. They can buy other homes in the same price range that do not have these issues.

Asbestos siding…… they can buy a home with vinyl siding at the same price.

Abnormal Lot Shape…Unusually shaped back yard…not a rectangular…At that price, they want a home with a better yard.

Power Lines In Area …they can buy a home without power lines at the same price.

Home is dated, needs too much work…. They expect the home to be more updated at that price.

Ultimately, the perfect home is for everyone. The perfect home is defined as on a rectangular lot, on a quiet street, beautifully landscaped, fenced yard facing the woods, cul-de-sac location, vinyl siding, totally updated inside and out. This is what the buyer will always be comparing your home too. They will settle on some issues, but the buyer who can afford a home at a certain price range will not settle for less.

So getting eyeballs weeks or months before your home is going on the market is so important. It allows you to get feedback before your put your home on the MLS. Once your home is on the MLS, you will never get a chance to make a first impression.

To find out more about how to pre-market your home and get thousands of showings BEFORE your home goes on the market go to www.FreeRoomByRoom.com and sign up for your Free Room by Room review of your home. Each Room by Room review is 30 minutes long and gives you a complete list of things you need to do before your home goes on the market.

Also, sign up for our next Home Seller Seminar where you can learn secret tips from an Expert Advisor.