Tag Archive for: home prices

Rates Fall Back to the Sweet Spot After Oil Crash

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Oil Prices (WTI) Plummeted To $92 Per Barrel From $104 Per Barrel On Monday. Interest rates followed and are now almost 3/8% LOWER than they were a few weeks ago. This unprecedented plunge in oil prices indicates again that very astute oil traders believe the Iran war will not escalate (again, huge investors with money on the line are often more accurate predictors of world events than “expert” pundits).Read More

Fast Closes Are Back! How To Instantly Solve The Affordability Crisis – This Year!

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This is something I thought I’d never see in this rate environment! Our extremely well-qualified buyers are repeatedly getting outbid in multiple-offer situations in the SF Bay Area – with as many as 20 offers in some cases. This Is Why We Are Touting Our 10 to 14 Day Closings Again! This is “calendar days” too; NOT “business days.” If you need to make your offer more competitive, call us to see how fast we can close.Read More

Trump’s Housing Dilemma: Sacrifice Boomers Or Gen Z? Sorry Gen Z…

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There is a beautiful park near my CA home where a six to ten boomers show up every morning at 7 AM to let their dogs run. I’ve gotten to know them well over the years – and this is what is the most interesting. ALL of them bought their homes in the 1990s or early 2000s for anywhere from $400,000 to $900,000 – and ALL of those homes are now worth $2.5 to $3 million.Read More

What Else Can Mr. Trump Do To Bring Down Rates And Home Prices?

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“We should ban rich people from going to McDonald's to bring down McDonald's prices.” 😊 George Gammon said that in jest in response to Mr. Trump’s ban on institutional investors from buying single-family homes. More on that below. In recent days, numerous Trump administration officials (Bessent, Lutnick, etc.) and other macro-observers (including the “All-In” podcast hosts) predicted 5% to 6% GDP growth this year.Read More

No, FHA Is NOT The New Subprime; Foreclosures Aren’t Surging; Immigrants Did Not Dominate FHA

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I frequently see posts about FHA becoming America’s new subprime crisis waiting to happen, particularly regarding down payment assistance loans that allow borrowers to buy a house with very little money out of pocket. So, while I do love the focus on borrowers with no skin in the game, as that was a major cause of the 2008 crisis, the math doesn’t support the doom and gloom.Read More

Conforming Limits Will Likely Jump By 2.36% Woohoo? Or, Uh Oh?

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Rocket Mortgage recently announced its estimates for the new conforming loan limits for 2026: $825,550 for low-cost areas, and $1,238,500 for high-cost areas. There are so many interesting takeaways! Conforming […]Read More

3 Ways To Ensure Home Prices Continue To Soar (And To Make Sure Your Kids Can’t Afford Homes)

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The annual income necessary to buy an average home in the U.S. is now at an all-time record high ($124,200).Read More

Homebuying Conditions Hit All-Time Low – A Very Good Thing, Indeed!

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The housing market has never been this slow or stagnant. So, if you have made it through this market, you can make it through anything. In addition, it looks like we have nowhere to go but up. If the market even returns halfway to average volume (not back to normal, just halfway to “normal”), we will all be swamped in business.Read More

The Cost of Waiting To Buy Is Very High

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Barbara Corcoran is a famous real estate investor, brokerage founder, and star of the TV show Shark Tank, and she recently posted the below IG post explaining why now is […]Read More

Home Prices UP per Case-Shiller and FHFA; Please Ignore Median Home Price Nonsense!

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FHFA (the entity that regulates Fannie and Freddie) also recently released its home price index, and its numbers were even stronger. Per FHFA, February saw a month-over-month gain of 0.5% - which works out to a 6% annual gain.Read More

Debunking Negative Housing News Again. Sigh…

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“I just had a listing sell for $200,000 over asking. All of my homes are selling within a week, and at list price. This is not my reality. Am I missing something?”Read More

House Prices Up 13x; College Coaching Salaries Up 370x – A Bit of Fascinating Perspective

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Woody Hayes was a renowned and somewhat nutty head coach of Ohio State – where he resided for decades, winning a whopping FIVE national championships. He very famously ended his career though when he punched an opposing team’s player after an interception – which you can view here in this 30-second video (a nice reminder that we have always lived in crazy times).Read More

Putting the “Median Home Price” Nonsense to Bed – Once and For All

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Earlier this week, the “Existing Home Sales” report was released for February, and it showed that the median home price in the U.S. had dropped by a whopping 0.2% from February of 2022. The media pounced on this with headlines that screamed: “Home Prices Go Negative!” But… alas, they didn’t.Read More

Rates Fell 1/2% … Almost.

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The Most Important News Report Of The Year Dropped Today! The most important news report was today’s inflation data, as depicted in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report. It is […]Read More