Whenever I talk about the federal funds rate (or fed rate), it’s usually in response to the affect it has on mortgage interest rates. In most of the news outlets as well, this angle usually spurs the most interest from potential homebuyers as they try to time the market for their home purchase. However, there is a group of people that this change could affect more, and they might have nothing to do with the home buying demographic. [Read more…] about Fed Rate Hikes Affect Non-Homebuyers Too: Here’s How
Real Estate
No Fear in Homebuyers, Despite Halloween! 🎃
Happy Fall Everyone! The leaves are beginning to turn brown…well, the leaves that are dead are brown, but the rest are still green #fallinhawaii. In fact, thanks to a couple HEAVY rain storms, the island is extra green and lush!! Speaking of green, green arrows mean median prices are up along with closed sales! Let’s take a look at the stats for October and see if there’s anything new to report… [Read more…] about No Fear in Homebuyers, Despite Halloween! 🎃
‘Akoko Coming to Ho‘opili
DR Horton stopped by the office today to update on the latest release coming for their Ho‘opili development out on the Ewa Plains. Titled ‘Akoko, it will be all multi-unit buildings with prices starting in the $300Ks on the affordable end. [Read more…] about ‘Akoko Coming to Ho‘opili
The Real Estate Balloon Keeps Soaring Higher! 🎈
What!? Fall already!? School is back in session, the REAL summer heat has set in, and real estate prices continue to set year-over-year gains. A quick shout-out before we get into the numbers, as my thoughts are with all of the people affected by the unprecedented weather in the southeast United States. I have a lot of friends and family affected by all of it, and ask that everyone do their best to help out those in need this fall! Anyway, on to the stats… [Read more…] about The Real Estate Balloon Keeps Soaring Higher! 🎈
5 Tips for Making Moving a Breeze
While the anticipation of a new home is exciting, moving everything to a new place is often a daunting experience. Below are several tips to help you streamline your move and take the pain out of the moving process. Forward this information on to friends and family to help them organize their moves as well.
Condos Feeling Left Out, Join Record-High Club
Happy August Everyone! I can’t believe that we are here, in the eighth month of the year already! Summer flew by, with signals like kids going back to school, temperatures rising, and traffic is back on the freeways. The real estate market however, is not showing any signs of slowing down as condos performed extraordinarily over the month of July. [Read more…] about Condos Feeling Left Out, Join Record-High Club
5 Ways to Freshen Up Your Bathroom
The bathroom is one of the most popular rooms of the house to renovate. But, you don’t have to overhaul it to make it sparkle like new. Below are five tips to enhance the appearance of your bathroom without undertaking an expensive and intensive remodel. Forward this information on to family and friends who are looking to update their bathrooms.
Records Were Meant to Be Broken
You may have seen the recent article titled, “Prices Through the Roof,” in the July 7th issue of the Star-Advertiser. Besides the fact that they used the exact same title, almost to the day last year, it’s a headline that will catch some eyes and sell some papers. While I’ve been talking about this climb for a while now, let’s take a look at the June numbers to see just how “through the roof” we are.
The biggest number on the board is the median sales price of single-family homes at $795,000. That’s to say, if we were to take all of the closings last month, put them on a list in order of sales price, and looked at the one smack in the middle, it would have sold for $795,000. On its own, that’s a big number and eerily close to $800,000. But if we look at the entire year as a whole, the median price is only up 3.2% year to date. Versus June 2016, which was up 6.1% year to date, that median number may seem large, but the overall market is showing slower growth. Yes, we may see that median price jump over $800,000 in the near future, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start predicting a million dollar median price by 2022.
The most surprising number, in my opinion, is the number of closed sales in the single-family home market. In June, that number jumped 14.2% over last year, and continues up year-to-date. With all the industry talk about limited inventory, the number of closed sales continue to climb. This is especially surprising as the months of inventory (the number of months it would take to sell everything, if nothing else came on the market) dropped 10% to 2.7 months.
Condos saw their numbers dip a little, but continue to rise year to date. At $400,000 median price for the month of June, and $399,000 median price year-to-date, they are also on track to close the year as expected. I don’t see any real reason to believe that the growth should change, but will be interested to see as a lot of new listings came on the market last month (692, up 18.5% over June 2016, and up 9.8% year-to-date over 2016).
Looking forward, I don’t see any shortage of growth in prices but will be watching the inventory numbers closely. I’ll be looking to see if that ratio between new listings and closed sales still pushes the months of inventory down, or if the high prices start a shift.
Happy July everyone!
Nick