Real Estate | Appraisal Service
As people rethink how they use their homes, some design trends that were popular in recent years are quickly fading. For example, the open layout is becoming less trendy as homeowners favor more privacy. Apartment Therapy recently asked designers to chime in on which home decorating trends they think will fall out of style in the new year.
Continue…https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2020/12/21/2020-has-killed-these-3-home-design-tren
December 17, 2020
The Federal Reserve left borrowing costs at record lows on Wednesday, while acknowledging there’s still a long way to go as the nation’s economy heals from the COVID-19 outbreak.
The key rate acts as a benchmark for borrowing and savings. Interest rates will remain at 0% to 0.25%, which they have since March. The Fed’s benchmark rates do not have a direct influence over mortgage ratesbut can influence them. Mortgage rates have been reaching all-time lows in recent weeks and likely will continue to stay low, economists say.
Fed officials on Wednesday did upgrade their economic outlook and said that they believe the economy will rebound strongly once a coronavirus vaccine is widely available. The Fed also said it was more optimistic about employment and growth. Still, it will likely keep its interest rates at record lows until at least through 2023, according to its forecasts.
“The path of the economy will depend significantly on the course of the virus,” the Fed said in a statement following the meeting. “The ongoing public health crisis will continue to weigh on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term.”
Fed officials predict that unemployment will drop to 5 percent by the end of 2021 and to 4.2% by the end of 2022. Fed officials are also more hopeful about growth in the GDP, predicting it could grow by 4.2% by the end of 2021.
Also on Wednesday, the Fed renewed its commitment to continue buying at least $120 billion worth of bonds each month “until substantial further progress has been made” on employment and inflation remains at 2%.
“Together, these measures will ensure that monetary policy will continue to deliver powerful support to the economy until the recovery is complete,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said in a news conference.Source: “Fed Keeps Interest Rates at Near-Zero as Coronavirus Rebound Sputters,” Bankrate.com (Dec. 16, 2020) and “Fed Leaders More Optimistic on Jobs, GDP Growth at Final 2020 Policy Meeting,” The Washington Post (Dec. 16, 2020)Comment
2020 marks the biggest year in the history of lending at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Chris Birk, director of education at Veterans United Home Loans, told Bankrate.com.
The volume of mortgages backed by the VA has drastically increased: VA loan volume nearly doubled from 2019 to 2020. This also marks the first time that the VA has issued more than 1 million loans in one year.
“This was truly a historic year,” Birk says.
Continue… https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2020/12/16/va-loans-are-having-a-record-year
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rate averaged 2.71% this week, holding at the all-time low first set last week, Freddie Mac reported.
The ultra-low mortgage rates are making homebuying more attractive and boosting sales activity to the highest level since 2006, economists said at the National Association of REALTORS®’ virtual Real Estate Forecast Summit on Thursday. While home prices are rising annually by double-digit percentages, mortgage payments remain more affordable due to low mortgage rates.
https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2020/12/11/mortgage-rates-remain-at-record-lows-this-week
Homeowners are enjoying their property’s outdoor space more during the pandemic, and house hunters are paying particular attention to outdoor features as they evaluate homes to purchase. Landscape design firm Tilly Design predicts the top trends for outdoor space in 2021.
1. “Social” front yards. You can still bond with neighbors while observing social distancing guidelines. Maximizing the front porch or front yard, where you can communicate with neighbors from a distance, likely will become an even bigger trend next year. “In an effort to maximize your property and feel more connected to neighbors, social front yards will continue to be a priority,” Tilly Design’s forecast notes. “Move over hedges, and move in bistro seating and chairs to watch the neighbors pass you by.”
Continue…https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2020/12/09/4-outdoor-home-trends-that-may-gain-steam-in-2021
November 2, 2017 by Dylan Chalk
If I were a real estate agent and I had worked weeks, months, or even years with a client, I would dread home inspection time. Experienced real estate professionals know there are hundreds of ways a deal can fall apart, from credit and financing problems to appraisals to just plain cold feet. But certainly, one of the more common deal killers is the home inspection. But it doesn’t have to be. To help prevent home inspection time from becoming contract termination time, here are a few thoughts from the point of view of an experienced home inspector.
From my experience, there are three home inspection situations that lead to a canceled transaction. You might be surprised to hear two things are not on this list: the house and the home inspector. Having spent more than a dozen years performing more than 5,000 structural home inspections, I have found that some real estate agents do think that the home or the home inspector is to blame, but let’s step back for a minute and look at what really happens in these situations.
When the findings uncovered in a home inspection significantly alter the buyer’s expectations about what they thought they were buying, this causes problems. You might hear something like, “Gee, I thought I was buying X, but now that we have looked closely, I see the house is more Y” from your client.
From this point of view, the cancellation has everything to do with the client’s expectations coming into the inspection. It might be tempting to wish the home inspector had been less forthcoming about the condition of the house, but that implies that the client should experience some level of deceit or poor communication from the home inspector. The better solution to this common problem is buyers having more realistic expectations before they sign the contract. This is why I wrote my book, The Confident House Hunter—to teach people skills that will help them look at houses and evaluate risk so they are more prepared to make an offer on the right house. Here are the top three reasons buyers cancel a deal after the inspection.
There are no classes in college or high school to teach people how houses work or where risk lies in a residential building. Even professional real estate agents have little or no training to help them understand how to look at houses and identify issues; most of these skills are learned on the job through the school of hard knocks. This problem has been exacerbated in recent years by a new generation of home buyers, many of whom who did not grow up working on their houses with their parents.
Adding another layer of complexity to modern homebuying is how much our assumptions about houses have changed. Most buyers now expect a level of luxury and comfort in a house that consumers could scarcely have imagined as recently as the 1960s. The result is that people are now buying more expensive and more complex homes, yet have less understanding of how they are built or how they work. And in markets enduring tight inventory conditions, your clients have less and less time for decision-making, as multiple offers and spontaneous action become the norm and increase the chances for buyer remorse.
Further complicating matters is the reality that home inspections have changed as well. It’s a relatively new industry, and over the past 15 years, I’ve watched computer-generated reports, digital cameras, and other new tools lead to rapid innovation. Today, upon hiring a quality home inspector, a buyer can expect to receive a 40- to 60-page report with dozens or even hundreds of high-resolution color photos, detailed diagrams, and links to additional information. The reality is, your clients have access to more information and receive more data about the home they are purchasing than ever before. However, they often lack the tools to help them digest all of the facts.
The number one reason deals fall apart after a home inspection is that the findings significantly change what the home buyer thought they were buying. Many make the mistake blaming the home inspector or the house. That’s why I created a new motto for home buyers: “All houses have problems, but every house is a great house for the right person at the right price.”
I’ve inspected houses that I felt were teardowns, meaning the property would be costlier to fix than it was worth. Upon giving this information to one homebuilder client, he said, “Great! I was hoping to tear it down anyway.” I have inspected other houses that I thought should be torn down, but buyers wanted to renovate them anyway because they were in love with the cabin-like feel of the place and they had the resources to make their dream come true, even if it was not the most cost-effective approach. If an inspection on a teardown can go well, then really any inspection should be able to be successful, right? Looking at property from this point of view, we start to see that “bad houses” are extremely rare, even though unrealistic expectations on the part of buyers or sellers can make them seem like they are common.
I am always surprised when people read my inspection reports and comment something like, “Oh, you hated that house.” I do not hate houses. I am simply doing my best to document the condition of the property so the right person can buy it at what they believe is the right price. I love houses; it is unrealistic expectations that I don’t like.
One of the hardest things for me to hear is the charge that home inspectors are killing deals. I do feel that the industry could do more to train inspectors on both technical and communications skills. In fact, communication training is particularly lacking in home inspection schools and continuing education courses. But I also feel that the real estate industry could do more to prepare agents to teach buyers a better way to look at the “bones” of houses. I am not aware of any requirements for new real estate agents to learn anything about houses to get a real estate license in my home state of Washington, and maybe that should change.
The truth is all houses pose some level of risk, and there are skills everyone can learn to help evaluate that risk and make appropriate offers on the right homes. A more transparent approach could help us all show up to the inspection armed with realistic expectations. This could save everyone a lot of time and heartache, resulting in happier clients, better referrals, and a lot less talk about home inspections killing deals.
Home inspector Dylan Chalk is the author of The Confident House Hunter (Cedar Fort Press), a book to teach home buyers how to look at and understand houses. He is the owner of Seattle-based Orca Inspection Services LLC, and in 2017 he accepted the position of vice president of the American Society of Home Inspectors’ western Washington chapter.
Real estate pros are expanding charitable outreach in their communities in a variety of ways, from reaching out to those isolated in quarantine to making food deliveries to the elderly and frontline workers.
The median annual value of REALTOR® associations’ donations to communities in 2020 has doubled to $10,000. What’s more, 92% of broker-owners have made donations this year, and two-thirds of REALTORS® report volunteering on a monthly basis, according to the National Association of REALTORS®’ newly released Community Aid and Real Estate Report.
“REALTORS® are in the business of helping people and serving their communities, and we’ve seen countless examples of this play out nationwide during this pandemic,” says NAR President Charlie Oppler. “To hear that my colleagues in the real estate industry have pitched in to an even greater degree than usual is indeed heartwarming, but it is also not surprising.”
More details: https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2020/12/03/realtors-increase-their-giving-volunteerism-during-the-pandemic
CoStar Group, a global giant in commercial real estate information and analytics, is jumping into the residential world. The company announced it will purchase Homesnap Inc. for $250 million in cash.
Homesnap provides residential real estate brokers with apps and technology for managing listings. About 300,000 residential real estate professionals use Homesnap, averaging 30 times a month. Homesnap’s revenue this year is expected to top $40 million, a 45% increase over a year ago.
Continue… https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2020/11/24/commercial-giant-takes-step-into-residential-data-business
Due to rising home prices, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday that it would raise loan limits for mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
In most of the country, the 2021 maximum conforming loan limit for single-family properties will be $548,250. That marks a 7.4% increase from last year’s limit of $510,400. The FHFA’s loan limits define the maximum amount that Fannie and Freddie can finance for a one-unit single-family home.
Continue…https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2020/11/25/fhfa-increases-conforming-loan-limits-for-2021
No doubt, 2020 has been a uniquely challenging year. With unemployment still above pre-pandemic levels, the country coming to terms with longstanding racial inequities, Americans worrying about natural disasters and coming off a contentious national election, and the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, people are searching for reasons to feel gratitude this Thanksgiving.
The housing market has emerged as an economic bright spot. While the nation continues to feel the widespread effects from 2020’s turmoil, here are a few things the real estate industry can be grateful for this year.
Continue… https://magazine.realtor/daily-news/2020/11/25/what-real-estate-has-to-be-grateful-for-in-2020
Perrella & Associates
1932 E 2nd Ave
Hibbing, MN 55746
Phone: 218-262-5582
Fax: 218-262-5584
