Real Estate is Cooling, but Will it Get Cold?
After a two weeklong negotiation, I (Lee) was successful in getting to a win-win situation with the other members of my household who prefer the thermostat to be set to freezing. We agreed to turn the heat on downstairs to deal with the cooler October temps, and leave...
The Ups and Downs of Real Estate Numbers
Numbers are going up and down in our local market! Interest rates, days on the market, year over year median sale price, and months supply of inventory are all up while active listings, year over year pending and settled sales, and median sales price from May 2022 to...
Is the Market Slowing Down?
Last month we wrote about commonly asked questions as we head into what many (including us) believe is a changing real estate market. Interest rates are going up and buyer demand is going down but by just about all other market measures, we are still in a strong...
Questions About Rates, Sales, and Market Outlook
Rates have been rising for all of 2022 and they took another step up this month. The most frequently asked question now is: what does this mean for the local real estate market? Lee was recently interviewed by a local paper about his thoughts on our local market and...
Do Buyers Care About Interest Rates?
Do Buyers Care about Interest Rates? The short answer is yes - but the rise in rates hasn't done much to slow down the market yet because the number of buyers is still disproportionately higher than the number of sellers. As you take a look at the chart from the Real...
Does 2% Equal 27%?
While this increase feels dramatic, historically, 5% is still a low rate for a 30-year mortgage, and as you can see from last month's year-over-year numbers (March 2021 to March 2022) sales are still going strong in our region. Despite the rate increases, we are still...
Are We Running Out of Cake to Eat?
Our theme for last month was, "Can our local real estate market have cake and eat it too?" but "Are we running out of cake to eat?" might be a better question to ask this month. The number of active listings dropped by 25% over the last two months based on...
February 2022
Have Cake and Eat it too? Last month we wrote about the potential for 2022 to bring in a new type of market and we suggested that a shift away from a seller’s market was unlikely. The latest market summary and statistics from Real Estate Information Network (REIN –...
New Year, New Market? – Trivia Question
For the past year we have been writing about how few homes there are for sale on the market and how that is the largest driver behind our current seller’s market. An important point to make is that while the months supply of inventory is definitely down (December...
December 2021
Just the Facts For the past several months we have been writing about what the local Hampton Roads real estate market did in 2021 and we made a few predictions about where we think the market might be heading. This month we are sticking to the facts and next...