The Truth About Interest Rates

The Truth About Interest Rates

Hey, guys! Thanks for visiting my real estate blog!

Our preferred lender Jeffery Nielsen passed along a chart about interest rates to me. As many of you know interest rates have increased over the past couple of months. Today, I wanted to show you this graph and help put our rising rates into perspective.

This chart goes all the way back to 1983 through today. In  1983 interest rates were at 13.24 percent. In 1990 they were at 10.13 percent. In 2001 they were 6.97 percent. Finally, in the first quarter of 2013 interest rates were at 3.68 percent.

So, while we are seeing a slight increase from the beginning of this year, rates are still historically low. If you are thinking about buying a home, do it now!

If you want to get started looking for a home, give me call!

Median Sales Price Gains in the Real Estate Market

Welcome back to our video blog! We are going to be talking about July’s numbers and what has happened in last 30 days versus the past year and how it affects you!

So, there has been continued increases in sales and double digit growth in new listings for the fourth straight month. How exciting is that? That mean our market has bounced back!

The demand in our market is still strong, especially in the summer months. Inventory has continued to climb but the pace has slowed due to new listings. High demand and low supply has contributed to the median sales price increases. The year to date median price is nearly 10% higher than it was during the same period in 2012.

While the number of new contracts and sales have decreased since June, this is typical summer patterns and the decline was smaller than it was in past year. Increasing prices may encourage people to sell their home, with us!

This is exciting information!

Falls Church City is number 1.  From July 2012 to July 2013, the year over year increase is 23.5%; that’s huge!

Fairfax City’s median sale price in 2012 was $425,000; in 2013 it was $487,500. That’s a 14.7% increase.

Prince George experienced a 19.5% year over year increase!

In any event, when you are thinking about buying or selling and want a free consultation, we’d be happy to do that for you! We can find out how much your home is worth!

Northern Virginia July Housing Market Update

Thanks for watching my video! I’m sure you’ve heard a million times how crazy the market is! A recent report from Redfin, though, shows a slight slowdown in the market as inventory has increased.

Redfin ranks 22 markets across the country by the percentage of homes that went under contract in 14 days of their debut. In May, 32% of homes went under contract in two weeks. That’s a great number, but it’s a drop from April by 1.2%. That’s the largest percentage drop since December of 2012.

Inventory has also increased. It rose 4.2% from April to May and 6.4% from March to April. The increase in inventory indicates it may be contributing to the market slow down.

So what does this mean? Homebuyers who are already in the market are becoming more aggressive to buy a home. Interest rates have been increasing to right below 5%. This is still a great rate, though! I always tell people about my parents who bought their home in 1978 at an 18% interest rate! 5% is still an amazing rate!

So call me so we can get started on finding you your new home!