Tag: sales

Pending home sales are down in CA – what does it mean?

According to the California Association of Realtors, pending home sales have dialed back and marked the weakest February in three years.

Courtesy mcar.com.

Low housing inventory, eroding affordability and rising interest rates made pending sales on a year-over-year basis for the month of February suffer after a good start to the year in closed escrow sales. Also, sellers simply aren’t selling.

They did see elevated market activity, but the Bay Area pending sales specifically were down year-to-year for the fifth straight month. According to the release, the Bay Area has been plagued by a shortage of homes on the market and poor affordability.

We have seen an increase in listings starting in April, but with pent-up demand, buyers are getting frustrated losing out in multiple-offer scenarios and with ever-increasing prices.

If you want to know more about the market, give me a call!

Why Are the Interest Rates So Low?

buy a houseThere have been a lot of articles about interest rates and the stock market recently. First, the German 10-Year Government Bond Yield has hit negative territory. In layman’s terms, this means that Germany gets paid interest to borrow investors’ money, the same thing is happening in Japan. Thus, Germany and Japan are getting paid to borrow money.
On the surface, this seems silly. Why would investors take a negative yield or pay somebody to borrow their money? Because it’s safe. Investors will put money wherever they can in order to ensure they can safely recoup it in the future.
How does this help the real estate market? First, the demand for bonds keeps rates very low, making real estate leverage much cheaper (The Brexit will also have an impact, which will be a different post). When investors have a lot of cash and are looking to put it somewhere, real estate investing becomes a good place to do so.
According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the number of homes that went under contract to be sold in April was the highest in more than a decade. It was also the strongest month in more than eight years for new home sales – with a 16.6% jump from the previous month. We do tend to see a bit of a lull in the summer as families head off for vacation.
If you are a buyer, it might be a great time to jump into the real estate market! Give me a call if you would like some help.