The Case for Buying Now, Even With High Interest Rates

May 10, 2024Posted inReal Estate
Let's get this out of the way-- assuming it isn't a global economic calamity that will cause this, of course we want interest rates to drop dramatically. The amount of money that goes poof every month being smaller is better for buyers, sellers, and just about everyone else. Even for lenders. Buyers paying lower interest rates means sellers have more buyers in the pool and therefore can get higher prices, all without raising the mortgage payment. Win/win. There's your perfect world…

By the Numbers: Our Real Estate Year So Far

April 11, 2024Posted inReal Estate
We're a quarter of the way through 2024 (I know, right?) so let's pretend we're on Wall Street and take a quick look at our Q1 numbers: What you're looking at: on Portland's west side, 2,444 new listings came on market in the first three months of this year. This is a 7% increase over last year, which is a welcome development. Last year was pretty, pretty bad for new inventory, as the recency of the interest rate hikes was keeping…
WOW Does it Cost a Lot to Live in California

WOW Does it Cost a Lot to Live in California

March 14, 2024Posted inReal Estate
I saw an eye-popping stat the other day: the median single-family, resale home price in 2023 for the San Jose, CA metro area (so, Silicon Valley basically) was $1.765 million, based on preliminary estimates. This was the highest for any metro in the nation, and by a lot-- it beat the rest of the Bay Area by half a million bucks. I would surmise that if you asked the average California expat living in Portland (like myself) why they made the…
ChatGPT Did Not Write This Post

ChatGPT Did Not Write This Post

February 15, 2024Posted inReal Estate
There is both art and science to selling a home. Mostly, this blog is concerned with the science but even to me that gets boring sometimes, so not to threaten you with too much of a good time but there won't be any charts and graphs in this post. This time around I wanted to talk more about the art, and the science that is interfering with it. The science in question: ChatGPT. I'll warn you now, there will be snark…
Portland Real Estate: 2023 in Review

Portland Real Estate: 2023 in Review

January 11, 2024Posted inReal Estate
In the interest of starting the new year on a high note, let's dispense with the misanthropy right away-- interest rates are too high, there aren't enough houses for sale, they're all too expensive, and we're sick of Agreeable Gray paint. Done! Moving on! The word to describe the 2023 housing market is blip, not correction. Yes, interest rates remained significantly higher than they were during the manic rush for government cheese we saw in 2020 and 2021. Yes, inventory was…

How Buyer Agents Get Paid

December 12, 2023Posted inReal Estate
In the event that headline news isn't really your thing, I'll fill you in on the potentially seismic developments in the world of real estate commissions. Recently, jurors heard a class action case filed against the National Association of Realtors (the trade group to which anyone who calls themselves a capital-R Realtor belongs) and several large brokerages. They came to the conclusion, essentially, that the NAR practice of requiring sellers to offer compensation to buyer agents (those who bring a buyer…
How to Sell Your House 3-6 Months From Now

How to Sell Your House 3-6 Months From Now

October 12, 2023Posted inReal Estate
Last month's topic of the day month was about the best time to sell a house. The tl; dr conclusion from that effort was that you will face more competition in the spring and summer, but it generally is still worth it. More people are shopping, more people are selling, and homes tend to get higher prices. So for today's class, let's talk about how you can use the upcoming winter of our discontent to get ready for the glory of…
Is There a “Best” Time of Year to Sell Your House?

Is There a “Best” Time of Year to Sell Your House?

September 15, 2023Posted inReal Estate
"Selling season" is a term you may be acquainted with when it comes to real estate. The conventional wisdom is that spring and summer are the best times to buy and sell, as that's when families are making plans with the next school year in mind and there are no major holiday distractions. Also, it's warmer. The newness of spring, the thaw, the rebirth- all that jazz. Far more houses do sell during these seasons, that's a fact. But are sellers…

List Price is Merely a Suggestion

August 11, 2023Posted inReal Estate
"I can't believe this market, every house is going for $100k over asking!" Whether in conversation or online forums, that- or something similar- has been commonly heard over the past couple of years. The impression is that everything goes for over asking. The reality is more nuanced. This past July, the percent of homes that sold above their asking price was 40%. About the same number sold under asking, and 20% sold at their current list price (which may not be…
What Makes Home Prices “Sticky?”

What Makes Home Prices “Sticky?”

July 12, 2023Posted inReal Estate
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The median sale price of a home on Portland's west side this June was $625,000, up .8% over last June. For the first half of the year combined, the median was 2.6% lower than it was for 2022's first half. In other words, despite a year of rapid change to the world of mortgage lending- changes that essentially doubled the cost of financing- the price of the home itself has stuck…