"Now, one thing I tell everyone is learn about real estate. Repeat after me: real estate provides the highest returns, the greatest values and the least risk."
~Armstrong Williams
Homebuyers Cast Wary Eye On Rising Rates by Conor Dougherty WSJ July 10 -2013
July 10 -2013 Rising mortgage rates are the biggest worry for prospective home buyers—bigger than rising prices and the lack of available choices, according to a survey released today by Trulia, an online real estate site.
Still, the survey suggested that rates—which remain below 5%—aren’t likely to be a deterrent to home buyers just yet.
Mortgage rates have jumped in recent weeks, creating concerns that the rebounding real-estate market could lose steam. A separate survey released Wednesday from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 4.68% last week—the highest rate in two years and up from 4.58% a week earlier.
While prospective homeowners may be concerned about rising rates, they shouldn’t be surprised, Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko notes in a blog post about mortgage rates. Economists have been expecting rates to increase because the economy is improving and market expectations that the Federal Reserve will ease up on bond buying and other extraordinary measures designed to keep interest rates low. . . . KEEP READING
Still, the survey suggested that rates—which remain below 5%—aren’t likely to be a deterrent to home buyers just yet.
Mortgage rates have jumped in recent weeks, creating concerns that the rebounding real-estate market could lose steam. A separate survey released Wednesday from the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 4.68% last week—the highest rate in two years and up from 4.58% a week earlier.
While prospective homeowners may be concerned about rising rates, they shouldn’t be surprised, Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko notes in a blog post about mortgage rates. Economists have been expecting rates to increase because the economy is improving and market expectations that the Federal Reserve will ease up on bond buying and other extraordinary measures designed to keep interest rates low. . . . KEEP READING
Why Home-Price Gains Will Slow Among Higher Interest Rates by Nick Timaroas WSJ July 8th 2013
Home prices moved up at a torrid pace during the first half of the year, but don’t expect them to keep pace during the second half.
The big spike in mortgage rates over the past two months has reset the housing market and figures to take a bite out of demand at a time when more sellers have listed homes for sale and when price gains have tested investors’ purchasing appetites.
Mortgage rates, which stood at a low of 3.59% at the beginning of May, jumped to 4.58% during the last week of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Rates rose even more last Friday, after a strong jobs report firmed up investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve would begin to curtail its bond-buying program later this year.
A rule of thumb holds that every one percentage point increase in interest rates reduces affordability by 10%, so the recent move in rates just made homes about 10% more expensive to buyers who need to finance their purchase.
“There’s no one in the business right now who doesn’t think the market hasn’t taken a step back. The evidence is all around us,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of real-estate brokerage Redfin. The number of Redfin customers who requested tours during the last week of June was down 5% from the average for the previous three weeks, while the number of customers making offers was down by 8% and the number of new customers edged down by 2%. . . . KEEP READING
The big spike in mortgage rates over the past two months has reset the housing market and figures to take a bite out of demand at a time when more sellers have listed homes for sale and when price gains have tested investors’ purchasing appetites.
Mortgage rates, which stood at a low of 3.59% at the beginning of May, jumped to 4.58% during the last week of June, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Rates rose even more last Friday, after a strong jobs report firmed up investors’ expectations that the Federal Reserve would begin to curtail its bond-buying program later this year.
A rule of thumb holds that every one percentage point increase in interest rates reduces affordability by 10%, so the recent move in rates just made homes about 10% more expensive to buyers who need to finance their purchase.
“There’s no one in the business right now who doesn’t think the market hasn’t taken a step back. The evidence is all around us,” said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of real-estate brokerage Redfin. The number of Redfin customers who requested tours during the last week of June was down 5% from the average for the previous three weeks, while the number of customers making offers was down by 8% and the number of new customers edged down by 2%. . . . KEEP READING
Interoperability between Trulia, Zillow, and Realtor.com by Andrew Thompson july 11 2013
During Inman Real Estate Connect San Francisco’s session titled "The Industry Destiny: Imagine Your Industry Destiny in 2018", an adversarial panel took the stage to discuss future trends within the real estate industry.
The panel included Redfin’s CEO, Trulia’s CEO, Zillow’s COO, Realtor.com’s President and Forbes Media’s Senior Real Estate Reporter.
One such trend was the need for each online real estate software platform to work together more effectively through the use of established open APIs in order to exchange relevant data about a user’s context. User personalization and more intelligent recommendations were the driving force behind this view point.
Each company identified the need to pass information back and forth between each other to facilitate a better understanding of a user’s current needs and determine where they are within the home buying or selling process.
For example, if a home buyer started their search on www.zillow.com and then switched to www.trulia.com, Trulia should be able to ask Zillow, via their open API, for relevant data related to what type of homes they might be interested in, how many homes they have already viewed or what agents they have contacted. . . . KEEP READING
The panel included Redfin’s CEO, Trulia’s CEO, Zillow’s COO, Realtor.com’s President and Forbes Media’s Senior Real Estate Reporter.
One such trend was the need for each online real estate software platform to work together more effectively through the use of established open APIs in order to exchange relevant data about a user’s context. User personalization and more intelligent recommendations were the driving force behind this view point.
Each company identified the need to pass information back and forth between each other to facilitate a better understanding of a user’s current needs and determine where they are within the home buying or selling process.
For example, if a home buyer started their search on www.zillow.com and then switched to www.trulia.com, Trulia should be able to ask Zillow, via their open API, for relevant data related to what type of homes they might be interested in, how many homes they have already viewed or what agents they have contacted. . . . KEEP READING
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