Surety Land Abstract, LLC

Surety Land Abstract, LLC Let Surety Land Abstract help you through the process of purchasing or refinancing your real estate.

We are a hands-on full service abstract and title company dedicated to guiding you through the sometimes complicated and intimidating settlement process.

12/18/2023

2023 - Tough Homebuying Year

2023 has been the least affordable year to buy a home in Redfin’s records, but things are looking up for 2024, according to a report from the real estate brokerage.

Someone making the $78,642 median U.S. income in 2023 would’ve had to spend 41.4 percent of their earnings on monthly housing costs if they bought the $408,806 median-priced U.S. home. That’s the highest share on record and is up from 38.7 percent in 2022.

The typical 2023 homebuyer needed to earn an annual income of at least $109,868 if they wanted to spend no more than 30 percent of their earnings on monthly housing payments for the median-priced home. That’s a record high — up 8.5 percent from 2022 — and is $31,226 more than the typical household makes in a year.

Housing affordability has dwindled because wages haven’t increased as quickly as homebuying costs. The median monthly housing payment for homebuyers in 2023 was a record $2,715, up 12.6 percent from 2022. Over the same period, the median household income rose 5.2 percent to an estimated $78,642—also a record high, but not high enough to offset the jump in housing costs.

In 2024, Redfin predicts listings will climb further, mortgage rates will fall to about 6.6 percent, and prices will drop 1 percent.

Market Data
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Ref: The Title Report

12/02/2023

Housing trends for 2024

Looking ahead to 2024, Zillow predicts homebuyers will have a bit more breathing room — but only a bit.

“Higher for longer” is the key refrain regarding mortgage rates as Zillow economists look ahead to the next year in housing. It’s becoming clear that high mortgage rates have some staying power. Zillow economists expect more homeowners who locked in long-term payments when rates were near all-time lows to list their homes for sale, as they grow weary of waiting for the historically low rates of 2021 to return.

With mortgage rates rising over the past two years, homeowners have been reluctant to sell, opting instead to hold onto the ultralow interest rate on their current mortgage. Many of those homeowners will have their eye on a home with a bigger backyard, an extra bedroom or in their preferred neighborhood across town, and Zillow predicts more of these homeowners will end their holdout for lower rates and go ahead with those moves.

More homes on the market would be good news for buyers, spreading demand and slowing price growth.

Zillow’s latest forecast calls for home values to hold steady in 2024.

The cost of buying a home looks likely to level off next year, with the possibility of costs falling if mortgage rates do.

Ref: The Title Report

11/15/2023

Buyer Housing Demand Remains Strong

Despite mortgage rates reaching 23-year highs, low housing inventory levels are spurring surprisingly strong competition, according to Zillow’s latest market report.

Depleted inventory stocks are gradually recovering, and price appreciation is slowing, but demand has remained resilient, and attractive, appropriately priced listings are moving quickly.

The key number for any potential buyer or seller is the mortgage rate, which marched skyward through October and finished the month near 8 percent. Rate hikes pushed monthly payments on a typical U.S. home up by more than 4 percent from September to October. At $1,991, monthly payments are up almost 10 percent compared with last October and have nearly doubled in two years, according to Zillow.

New listings fell nearly 5 percent from September, a smaller drop than would be expected seasonally. A deficit of 19 percent compared with pre-pandemic levels is much improved from a trough of -35 percent in April, Zillow added.

Zillow data shows that rising rates and recovering inventory translate to fewer buyers in bidding wars and more sellers cutting list prices. In October, 25.2 percent of sellers cut their list price, up from 23.9 percent in September. The share of sales that closed for higher than list price fell from almost 37 percent in August to 34 percent in September, but that’s still well above pre-pandemic norms of the low- to mid-20s.

ref: The Title Report

11/08/2023

Sellers Starting To Drop Prices

Nearly 7 percent of for-sale homes posted a price drop during the four weeks ending Oct. 29, on average, the highest portion on record, according to a Redfin report.

The record comes as mortgage rates hover at elevated levels, hitting their highest level in 23 years and cutting deep into buyers’ budgets. High rates have forced some sellers to lower their asking price to make up for high interest rates on monthly payments.

Buyers don’t have the budget they would have had two years ago or even one year ago before mortgage rates jumped to 7.5% plus.

Price drops becoming more prevalent than ever while prices continue increasing illustrate today’s bizarre housing market, according to Redfin. Agents describe a mismatch between sellers’ high expectations and the reality of buyers’ budgets, saying it’s more important than ever for sellers to price fairly from the start to attract buyers and sell quickly.

Ref: The Title Report

10/20/2023

Home Buyer Affordability Falls Again

A homebuyer must earn $114,627 to afford the median-priced U.S. home, up 15 percent ($15,285) from a year ago and up more than 50 percent since the start of the pandemic, according to a new report from Redfin.

That’s Redfin’s highest annual income necessary to afford a home on record.

“In a homebuyer’s ideal world, rising mortgage rates would push demand and home prices down enough to make up for high interest payments,” Redfin Economics Research Lead Chen Zhao said in a release. “But that’s not what’s happening now: Although new listings are ticking up slightly, inventory is still near record lows as homeowners hang onto their low mortgage rates—and that’s propping up prices.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 7.07 percent in August. Mortgage rates have climbed even higher since then, hitting 7.57 percent during the week ending Oct. 12—their highest level in over two decades.

Ref: The Title Report

10/09/2023

Reduced Home Purchasing Power

Mortgage rates hit their highest level in more than 20 years, pushing homebuyers’ monthly housing payments to all-time highs, according to new Redfin data.

A buyer on a $3,000 monthly budget, for instance, can afford a $419,000 home with a 7.7 percent mortgage rate, roughly the daily average on Oct. 4. That buyer has lost $38,000 in purchasing power since last October, when they could have bought a $457,000 home with a 6.6 percent rate.

By that time, buyers had already lost a significant amount of purchasing power since the start of the year, as mortgage rates doubled throughout 2022: A buyer on a $3,000 budget could have purchased a $595,000 home with the 3.5 percent rates common at the start of 2022, Redfin added.

In addition to sky-high mortgage rates, rising home prices are cutting into buyers’ budgets. The typical U.S. home sold for $371,000 during the four weeks ending Oct. 1, up 3 percent from a year earlier.
Ref: The Title Report

10/02/2023

Relocation of Families Continues

A record 26 percent of homebuyers are looking to move to a different part of the country, according to a new report from Redfin.

Elevated mortgage rates have cooled the overall housing market, with fewer homes for sale and fewer buyers in the market. But a high portion of the homebuyers who are moving are relocating to different metro areas.

After Sacramento, Las Vegas and three Florida metros – Orlando, North Port-Sarasota and Tampa – are the most popular destinations for homebuyers looking to relocate.

Myrtle Beach, S.C., climbed to sixth after debuting on Redfin’s list of most popular destinations in July at number nine. Another Florida metro, Cape Coral, is also in the top 10.
ref: The Title Report

09/13/2023

Is the Real Estate Market Changing?

An expected end-of-summer slowdown in the housing market came with a pleasant surprise for home shoppers in August; a moderate listings increase, according to a new report from Zillow.

Sellers listed nearly 350,000 homes for sale across the U.S. in August, about 4 percent more than in July. Although the number of new listings is more than 20 percent below pre-pandemic norms, the uptick gave shoppers a few fresh choices at a time of year when the flow of inventory is typically drying up.

Sales activity decreased: There were 19 percent fewer newly pending listings in August than last year, compared with a roughly 15 percent year-over-year dip in July, according to Zillow.
Ref: The Title Report

09/01/2023

First Time Homebuying Trend

Half of all homebuyers are purchasing their first home, the highest share Zillow has ever recorded.

Zillow’s 2023 Consumer Housing Trends Report finds first-time buyers now make up 50 percent of all homebuyers, up from 45 percent last year and from 37 percent in 2021. The share of first-time buyers likely hasn’t been this high since around 2010, when there was a first-time homebuyer tax credit.

First-time buyers are making gains relative to repeat buyers. Zillow research finds a vast majority of homeowners with mortgages have locked in a rate below 5 percent and are almost half as likely to consider moving.

The significant rise in the share of first-time buyers helps explain what’s driving demand and keeping upward pressure on prices in a market with mortgage rates surpassing 7 percent.

Ref: The Title Report

07/19/2023

Home Values Increase - Inventory Still Low

The typical home value eclipsed $350,000 for the first time as healthy demand from buyers continues to collide with reluctant sellers, according to new data from Zillow.

The typical U.S. home value climbed 1.4 percent from May to June, continuing a four-month hot streak. The new peak of $350,213 is almost 1 percent higher than last June and barely edges out the previous Zillow Home Value Index record set in July 2022.

Zillow said the flow of new homes for sale ticked up 2.4 percent month-over-month, but the annual deficit deepened, now standing at 28 percent fewer listings than a year ago.

June is usually one of the best months for fresh inventory, but this year only 376,500 new listings arrived on the market. That’s closer to levels seen in the slower months of February and October than to average new listings in June (505,100), according to Zillow data reaching back to 2018.
ref: The Title Report

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