Mark D Hiatt-REALTOR with Keller Williams Lincoln

08/26/2022

Hello, FunSeeker! Slightly cooler weather this week, reduced and/or stable interest rates and the kids went back to school. How did the Lincoln real estate market shake out from all of that?

Well, 108 new homes came onto the market. And out of our available inventory, 85 homes traded keys. So we once again built inventory, which is A Good Thing.

Are you thinking of a new home? Give me a call and we'll get together in the week ahead and enjoy some coffee and conversation: (402) 430-3480.

08/25/2022

08/19/2022

Hello, FunSeeker! You know, I'm always harping on there not being a single "Market" for real estate—but it's worse than that. There isn't even a single market for interest rates for mortgages!

These are numbers just sent to me from a fine lending institution here in town, Lincoln Federal Savings Bank. I'm not endorsing them. I'm not saying these are the best rates in town. I'm just using their numbers from today as an example.

Below, you see the numbers that just came to me. Down the left side are the size of the mortgage, with big, pricey homes at the top and more affordable housing at the bottom. Across the right are various kinds of mortgages available… fifteen year, thirty year, both with fixed rates, thirty year FHA and VA loans and the last two are adjustable-rate mortgages where the amount you pay may jump around from one year to the next.

As you can see in this example, the thirty year fixed-rate mortgage for a half-million dollar loan is 5.5% today. And that's the same cost for a loan of only $200,000 also. This is most often *NOT* the case. Mortgage lenders respond to market forces (Fear, Greed, Supply and Demand) just like everyone else does. And if they get particularly busy in one range or another they might raise or lower rates somewhat to kind of act as a throttle on the demand for that particular mortgage product.

Said another way, if they find next week they are particularly busy with $300,000 loans, they might raise the price of just that loan category by an eighth or a quarter of a point. It is not uncommon to see a range of rates covering half of a percentage point spread from lowest to highest.

Generally speaking, when I talk about "Mortgage Interest" or "Mortgage Rates" I am speaking about the thirty year, fixed-rate instrument listed in that third column.

08/19/2022

Have mortgage interest markets calmed down, now?

As inflation appears to have peaked, borrowing costs are starting to stabilize.

08/19/2022

Hello, FunSeeker! Well old habits die hard, don't they? This week we chewed-up some of our newly-gained inventory, with eighty-eight new homes coming to market, and ninety-six going home with someone else.

Folks seem to be getting comfortable with the new interest rates, which is great because while they're higher than they were, they are still way below their historic norms. The weather has been nicer than recently and we're seeing a lot of activity in different corners of the market.

People want to look at "The Real Estate Market" like… like it's a thing. It really isn't, owing to the intensely local nature of it all. If you live in a small town and the only factory decides to close an awful lot of your friends and neighbors are going to lose their jobs and things could well go south in a hurry, trying to adjust. It works the other way, too. If a major employer comes in and buys an old empty factory and starts hoovering-up all of the unemployed folks in town you're going to see demand rise for homes.

It also matters what kind of home, or what price. It's a broad market out there and at times there is going to be a lot of light and heat in the $200,000-$250,000 part of it, while $450,000 homes go begging for a few weeks. After a time, the "action" will move up or down and we see "everyone" wanting a home for $125,000-$175,000 or $315,000-$365,000 or something else. As the old Chinese curse says, we live in "Interesting Times".

08/12/2022

Hello, FunSeeker! What a week it's been, huh? Nice break in the weather, nice break in the interest rates and there gas prices have been coming down for two months, now, to under $3 per gallon! We've seen some mortgage interest rates dip below 5% the last several days, and we are making genuine strides at building up inventory.

We've talked before about the four major forces at work in any market: Supply and Demand and Fear and Greed. They all seem to be moving our way, this week. 117 new homes came to market since last Friday, and only 92 were claimed. I don't think we've gained twenty-five homes since we started keeping track.

Are you interested in a new residence? Are you thinking of adding to your rental inventory? This is a great time to move on that and I'd love the opportunity to discuss it with you. Please give me a call this week: (402) 430-3480 gets you a free cup of coffee and an earful of real estate and GoldenDoodles! Let's do it, huh?

08/11/2022

Hello, FunSeeker! Warren Buffett famously tells us that we can't time the market—any market. But we can sometimes see around the corners a little bit. There's reason to believe that even if we don't go all of the way back to 3¼% mortgage money again, we may see lower rates than we've seen in the last couple of months:

NAR’s chief economist shares what now needs to happen to bring down borrowing costs and increase affordability for home buyers.

07/31/2022

Thinking of Going Electric any time soon?

Siemens is teaming with ConnectDER to offer an inexpensive plug-and-play EV home-charging setup that connects directly to your electric meter, limiting upgrades.

07/29/2022

Hello, FunSeeker! Another week and we're all getting used to higher interest rates. The Fed raised rates ¾ of 1% this week trying to cool off inflation—and it seems to be working. People I speak with are unhappy now they didn't lock in 3% money when they had the chance, but that's the way it always is. For some reason, we change cars, we change computers we change sweethearts but we always seem to think the economy and the financial situation is going to stay the same and it never does.

This week saw 96 new homes come to market—almost double what we had last week! But we once again saw a higher number, 114, sold out of available inventory. I hate to see this happening. It's nice when you can show a family a dozen homes in their price range and with the features they want and a neighborhood they're eager to join. It's tough when you drive out to look at "THE" house that's available for them today. But they're out there! And SOMEbody is going to get one. Why can't it be you?

Let's get together over a cup of coffee somewhere this week and talk about your housing wants and needs, huh? Give me a call at (402) 430-3480 and we'll get started on this for you.

07/23/2022

Then again, Tony Soprano was known as an EXcellent negotiator!

07/22/2022

Hello, FunSeeker! Well, we may have finally answered the question, "How hot is too hot to shop for new housing?" With temperatures in the uppity-90ºs this week and overnight lows only into the middle-70ºs, it's been difficult for a lot of folks to think about buying a home and moving, but there was some activity in the market. This week saw only fifty-two new homes arrive for your consideration. But we *still* managed to grow the market because only thirty-eight were actually sold! Mortgage interest rates had something to do with this, too, I'm sure, but (speaking as a Fat Guy) the weather had a lot to do with it, I'm sure!

Hey—despite the interest rates and the temperatures, if you'd like to tour a few houses this week and discuss buying strategies and the mortgage market and all of the rest, I'd love the opportunity to have coffee with you! Give me a call, at (402) 430-3480 and we'll get together with an iced tea or a milkshake or something cold and talk about it all!