market updates

The Sky Isn’t Falling

Today’s update is not about terrible interest rates or their impact on new contracts. No one should be surprised that the nearly three-quarter point jump in mortgage rates has put a damper on new contracts. It has (see the third chart below). But those sidelined buyers aren’t gone forever. They are simply recalibrating and waiting…

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Cooler Weather, Cooler Demand

The high today is 91 degrees. Next week the highs are all in the 80s, at least according to my phone. That sounds great and after our hot, hot summer, that news is more than welcome. Here in Greater Phoenix, the only thing we like seeing heat up in the fall is real estate activity.…

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The Sky Isn’t Falling: The Prequel

OMG the sky is falling!! Everyone should panic!! Everything is terrible!!! Oh wait, none of that is true. The sky isn’t falling. The sky is firmly in its proper place. It is mid-September in Greater Phoenix. And do you know what that means? It means that real estate is boring. It is doing what it…

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What Are Prices Doing? Nothing.

This meme never fails to entertain and to be true. Never. And yet, when we literally have access to more accurate data than ever before, it continues to remain prevalent. I challenge every one of my readers to track how many times they have to say, “no prices haven’t gone up recently” and “no, prices…

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Focus on What You Can Control

Mortgage rates are up. Contracts are falling out of escrow. Sellers won’t reduce their prices. Buyers are waiting for prices to crash (they aren’t). AI, inflation, jobs, gas prices, Iran, etc., etc., etc. Real estate is and always has been a zero sum game. There are X number of transactions each month, and the number…

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“Have To” vs. “Want To” Buyers

There are two kinds of buyers, “have to” and “want to” buyers. When mortgage rates were under 3% (which meant that money was as cheap as it has ever been) everyone who considered buying a house, bought one. Then money got more expensive, mortgage rates went from 2.6% in 2021 to 5% in 2022 and…

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All The Things

Greater Phoenix Real Estate Market Update 7/31/2024 You know when you have a million things on your mind and you want to talk about all of them at the same time? We went to the Jersey Shore, my kids started school (thank God!), we renovated our house, the August 1st deadline is looming, Angela Gonzales…

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Buckle Up and Wear a Helmet

Greater Phoenix Real Estate Update 6/27/2024 It has been a minute since my last post and I appreciate you for reading this now, after all of this time. It seems like millions of things have happened over these past few months. I celebrated my 20th year of being in title insurance sales in Greater Phoenix.…

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Change

Change can be scary. Change is always messy. Change often hurts. The old guard hates change because they created the status quo. The status quo makes sense to them. They thrived in it and they are not bad people for wanting it to continue. But change creates new beginnings. New options. New ways of doing…

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Math is Good

Cady : “Yeah, I like math.” Damian : “Eww. Why?” Cady: “Because it’s the same in every country.” (Mean Girls, 2004) When I was in elementary school, I complained about math class too. And then I became a grown-up. It may be tough to figure out when someone rowing a boat at 8MPH will arrive in…

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