The Accunet Mortgage Show (03/7/2021) Episode

This week’s Highlights:

• Redfin Housing Demand Index stats
• Federal Housing and Finance Agency Home Home Price Index stats
• Bridge Loans for downsizing with a second home in Florida
• Freddie Mac’s weekly rate survey

Download a transcript of this week’s episode here.

Redfin Housing Demand Index

The Redfin Index measures home buying demand in various locations. They’re a publicly traded, $6 billion company. Not just a small fish. Huge real estate brokerage. CEO Glenn Kelman said quote, “The housing market is now like a Societ-era supermarket with most of the shelves empty.”

That’s a very specific way of saying “not a lot of houses out there to buy!” When we dug further into it, we saw that there was almost a 50% increase in buyer activity compared to last year. Active inventory (listed, but don’t have sales), is down 40% right now, a new all-time low. Pending sales are up 18% from last year. New listings are down 17%. Keep in mind there wasn’t a lot of movement in February because it was so cold. No one was going anywhere! So hopefully we’ll start to see some increases here soon.

Learn how to get the best rate for you with Accunet Mortgage and our team of refinance experts—click here to get started.

Federal Housing and Finance Agency Home Home Price Index stats

This index is way more precise than looking at the median sales price from the National Association of Realtors or the Wisconsin or Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors, because the home price index takes into account square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, etc. It’s also looking at the same homes selling twice over a period of time, so it’s not just a one-off. There’s more historic data behind each individual home’s value.

List of Top 10 Fastest Appreciating Metropolitan Areas in the US

• Boise City, Idaho: 23.4%
• Tacoma, Washington: 16.3%
• Salt Lake City, Utah: 15.9%
• Phoenix/Meza, Arizona: 14.8%
• Camden, New Jersey: 14.7%
• Albany, New York: 14.5%
• Chester, Massachusetts: 14.3%
• Cleveland, Ohio: 14.2%
• Bridgeport, Connecticut: 14.2%
• Stanford/Norwalk, Connecticut: 14.1%
• Seattle, Washington: 14%

Top Fastest Appreciating Cities where Accunet is Licensed

• St. Paul: 10%
• Chicago: 9%
• Tampa/St. Pete: 13.2%
• Sarasota: 12.2%
• Cape Coral/Fort Myers: 12%
• Fort Lauderdale: 11.7%
• Miami: 10%
• Orlando: 7.3%
• Naples/Marco Island: 2.5%
• Appleton: 6%
• Fond du Lac: 5%
• Oshkosh: 6%
• Green Bay: 5.5%
• Wausau: 5.5%
• Duluth: 5.5%
• Eau Claire: 7.5%

Buying a new home? Start here so you know what to expect from the process!

Bridge Loans for downsizing with a second home in Florida

We are the go-to mortgage lending guys for financing a second home in Florida. So when we had a client call us asking us to help them do just that, we were so ready! Our client and her husband are close to 60, and ready to sell their 4-bedroom, big family home where they raised their children to buy a downsized house in Wisconsin and a second home in Florida. No problem!

My recommendation for this client was to put a bridge loan in place on their Wisconsin home. Their house is worth about $400,000, and they still owe about $50,000 on their current mortgage. We can’t lend them all the equity in their home, but we can make a bridge loan up to 80% of the value. So if we did that, they could walk away at about $163,000 if we had a bridge loan in place.

Freddie Mac’s weekly rate survey

The current rate for a 30-year-fixed rate mortgage to purchase is 3.02%, if you’re willing to pay six tenths of a point. Freddie Mac’s survey suggests this is the reason home purchases are down. I disagree. Here’s why:

On a $200,000 mortgage, the current rate would only have you paying about $39 more a month. That’s not a reasonable dissuasion for buying a home. Why do I think home sales are down? Simple. It was cold in February! NO one wanted to spend their time out and about searching for a new house. Remember mortgage rates are not the end-all-be-all on whether you can afford to purchase a home.

Lock in your rock-solid pre-approval before rates continue to rise—click here to get started.