Good morning,
Is Silicon Valley hot and rock’n? YES. First, the February “days of unsold inventory” for single family homes, hit a record low in Santa Clara County. Second, 80% of home sales are at asking price, or over. The average is 103.6% over list prices. Long story short: Spring 2017 is tracking year #6 and maybe the ‘New-Normal’ for Spring buying.
How about the overall Economy? Numbers are solid numbers for employment, consumer confidence, business confidence, and trade. There is a continued sense of excitement.
Here are some helpful stats:
2016 Homeownership rate stable compared to 2015 – 63.4 % / 63.7 %.
Hispanics: Only group to increase homeownership year over year.
GDP Look-ahead: World-wide estimate for 2017 is 3.4 %. For 2018, the estimate is 3.6%. 5 of the top 11 countries with expected increases, 2018 vs 2017, are US, Brazil, Russia, India and Mexico. Note: no European nations on this list.
News about two new tools:
We have two excellent ones to help guide your decisions. With a quick call, we can work through a number of examples with you. Results continue to amaze and prove helpful.
Buy vs Rent Calculator
Affordability Calculator
Now for a bit of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, plus a follow up forecast:
The Good: State of CA investing in needed infrastructure upgrades and repairs. Go CA! Nationwide, the continual push for web-cam and electronic signing, with notaries. Virginia and Montana are first on the list, with more States in discussion.
The Bad: Rumors of a Statewide Rent Control initiative circulating for 2018 elections. Locally, San Jose passed “Just Cause” eviction rulings – the next domino to last years tightening of rent-control rules.
The Ugly: San Jose Mercury News branding as a “bad actor”, a property owner seeking to update his rental property, as a positive way to provide housing for our veterans. Yes, there maybe some displacement worthy of discussion, but front page name calling? Small mindedness hurts everyone.
Follow-up Thoughts:
Interest Rates:
Interest rates are trending to the low end of the recent trading range. Causes: 1) Inflation remains in check, 2) major East Coast winter storm impacting first quarter growth, 3) in Washington DC, fractured representation, and 4) continued financial uncertainty and socio-economic instability in many parts of the world.
Yet, the specific rate of concern to us is the fixed rate you “lock-in” on your loan. Then if rates go up, we don’t care and have no worries. If rates drop, we have solutions. Amen.
The New Normal:
Many of our clients are finding property they need. At the same time, the short supply of available homes is bringing new challenges. Thus one needs to be evermore diligent, patient, and better prepared to act quickly and decisively. It here, we can be of service, as today’s market maybe the “New Normal” of short supply, awaiting higher home prices.
Thus as monthly incomes creep upwards, along with new job growth, prices will move higher, bringing even more homes onto the market. The good news: There are adequate buyers available able to afford today’s prices. The proof is the incredibly low ‘days of un-sold’ inventory numbers. Today, 50 % of the new homes coming on the market, go into contract in 9 days or less. It just doesn’t get any more aggressive than this.
So please, give us a call today, before you start shopping. Let’s get you prepared and ready to act with confidence and decisiveness. It is today’s path to your success.
Give a call. We are prepared and ready to help today. We will get it done together.
We are as always, Gratefully yours.