Top 5 REALTOR® Updates | Week of July 13th
Check out these fives real estate updates to help you stay in-the-know with the latest happenings in our industry.
1. Cities Where Self-Employed Real Estate Agents Earn the Most (Denver is No. 1!)
Denver was ranked as the No. 1 best place for a self-employed real estate agent to live, trailed by nearby Aurora. These two Colorado communities ranked neck and neck for median rent, average annual salary and percentage of homes sold annually. Denver pulled ahead of Aurora based on the median rent, which was less expensive in Denver by nearly $100. Read More...
2. What First-Time Buyers Are Willing to Sacrifice
A new survey shows that consumers saving for a home are willing to forego modern conveniences in order to secure a down payment. That may even mean giving up phones, Internet, cable TV, or Starbucks, according to a newly released survey by the business advisory firm the Collingwood Group. Potential first-time home buyers are making such sacrifices because they want to be able to make a sizable down payment on their home purchase. Nearly two-thirds recently surveyed by TD Bank say they’d like to put 20 percent down or more on their home purchase. The bank polled more than 1,000 consumers who were not home owners but intended to purchase a home within the next five years. Read More...
3. Foreclosure Fear Fades, But Does Denver Face a Bubble? (Denver News!)
The Denver area in May had the lowest foreclosure inventory of any major city in the U.S, according to a national report released on Tuesday. The Denver-Aurora-Lakewood metropolitan statistical area had a foreclosure inventory of a mere 0.3 percent, according to CoreLogic, which released foreclosure data on the 25 largest statistical areas in the country. The national foreclosure rate was 1.3 percent in May, according to CoreLogic. The Denver area also had the second lowest “serious delinquency” rate of any city, according to CoreLogic.
4. More Owners Fall Into an Equity Sweet Spot
As home prices rise, home owners equity is growing at the fastest quarterly rate since 2013, according to the National Association of REALTORS® Economists’ Outlook blog. The total value of household equity has bloomed to $11.7 trillion – $5.6 trillion higher than it was at the bottom of the housing crisis. This equates to about $63,000 per property, according to NAR. Home owner equity peaked in 2005 when the value of U.S. homes (measured in market value less debt) soared to $13.1 trillion. But the financial crisis caused millions of home owners to see their equity slip away as home values plunged. This meant that, even with falling rates, many could not refinance and others couldn’t sell without bringing cash to closing. As such, home owners stayed put or were forced to face a short sale or foreclosure. Read More...
5. Investors Show Slight Favor to Flipping
Prices may be on the rise, but about 63 percent of homes sold at a discount compared to the list price in May, according to the 2015 REALTORS® Confidence Index Survey. The discount averaged in the 1 to 11 percent range. The longer a property lingers on the market, it becomes more likely the home will end up selling at a discount. Eighty-four percent of homes that sold after 12 months were sold at a discount. On the other hand, 24 percent of homes that sold within a month sold at a premium. Read More...
