Fortune Magazine Calls for a Housing Market “Big Shift”
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- Written by Jimmie Bachand
Surprise for Dewey Beach, DE Real Estate Watchers: News!
Like most of the rest of the news, midsummer real estate reporting usually draws little attention. It’s what journalists call the ‘silly season,’ when unimportant or just plain silly stories fill in for real news. This is the time of year when newsgatherers feel it safe to head off to the Hamptons or Martha’s Vineyard—especially since their alternative is a steamy July in Manhattan or D.C.
On our local scene, Dewey Beach, DE weather reporting usually gets a larger slice of TV newscasts. Since outdoor family activities depend on coordinating with the weather, it’s the segment more viewers tune in for.
By last Friday, though, Dewey Beach, DE real estate followers who persist in tracking national trends found an unusual number of late-July stories worth noting:
· For the first time in five months, existing U.S. home sales were on the rise. June sales reversed a downtrend that had lasted for nearly a half year.
· Another reversal appeared, this one in the number of homes offered for sale. According to CNBC, this comprised only a slight improvement—yet the NAR’s chief economist Yun advanced what could be an important tentative conclusion: “We may have turned a corner on inventory.”
· An all-time record was surpassed: the median price of existing homes sold in June notched an all-time high of $363,300. What might have been an eye-opening rise (23+%) over the year-ago level didn’t rate banner headlines, though, since buyers and sellers have long since adjusted their expectations accordingly. Some real news might have arrived with the beginning of whispers that, as the NAR wrote, “home costs might begin to rise roughly in line with income growth (key word: “might”).
· U.S. mortgage interest rates moved into “the best territory since February,” according to Mortgage News Daily. The weekly Freddie Mac report pegged the U.S.’s 30-year fixed average at 2.88%. By week’s end, Dewey Beach, DE home buyers with strong credit could expect “offered actual effective rates just over 3%.”
All in all, Dewey Beach, DE buyers and sellers who choose to enter the midsummer market now will find it considerably less lethargic than in many a previous July. It’s well worth exploring—call me for the latest details! Call/Text me Russell Stucki at (302) 228-7871, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit more listings at www.beachrealestatemarket.com.
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Are Dewey Beach, DE Home Prices No Longer Affordable?
For a lot of families that are well-positioned to start serious house-hunting this summer, one question may give them pause: are Dewey Beach, DE home prices just too high to be reasonable? The answer seems largely speculative, but there are objective benchmarks that point to an answer.
Back in the spring of 2018, author Aaron Terrazas compiled a thoroughgoing analysis of what seemed to be a serious threat to U.S. residential real estate’s immediate future. Impending mortgage rate hikes looked likely to “threaten housing affordability and inventory.”
As Terrazas wrote, then-current mortgage interest rates were “very low by historical standards.” His analysis described this rare circumstance which had kept monthly payments relatively affordable “even as 2018 home prices reach new peaks.” His appraisal was backed up by hard facts, made possible because ‘affordability’ is not some nebulous term. The National Association of Realtors® measures it at regular intervals as a calculation of typical mortgage payment dollars as a percentage of median family income.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, the NAR numbers showed buyers of U.S. homes had, on average, spent about 21% of their typical incomes on their mortgages. By the end of 2018, “historically very low” mortgage rates had reduced that expenditure to just 17.1%! It was a set of circumstances that was saving American families many thousands of dollars.
But to Terrazas, that seemed too good to last. The title of 2018’s worrisome article (it appeared in Zillow Research) was “Rising Mortgage Rates Threaten Housing Affordability and Inventory.”
And now, two-and-a-half years later, given today’s national inventory shortage and red-hot price increases, the 2018 question is especially relevant. How seriously has the threat to housing affordability come to pass?
The question is answerable—but probably surprising, given last week’s well-publicized news that average selling prices were a full 23% higher this spring than last. The answer is ‘what affordability gap?’
As of the end of April, the NAR’s affordability index has actually improved since 2018! The then-current mortgage interest rate (the “threatened” rate) was 4.3%. Today, instead of having risen, it’s lower. And the affordability index, taking real median household income, home prices, and interest rate yields, is 16.0%. That’s 1.1% lower than 2018’s year-end calculation.
It might explain why today’s U.S. buyers have been grabbing the homes that are offered at a rapid clip—perhaps reflecting a seller’s market that also makes sense for buyers! If your own affordability calculations are similar—now’s the time to give me a call! Call/Text me Russell Stucki at (302) 228-7871, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit more listings at www.beachrealestatemarket.com.
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- Written by Jimmie Bachand
In June, Dewey Beach, DE Homeownership is Cause for Hoopla
June in Dewey Beach, DE is well known as the leading month for celebrations. Weddings are most common in June. Nearly 11% of American weddings happen this month, narrowly edging out August. More high school and college graduations take place in June, too—although in some years, May makes it a squeaker.
But the hoopla isn’t limited to weddings and graduations. If you wonder why your quiet evenings are being disturbed by the distant sounds of raucous neighborhood partying—the roar of boisterous crowds, airhorn blasts, or The Weeknd’s latest hit blaring over some backyard DJ’s loudspeaker system—it’s not because of a wild wedding or graduation fete.
No—there’s a lot more going on this Dewey Beach, DE June!
The precise origin of this other June celebration is shrouded in myth, but most historians point to sometime during the last century. Whatever its historical roots, this year’s celebration was ignited in Washington D.C. last Tuesday with the President’s formal declaration of June 2021 as “National Homeownership Month”!
Your own family may have its own traditional ways to celebrate National Homeownership Month. Some prefer quiet observances that keep gatherings to a minimum. Yet, for those who strive to invent more electrifying and creative festivities, national quasi-governmental enterprise Freddie Mac has one suggestion: “Add the National Homeownership Month frame to your Facebook profile picture.” Although Freddie’s additional guidance is limited to its website’s “Celebrating Homeownership” video (which actually turns out to answer the question ‘What Does Freddie Do?’ instead of supplying imaginative merrymaking ideas), other entities step in to fill the void.
The National Association of Realtors®, for instance, suggests that National Homeownership Month is “a time to share our stories and create opportunities for future homeowners”—and to “celebrate by joining the conversation on social media.”
Here in Dewey Beach, DE, in addition to more raucous revelry, Dewey Beach, DE homeowners who file their second 1040-ES quarterly payments before the June 15 deadline may consider that activity to be sufficient. After all, the size of the payment is considerably smaller because of the homeownership tax deduction. Now that’s a satisfying way to celebrate!
Whether it’s in June or any other month, as soon as you begin to plan to make changes in your own Dewey Beach, DE homeownership profile, I hope you’ll call me to help! Call/Text me Russell Stucki at (302) 228-7871, email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit more listings at www.beachrealestatemarket.com.
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