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Showing posts from May, 2022

Wall Street Slumps Real Estate Cools Off

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  The rise in interest rates are beginning to show the economy is slowing down.  Stocks are the most liquid of assets. Stocks and bonds are more immediate in price changes. Real Estate is slower in reaction.  Real Estate must be watched to gather trends. I personally look at the MLS Daily Summary.  It lists all the new listings, pending sales, sales, with drawn, cancelled, expired, sold, and most important back on the market. The MLS Listing  indicates a sellers market as home prices stay relatively firm. Sales occur at over list in most of our markets.  Price cuts are beginning  to mount.  We are still in the active season in the Real Estate market.  Once we get into June and the sales of April and May close escrow, we will see if a slow down in price or listings occur.  It is my observation that the listings are very strong now, I doubt they will slow down.  Why, too much money has been placed in remodeling and updating by contractor, speculators and home owners to want or can pull h

The End of Free Money

Wake up call has been blown to all quarters.  Interest rates are rising and the era of Free Money has ended.  The days of the stock market strategy of "Buy the Dips" and "it always will come back" are DEAD! The FAANG stocks are all in Bear Markets and every, or at least every, 2022 IPO is under water.  Sooner or later it returns to the 1970"s inflation and rising interest rates. The FED has made the big change of ending the "FED PUT" to being the furnace that burns investors in aggressive growth strategies. Where does that leave real estate?  A falling stock market and disenchantment with investing during the 70's led those left with cash using real estate as an investment alternative.  The money from the stock portfolio goes into a newer or bigger home, remodeling the existing home, or buying investment properties.   The future does not change much from the past.  Don't expect it to.  As Yogi Berra once said "it's deja vu all over ag

Stock Market Collapses, Interest rise and Mortgage Commitments Fall!

 Real Estate keeps flying off the shelves like at a discount market with bonus points.  You don't need to give away Green Stamps to sell in this real estate market.  California, our area especially, has the most $1 million home sales in America.  Even lowly Dead Wood City (Redwood City) has gone into the top with homes selling at $2000 per square foot.  Does this end or do we still buy. First of all, you are not buying Meta or any one of the other FAANG stocks.   You are buying a home to live in. I finished speaking a friend who I have known for over 40 + years and lives and works in Lake Tahoe.  We spoke about housing prices and interest rates.  He remembered when he bought his home in Zephyr Cove and paying 12.5% mortgage rate, and felt he had a deal.  I recalled that we bought some few months before his purchase in Cow Hollow San Francisco and paid 14.5% for our mortgage.  We too felt we had a deal and loved our 1904 Edwardian.  So what's the difference between double digit