Tag: SW Washington real estate

Median Sale Price for Clark County Homes Falls

Posted on by Living Room Realty

Potential homebuyers in Clark County face a difficult decision as the real estate market continues to normalize: Buy now or wait?

The median sale price for residential homes in Clark County continued falling last month, dropping from $514,000 in November to $479,900 in December, according to the most recent Regional Multiple Listing Service report. Interest rates for 30-year fixed mortgages also fell and are now just above 6 percent, according to the government-sponsored home mortgage packager Freddie Mac.

Given these relatively lower expenses, Living Room Realty broker Scott Cotrell thinks it makes sense to buy now.

“If they buy now, regardless of what they can afford, it’s always going to be better than renting because rent tends to always go up,” Cotrell said. “If you lock in a mortgage rate, it’s locked in for that life of the loan, and you know how much your expenses are going to be.”

Even as prices and interest rates fall, Cotrell doesn’t foresee housing affordability improving for potential homebuyers in the near future. Mortgage rates, though lower than their peak of 7.08 percent in November, are still high, limiting buying power.

…

Looking at the year ahead, Cotrell predicts interest rates could fall below 5 percent. If that happens, the market would “take off like crazy,” he said.

For this reason, he thinks buying now would be beneficial for those who want to avoid the stress of a hot market.

Read the full article by Kelsey Turner in the Columbian.

What’s Meant To Be Will Be

Posted on by Shannon Dooley

Reilly and Jaime were referred to me by a local lender and I have to be honest, from the first conversation we had I was thrilled to be working with them. They’re both in their 20s, out of college, and finding their paths in the world. The task ahead of us: find their first home.

Side Note. I have to nerd out for just a minute. I love working with first time homebuyers. I love it because I believe in home ownership as the jumping point for people to start building longitudinal and generational wealth. Homeownership is something I want to see for everyone at some point in their life. It especially excites me for young people to start owning as soon as possible, it opens up so many opportunities in the future. I have many friends who have started businesses, confidently changed careers, and/or retired early as a result of early home ownership.

Back to Reilly and Jaime. We knew they wanted to be in Vancouver and we quickly distilled their wants and needs to figure out exactly what we were looking for. We talked about the challenges in the current market and the strategies I like to employ to be competitive (we are in a heavy seller’s market right now). Some things will always be standard, but sometimes coloring outside of the lines is exactly what you need to do.

We looked at several houses and it didn’t take long until we found the house they were looking for. It checked the most important boxes. We made our offer. So did a dozen other people. We got beat out, barely, but we were in the #2 position, something I was more excited about than they were – because I knew it meant we still had a chance. We kept moving forward and looking at other properties, that’s how it goes. A couple of days later, just as we were getting ready to write an offer on a house that was great, but not quite as great as the first one, I got the call. The first position buyers had backed out due to cold feet and we were now in first position for them to buy the house they really wanted. Calling Jaime and Reilly to tell them the news was my favorite phone call that day.