The past couple of months we have talked a lot about interest rates. While interest rates are arguably one of the most impactful factors in the real estate market, in our opinion supply and demand is the most important, followed closely by the state of the economy. ...

Last month our trivia question was: Of the approximately 53 million outstanding home mortgages, 32.33 million of them are under what fixed mortgage rate? The correct answer was 4% (congratulations to Stephen), and interestingly enough, his winning answer was...

Last week the Federal Reserve Board did not raise the Federal Funds Rate but it hinted that it will do so later this year. After the announcement, the stock market went down and the 30-year mortgage rate went up. Last month we evaluated the impact of the current...

August 2023 Over the last few weeks, the national 30-year mortgage rates are averaging over 7%. As you can see in the chart to the right, other than a couple of weeks in November 2022, rates have not been this high in almost two decades. The chart is from the St....

We traveled to Oregon, the home state of Jean Cross (Harry’s mom, Lee’s Grandmother), and found it much hotter than we remembered! The weather is being blamed on a heat dome, and after seeing this chart, courtesy of the Real Estate Information Network (REIN our local...

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we think the sales trends for this summer are going to be very similar to the summer trends of 2021 and 2022. Fewer homes overall are being sold but those that go on the market are still selling fast. The average number of...

Summer doesn’t officially start until the summer solstice on June 20, but I (Lee) consider the start of summer to be the week after Memorial Day. The last day of school has either already arrived or is right around the corner and the lightning bugs are flying...

Still Half Full For several months we have emphasized that, despite the doom and gloom in the media about the national real estate market, our local market is still doing fine. In fact, across Hampton Roads we are still in a strong seller’s market.   The numbers from...

Spring is Here Last month we predicted an early spring for the real estate market, and with the local market numbers from February in hand, it looks like our prediction is coming true. According to data from REIN (Real Estate Information Network, our local MLS), the...

While national celebrity Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter, local groundhog Chesapeake Chuck did not see his shadow and predicted an earlier spring for Hampton Roads! It certainly looks and feels like Chuck was correct. From a real estate...