I totally have that Alice Cooper song stuck in my head today as I see all the social media postings of kids graduating and moving on. Brings back some great memories – and all the feelings of looking forward to a summer of play!
A couple of quick data points to catch everyone up before they put on their flip flops and shorts this weekend:
1. Mortgage rates were way up last week, 7.13% fixed rate for 30-year conventional loans. WOW!
As expected, once the budget/debt ceiling deal began to get firmed up, rates trended down again this week to about 6.75%+
2. Housing inventory is really flat.
Concord = 59 detached homes for sale – 75 homes pending at 27 days on market average
Walnut Creek = 40 active homes for sale – 4 pending at 26 days on market average
Clayton = 17 active homes for sale – 12 pending at 33 days on market average
Pleasant Hill = 20 active homes for sale – 18 pending at 10 days on market average
3. Very low inventory and consistently strong demand from buyers. It feels like this will be the story for the summer, so lets see how things play out.
4. Open houses – we have almost a dozen homes that we’re preparing for the market right now. When you see our homes open, please stop by and say hi! I find that people love to get ideas for updates, ask questions about the market in person, or just to meet me and my team to fully understand how good we are at our jobs while balancing the craziness of this market and economy.
Mortgage rates
“On the heels of cooling inflation, the Federal Reserve announced a 25-basis-point increase to its benchmark short-term interest rate on May 3. The Fed's May meeting marks what could be the last increase we see for the time being. The central bank has signaled that it may soon be time to pause on rate hikes. Depending on incoming inflation data, the next step would be to hold rates where they are for an extended period of time in order to bring inflation down to its 2% target.
“As long as inflation continues to trend downward, experts say a pause in rate hikes from the Fed could bring some stability to today's volatile mortgage rate market.”
