It’s fascinating to me the number of people that search real estate sites to see homes for sale. People are curious about real estate no matter if they are actively looking or if they have just purchased a place. I think it relates to a combination of how where we live impacts our daily life and it is fun to get a literal inside look at how others live. I have clients that even though they have recently purchased a home still closely follow the home for sale sites and spend time looking at them daily. Zillow is the 30th ranking site and realtor.com is 63rd out of the top 100 sites in the USA with 500 million visits between them in the month of October 2021. (FYI that is a hundred million less visits than in August 2021 so I guess kids are looking too.) (Google and YouTube are first and second.)
Interest rates are still low with the consensus they will rise slightly over the coming year. A prediction of 3.7% by the end of 2022 is what Fannie Mae is saying. Bank Rate weekly release of average interest rates from major lenders was 3.24% for a 30 year fixed rate loan, up from 3.22% last week. The highest interest rate for a 30 fixed rate loan in the years 2000 to 2010 period was 8.64% and in the decade following was 5.6%. Still a good time to buy but it is a seller’s market because the amount of houses listed is still low, about half of the number available in a more balanced market.
