The Current Fancy Phrases in Real Estate

Unpredictable– Real estate trends since early 2020. On that note, October’s pending sales numbers were entirely unprecedented.

Since we’re defining things, what are pending sales? Pending sales are when a seller accepts an offer from a hopeful buyer, but the deal has yet to close.

As mentioned above the estimate for pending sales in October 2021, set forth by economists, was 0.7%, but the National Association of Realtors saw a jump to 7.5%. That’s a bit more than ten times what was initially expected. A lot of those numbers were helped by pandemic delayed plans, which have helped boost listings in current months. As we start to see the lifting of restrictions and certain other halted norms, we have to keep an eye on other issues that could cause a full stop, again. The Delta variant has proven to have a less heavy effect on real estate than the initial wave, but we may need to have our attention turned to the still not fully understood effects of COVID-19’s omicron variant. While the variant could have no effect on the real estate market, it also could. As seen with November 26’s stock market numbers the day it was given a name, it could throw things completely off course. On that day both the S&P and Nasdaq slipped 2%, while the Dow Jones declined 2.5%, its steepest deterioration since October 28, 2021.

Another financial molehill situation could be mortgage rates, which are set to be going up between now and December of next year. At the current moment, they are 3.24 percent but are slated to be at 4 percent by the end of 2022. Again, since we’re defining things: What is a mortgage rate? It’s the interest you’ll owe annually which will be a percentage of your loan’s total balance. There are two options, fixed-rate and adjustable-rate mortgages. Are we defining these too? Yes! Fixed rates mean that your interest is consistent throughout the life of your loan. Adjustable rates mean your interest rate can fluctuate after a set amount of time, one of the most common is the 5/1 ARM, five years of set and consistent interest rates, then it adjusts once per year after that, but hover around the low 3% range. Anyway, that’s enough words for today.