Posted On: January 25, 2020

Insurer ratings will be seeing a dip over the next few months, and that can be a scary thought. Some customers can be affected much more than others due to some lender companies only allowing “A grade” insurance companies. What makes this significantly worse for customers, is that Demotech (a financial analysis firm that predicts financial stability in the insurance industry) President, Joe Petrelli won’t release the list of companies to (possibly) see the downgrade. However, Petrelli has stated that he predicts two to four companies will be downgraded this January, then another ten to fifteen could see a drop…

Posted On: January 3, 2020

In Florida, many people come to settle down and retire after their long-lived lives. This can cause a drop in homes being available in Florida over the next decade or two. Another thing about our beautiful state is that it stays warm all year. The amazing weather causes about 5% of an increase in population every year, during the fall and winter months. Those same snowbirds often choose to sell their Northern estates and make Florida their new home.  In a new study done by Zillow, we can see that about 33% of homeowners are Baby Boomers. But Zillow is…

Posted On: November 15, 2019

When it comes to sales we’ve seen more this year than we did last year. When we look at the condo-townhouse market, total sales closed was 29,539 in 3Q. That total was up 2.2% from last year’s 3Q.  Prices have raised in this 3Q from last year by 3.9% for family homes (average sales price being $265,000). Also, there was a raise of 4.1% toward the average of a condo-townhouse (average price being $190,000).  But we did see a rise in pending sales for single-family houses (4.4%) and condo-townhouses (.5%).  Inventory We did also see a rise in pending inventory…

Posted On: November 8, 2019

In this week’s blog, we are going to touch on the subjects of the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) published final rules for credit score models and updates to its application for the first time in 20 years. The new rules published by FHFA became effective in October; these rules will help make it easier for families without any traditional credit history to be approved for a mortgage.  The National Association of Realtors President, John Smaby, had this to say; “A borrower’s credit score unlocks mortgage financing through the GSEs, a critical gateway for millions of homebuyers. The credit score…

Posted On: October 25, 2019

Realtor.com released a report stating that the total amount of student debt could buy every house in the United States 1.9 times. The cost of a college education is going up, leading students to take out more loans for their education. Experts believe this causes millennial homebuyers to delay buying a home. The average student borrower owes around $34,500, which is much higher than the average down payment of $26,000. Let’s look at the state of Florida alone. Our state’s student debt is almost $76 million spread across a total of 2,197,000 borrowers.  The Senior Economist, George Ratiu, had this…

Posted On: October 18, 2019

When it comes to selling a house, you want to make sure the home looks desirable to buyers. However, that can be quite costly at times. Something to think about is who you are selling to. So, today, we are going to give you some tips on how to spice up your home that are both cost-effective and hip to this generation of home buyers.  Home Improvements.  A big thing that matters in the kitchen would be friendly and homey cabinets. However, the new line of homebuyers do not want ordinary oak wood cabinets. They want things to look a…