Your Pasco County Life

Great Location! Great Schools! Great House! See it Saturday February 25, from 12-2pm. 3353 Rennes Court, Land O'Lakes, FL 34638

March Madness again in 2022! Are your brackets busted? Well, all year the B10 and SEC were the two best conferences. We get to the Sweet Sixteen and we have 2 B10 teams and one SEC.
It's a little surprising to Michigan as they had a tough season; but their a good program with talent. Purdue was a given; but Illinois and Wisconsin should have been here too. However, Houston and Iowa State had something to say about those two.
Then you have Tennessee, Kentucky and Texas A&M not advancing. It's just how it goes in March. Teams can take on new roles in the big dance. We'll see what the next two weeks hold. This is a great time of the year!! Who do you think will be in the Final Four?
I like Gonzaga, Arizona, Purdue and Kansas. Gonzaga to win it all. It's time for Coach Few to get a title!

Inventory: Affordable Homes Up, Luxury Down
By Kerry Smith
The end of forbearance programs and foreclosure moratoriums enticed more at-risk homeowners in lower-cost homes to sell and cash out their higher equity.

SEATTLE – Sales of the most affordable homes in the U.S. rose 11.3% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to a new report from Redfin. At the same time, the inventory of for-sale homes in that tier also rose, likely because the end of pandemic-driven mortgage forbearance and foreclosure moratorium policies encouraged more of these owners to sell.

“The market for homes at lower price points is booming for a few reasons. Not only is there demand from workers who are now earning higher wages, but investors, who have an appetite for lower-priced homes, are buying up properties at record rates,” says Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “With the end of both mortgage forbearance and the foreclosure moratorium, many homeowners who don’t have much cash in the bank are choosing to sell their homes to clear their mortgage debt, providing plenty of supply to meet the high demand.”

For luxury homes, a big year-over-year sales drop is partly due to a surge during the fourth quarter of 2020, when affluent Americans took advantage of low mortgage rates and remote work to buy high-end homes. Sales are also constrained by a lack of supply. Luxury sales remain elevated above pre-pandemic levels – up by nearly 27% from the last quarter of 2019 to the last quarter of 2021 – but the initial pandemic-driven frenzy for high-end homes has slowed.

According to the study, the number of luxury listings (median price of $1,038,200) in the fourth quarter of 2021 was down 16.3% year-to-year. However, the number of listings in the lowest tier of “most affordable” rose 18.6% (median $127,500).

While the number of listings in the “affordable” category dropped 1.9% (median $215,600), it’s still smaller than the listing drop of 10.8% for “mid-priced” homes ($310,000) and 14.7% for “expensive” homes (median $470,000).

Still, at 22 days, mid-priced homes spent less time on the market. The most affordable homes spent 28 days, affordable homes spent 24 days, expensive homes spent 26 days and luxury homes were on the market for 39 days.

“Some experts were worried the end of forbearance would cause a glut of housing supply and eventually lead to a housing-market crash, but there’s plenty of demand to snap up the inventory,” Fairweather says. “The fact that both supply and sales of the most affordable homes shot up at the end of 2021 is solid evidence of that.”

© 2022 Florida Realtors®

Do you have refinancing questions or thoughts? Here's a good article:

5.9M Borrowers Missed Refinancing Savings
It’s not too late for these owners to save by refinancing – but if not, they also won’t feel locked into their homes, afraid to sell because “my interest rate will go up if I do.”

NEW YORK – The number of owners who can save on their monthly mortgage payment by refinancing is down by more than half from the start of this year to 5.9 million, according to Black Knight data. Black Knight considers refinance candidates as 30-year mortgage holders who have a maximum 80% loan-to-value ratio, a credit score of 720 or higher, and a likelihood of reducing their current first lien by at least 0.75%.

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has climbed about 50 basis points in the first weeks of the year. Still, even with recent mortgage rate increases aside, many of those 5.9 million borrowers could still see savings of $275 a month per borrower, according to Black Knight. More than 1 million of them could save at least $400 a month, and 661,000 borrowers could trim $500 or more from their monthly mortgage at current rates.

The remaining borrowers may have missed the opportunity to save by not refinancing when mortgage rates were below 3%. The number of refinance candidates has dropped significantly from about 11 million at the start of the year and is down by about 20 million in late 2020.

Mortgage applications to refinance a home are down by half from a year ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. Nearly 18 million homeowners have refinanced over the last two years.

While many homeowners over the last two years have taken advantage to lower their mortgage payments, they’ve also quickly accumulated equity, in record amounts. A sharp increase in home prices has meant that, in the last year, homeowners have gained an average of $50,200 in equity, according to data from the National Association of Realtors®.

Still, rising mortgage rates can impact the inventory of for-sale homes. Owners with a historically low rate would have to take out a new mortgage if they decide to upgrade in a higher interest rate environment.

As a result, more homeowners could decide their best option is stay put – but that problem wouldn’t apply to the 5.9 million who never refinanced when the timing was optimal to do so.

Source: “More than 5 Million Borrowers Just Missed Their Chance to Save on a Mortgage Refinance,” CNBC (Jan. 21, 2022)

© Copyright 2022 INFORMATION INC., Bethesda, MD (301) 215-4688

Some great information on the Tampa housing market:

Case-Shiller Price Increases: 2 Fla. Cities Top List
By Kerry Smith
Nationwide, home prices rose 18.8% in Nov., and the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index finds Tampa (up 29%) and Miami (up 26.6%) in 2 of the top 3 spots.

NEW YORK – One of the most-watched indicators of home prices, the S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI), found a slight slowdown in the national rate of home price increases – but less so in Florida. Two state metro areas, Tampa and Miami, ranked second and third for year-to-year price increases, with Phoenix topping the list.

“For the past several months, home prices have been rising at a very high – but decelerating – rate,” says Craig J. Lazzara, Managing Director at S&P DJI. “That trend continued in November 2021.”

Overall, the National Composite Index rose 18.8% year-to-year, but that rate is less than it was the month before (19.0%).

“Despite this deceleration, it’s important to remember that November’s 18.8% gain was the sixth-highest reading in the 34 years covered by our data,” says Lazzara. The top five months for price growth were the ones immediately preceding November.

Phoenix, Tampa and Miami reported the highest year-over-year gains among the 20-city index in November. Phoenix led the way with a 32.2% year-over-year price increase, followed by Tampa with a 29.0% increase and Miami with a 26.6% increase.

“Tampa and Miami continued in second and third place in November, narrowly edging out Las Vegas, Dallas and San Diego,” says Lazzara. “Prices were strongest in the South and Southeast (both up 25.0%), but every region continued to log impressive gains.”

Prices in 19 cities are at all-time highs, and Phoenix’s increase led all cities for the 30th consecutive month.

“We have previously suggested that the strength in the U.S. housing market is being driven in part by a change in locational preferences as households react to the COVID pandemic,” says Lazzara, but it’s too soon to gauge whether it’s a temporary change or one that might have occurred naturally over the next several years.

“In the short term, meanwhile, we should soon begin to see the impact of increasing mortgage rates on home prices,” Lazzara says.

© 2022 Florida Realtor

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