With mortgage rates at still unbelievably low rates ( last Friday’s rates reflected 30 year fixed rates posted at 3.625% (APR 3.648%) for loans up to $625,500 , and 15 year fixed loans posted at 3.25% (APR 3.178%), no one can deny that it is a great time in which to purchase a home.
Couple that with the New York State Association of Realtor’s recent article, there will be a small increase in home sales this year with a year end sales at 5.4 Million, growing to 5.5 Million in 2017 and 5.7 Million the year after that… (how can they do that?), it is still a great time in which both purchase and sell your home. Lower mortgage rates enable more buyers to purchase, and per NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun, Long-term interest rates are expected to tick up but stay low by historical standards for the foreseeable future. He forecasted rates to end the year at 3.6 percent, then rise to 4.1 percent in 2017 and then to 4.5 percent.
On a local level, and we should never forget that real estate is always local, and just as Mr. Yun cites that home ownership is at an all-time low at just 63.5% (lowest rate in 50 years), and with mortgages harder to obtain, sales vary greatly in different areas.
Hard to give stats in November, but in looking at the stats for 2015 first 10 months in comparison to stats for the previous year, sales prices were slightly down this year in comparison to 2015 in the New Rochelle area with fewer listings, and higher in both number of sales and sales prices in the Larchmont area. With interest rates at so low rates, a great time in which to buy, and another indication that marketing, pricing, photography, market placement are tantamount to obtaining a great sales price.
