L.A. real estate news and insights.
The net value of property in Los Angeles County jumped 5.91% from last year to nearly $2 trillion, according to the county assessor's office.
It's the 13th consecutive year that the overall value of all taxable properties included in the more than 4,000-square-mile county has gone up, according to the Los Angeles County Assessor's 2023 Annual Report. The assessor's office estimates that it will collect $20 billion in property taxes to fund public services such as schools and medical care.
Pending home sales fell this fall to the lowest level since 2001. Pending deals dropped 8.5% year-to-year as the National Association of Realtors index fell to 71.4, the lowest mark reported since the trade group began tracking the metric in 2001.
My Take: There will be huge pent up demand in 2024.
Source: National Association of Realtors and The Real Deal
Fannie Mae has lowered their required down payment for owner-occupied, multi-family (2-4 unit) properties from 15% - 25% to 5%. This means you can buy a property with 5% down, live in one unit, and rent out the other 1-3 units.
The new policy took effect on November 18, 2023 and applies to several Fannie Mae mortgage types including conventional and renovation loans.
If you’ve wanted to buy a home but haven’t been able to figure out how to save enough for a down payment and meet your monthly mortgage payment requirements, your time has come.
Source: Crosscountry Mortgage
The national median price of an existing home sold in October was $391,800, an increase of 3.4% from a year ago ($378,800). Prices rose in all regions of the country.
These annual price increases have been getting larger for four straight months.
Roughly 28% of homes sold above list price.
Source: CNBC
Manny Pacquiao... what happened here?
This Mediterranean-style home has 5 bed/5.5 bath and 4,273 sq. ft. of living space.
The 2-story home features an open layout, high ceilings, a gourmet kitchen, a pool, and a spa.
Asking price: $4,500,000
Selling price: $2,000,000
Mortgage rates fell again today, 11/14/23. The average rate on the 30-year mortgage fell 18 basis points to 7.40%.
The bond market rallied after government data showed inflation was lower than expected.
Wall Street has started to lower its expectations for more Federal Reserve rate hikes ahead.
Source: Diana Olick from CNBC
Buy the home that Jennifer Aniston lived at while filming "Friends."
The property features a main residence, pool house, A-Frame guest house, a hillside bungalow, and panoramic views.
Asking price: $2,595,000
Who cares about high-interest rates when you are buying your home in cash?!?
About 43% of luxury homes that sold in the third quarter of 2023 were purchased in cash, up from just 34.6% a year earlier.
By comparison, just 28% of non-luxury homes that sold were bought in cash, little changed from the third quarter of 2022.
Source: Redfin
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, the first time in nearly two years that the central bank paused rates over the course of two consecutive meetings.
While some have interpreted the latest pause as a sign that the Fed is nearing the end of its rate hikes, inflation remains stubbornly above the central bank’s 2 percent target, and the labor market is hotter than officials would like.
Federal Reserve Chair Powell said the strength of consumer and small business finances may have been “underestimated” as spending remains strong.
Barring any major news stories over the next 45 days, I'm anticipating a rate hike at the Fed's December meeting.
Source: The Hill
A cocktail of high mortgage rates and high home prices has driven potential buyers to back out of deals at the highest rate in a year.
Monthly pending home sales that fell out of a contract in the US for the month of September notched 16.6%, the highest since October 2022 when mortgage rates surpassed 7%.
Of the 50 most populous metro areas analyzed, cities in Florida were found to have been hit hardest by rising deal cancellations in September. Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami all saw deal cancellations above 20% of pending home sales. At the top of the charts was Atlanta, with 24.4% of home deals that fell through.
Source: Business Insider
Researchers at Black Knight Inc, a technology company that analyzes mortgage lending data across the United States, found that home prices in six California cities have decreased from their 2022 peak prices.
Those cities were: San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Riverside.
This is where home prices have fallen the most in the US:
1. San Francisco: 13% price decrease
2. San Jose: -12.7% price decrease
3. Seattle, Washington: 11.3% price decrease
4. Phoenix, Arizona: 10.5% price decrease
5. Austin, Texas: 9.7% price decrease
6. Las Vegas, Nevada: 9.3% price decrease
7. Sacramento: 9.3% price decrease
8. San Diego: 8.6% price decrease
9. Los Angeles: 7.6% price decrease
10. Salt Lake City, Utah: 6.9% price decrease
11. Denver, Colorado: 6.9% price decrease
12. Riverside: 6.8% price decrease
13. Raleigh, North Carolina: 6.3% price decrease
14. Portland, Oregon: 6.1% price decrease
Here is a little good news for the holiday season.
Economic news spelled better news for home buyers who are shopping for a mortgage, even after the Federal Reserve’s latest rate hike.
Mortgage rates continued to dial back as new economic data shows inflation cooling off. Freddie Mac reported last Thursday that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.31%. Rates have been decreasing ever since hitting a high of 7.08% last month.
In my 14-year career, I have never seen interest rates climb so quickly in such a short amount of time. They were in the high 2% range earlier this year.
Source: CNBC
‘Fancy’ Rapper Iggy Azalea has just listed her Hidden Hills home.
Asking price: $6,195,000
This home has 5 bed/5 bath, 5,228 sq. ft. of living space, and is on a 46,211 sq. ft. lot.
The property has a 2-story guest house, screened-in porch, new saltwater pool, and it comes with completed plans with permits to remodel some of the home.
Text me if you want a tour at 818-445-7953.
The number of owners who can save 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 by 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®.
