Long Beach/Southern California Real Estate: CAR

Showing posts with label CAR. Show all posts

9/27/2024

CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS Market Forecast for 2025

Summary of Yearly Housing Sale Data

The annual report by the REALTOR trade group was publicly reviewed last Wednesday at the Long Beach meeting at the Convention Center by CAR economist Jordan Levine.

What do people want to know first? How much more will houses cost next year.

Here are 3 main points from the CAR economist report for 2025:

Existing, single-family home sales are forecast to total 304,400 units in 2025, an increase of 10.5 percent from 2024’s projected pace of 275,400.
California’s median home price is forecast to climb 4.6 percent to $909,400 in 2025, following a projected 6.8 percent increase to $869,500 in 2024 from 2023’s $814,000.
Housing affordability* is expected to remain stable at 16 percent next year after slipping to a projected 16 percent in 2024 from 17 percent in 2023.

There's much more to this 2025 annual report, which can be shared on request.

If you would like to discuss your home value, please feel free to contact me for conversation. Or, try out this automated home valuation program which will also send you email updates

Julia Huntsman, REALTOR, Broker | http://www.abodes.realestate | 562-896-2609 | California Lic. #01188996

4/09/2024

New Real Estate Practices in California

There are changes coming to the way REALTORS and all real estate licensees do business.

One change has actually been discussed many many times since about 2004, or perhaps a little earlier, and that is, requiring buyers to sign buyer representation agreements with their agent of choice. Of course, listing a home with a listing agreement in place has been in place for decades, but working with a buyer, until July 2024, did not require that practice. Well, this is all changing.


The Road to Solutions

California Regional MLS, one of the largest MLSs in California and the nation, is soon putting a rule into place that a buyer-broker agreement must be executed before property is shown to a buyer by a REALTOR. You may have been reading about the lawsuits over the past few months, and the settlement reached with the National Association of Realtors--much information that has come out in the media is just plain inaccurate--however, the following statement comes directly from NAR concerning one of the agreements in the settlement and which I actually look forward to:

"Written agreements for MLS participants acting for buyers: While NAR has been advocating for the use of written agreements for years, in this settlement we have agreed to require MLS participants working with buyers to enter into written agreements with their buyers. This change will go into effect in mid-July 2024."

Many brokers already utilize these agreements, which have been available to the industry for years, with their clients. The buyer-broker agreement, which is a standardized form provided through California Association of Realtors, may have varying terms, such as length of time, geographic area, commission to agent, or even for a specific number of homes or type of homes to be shown. Putting someone in their car, or meeting them at a property, just scratches the surface of what an agent does to help a buyer find the right home. Buyer-broker agreements are legally binding contracts which work in both directions: the buyer commitment to the agent and the broker/agent commitment to the buyer.

An agent should be first sitting down with a buyer and taking in the buyer's thoughts and questions about a home purchase, before showing property. This is how I've always done business since I started, and I believe it's the best way. When there is good communication between buyer and agent, there is usually a better understanding of the process, and less of the phenomenon known as buyer remorse. The buyer should expect a very clear and thorough review of a buyer agreement from the agent.

A home purchase is a huge commitment to a mortgage, obtaining home insurance, understanding future maintenance expenses, property taxes, and how a buyer's income will absorb these costs. A buyer is making a commitment, and that commitment deserves clear professional communication by an agent, and the agent who is offering his/her professional help also needs the commitment of the buyer in order to get to the goal of a home purchase.

More updates will be provided on this topic, and please don't hesitate to contact me with questions!

Looking forward to the future!

Julia Huntsman, REALTOR, Broker | http://www.abodes.realestate | 562-896-2609 | California Lic. #01188996

9/26/2023

California Housing Market Prediction for 2024 - New Increase Projection

CAR Convention 2023 Front Entry

The annual conference was held last week in Anaheim, along with the traditional annual market prediction for the next year by the California Association of Realtors Economist Jordan Levine.

The entire report is available for anyone who would like a copy--here are 3 main takeaways from the presentation:

Existing, single-family home sales are forecast to total 327,100 units in 2024, an increase of 22.9 percent from 2023’s projected pace of 266,200.
California’s median home price is forecast to climb 6.2 percent to $860,300 in 2024, following a projected 1.5 percent decrease to $810,000 in 2023 from 2022’s $822,300.
Housing affordability(percent of households who can afford the median price home) is expected to remain flat at 17 percent next year from a projected 17 percent in 2023.

Insurance as many already know is a big issue for homebuying. In a housing survey for 2023, rural area buyers had the most challenge--32% of those buyers reported difficulty obtaining insurance. The lowest percentage of buyers having problems were for city downtown areas (12%), city outside of downtown (14%), and suburb buyers (15%).

The share of international buyers in California on the increase again after reaching its lowest point in 2020, but still not at the highest point share of buyers (almost 8%) in 2013.

Owners over the age of 65 are the highest share of homeowners in the state: 50%; the age group 25-34 years represent 13% of all homeowners.

All cash buyers are approximately 27% of the market in 2023, up from 10% in 2005.

Sellers are holding on to properties longer than ever: they have low interest rates on mortgage, lower property taxes, may have a capital gains hit if they sell, wondering where they can go, so they remodel and stay many times.

About 45% of the population in Los Angeles County owns a home, compared to 73% of San Mateo County, and 5% of Kings County and Imperial County.

Inventory months of supply (time to use up all homes on market if no new ones came on the market) remains one of the larger challenges, it hasn't increased since August of 2022, still at 2.3 to 2.4 months overall.

Existing, single-family home sales are forecast to total 327,100 units in 2024, an

Julia Huntsman, REALTOR, Broker | http://www.abodes.realestate | 562-896-2609 | California Lic. #01188996

6/27/2022

National Existing Home Sales Snapshot by National and California Association of Realtors May 2022

According to market research by National Association of Realtors, on a national level May 2022 brought 5.41 million in sales, a median sales price of $407,600, and 2.6 months of inventory. The median sales price is up 14.8% year-over-year, and inventory was up 0.1 months from May 2021.

Existing Home Sales May 2022

California Association Realtors snapshot of the Long Beach housing market graphic shows a 14% decrease in existing home sales at a $940,000 median price for single family homes, with only a median 8 days on market overall.