Happy New Year! The start of the year is always an exciting time for us at The Hersh Group. It’s a chance to plan for the future and review as we look back on the past year. It’s also when we hear from many clients who want to know how the past year in real estate ended, and where the next is headed. Getting perspective on the past year’s trends helps us see how the future will unfold. Here are a few of the key developments the real estate market experienced in 2019. Interest rates were low, so money was cheap. While experts predicted a rise in interest rates last year, we saw drops below 4%. These low rates are expected to continue in the year ahead unless something changes bringing calm to the world economy. Demand for housing was ample, although supply was limited. It remained a sellers’ market in 2019 across most areas at the low to mid-level price points, with a continued lack of inventory for sale. Homeownership rates rose, thanks to low mortgage rates. Buying continued to be more economical than renting as rates dropped, and that brought a jump in homeownership rates, according to Census Bureau […]
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Support Slice of Life with a Thanksgiving Pie this November The Hersh Group is proud to be participating again this year as a pie seller for the Food & Friends 13th Annual Slice of Life Thanksgiving pie sale. Buy a pie now, pick it up on Tuesday, November 26th, and celebrate the holiday while supporting this worthy cause! This Thanksgiving, serve a holiday pie that will warm your heart and help your neighbors. Each pie you purchase provides breakfast, lunch and dinner for a child or adult battling HIV/AIDS, cancer or another critical illness. Six days a week, Food & Friends provides nutritious meals to thousands of individuals in our community but they can’t do it without our support. Your contribution will make a direct impact in the lives of their clients, many of whom have nowhere else to turn. You can make their lives better by not only providing vital nutrition but hope and comfort in their time of need. Please visit our page to make a donation and purchase a pie for your holiday table and know that you’ll be bringing food to another family’s. Pie Flavors This year, thanks again to local pie baker Baguette Republic, these are the incredible pies on […]
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No matter where you look across the DMV, inventory shortages are driving the real estate market. With fewer properties for sale, home prices have grown higher while sales periods have tightened. These conditions present tremendous opportunities for sellers, with escalated prices, short settlement periods, and far fewer contract contingencies. It can also be worrying, however, for those sellers who also need to buy a new property after selling. Thankfully, those worries can be overcome through preparation, planning, and working with professionals like us! Here are just a few ways that home sellers can become successful buyers, too. Begin your new home search before listing your current house. With homes in the DMV selling quickly—sometimes in less than a week, depending on your neighborhood—you’ll want to make sure you have a head-start on your next home search before yours goes up for sale. Take advantage of declining mortgage rates. Rates were expected to rise above 5% this year, but we’ve seen the opposite occur, with mortgage rates hitting their lowest point since November 2016. Talk to your mortgage consultant now to lock in the best rates. We’re happy to refer you to our team at Prosperity Home Mortgage, LLC, for assistance, […]
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In celebration of National Homeownership Month, recognized by the National Association of Realtors each June, we thought we’d share with you a few facts about owning a home in America today and the current real estate market conditions. Homeownership rates are holding steady. In the first quarter of 2019, the homeownership rate leveled off at 64.2 percent, down slightly from the quarter prior. While rates have been rising since late 2015, they’ve hovered around the 64 percent range for the past year. Today’s homeownership rate represents a healthy market. News outlets often talk of the peak rate, which hit almost 70 percent in 2004. However, that high preceded (and frankly contributed to) the market downturn in that a large number of home buyers were getting loans they didn’t have the ability to pay back. That led to affordability challenges and increasing numbers of loan defaults. Today’s rates are closer to the averages in the 1990s, when we had a more stable and positive housing market. More and more millennials are buying homes. The much talked-about generation has been steadily moving from renting to homeownership, as they get married and start families. Mortgage rates have also remained at historic lows, driving […]
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You’ve probably seen the headlines that there’s still a shortage of homes for sale in our area, and we’re heading deeper into a seller’s market. However, just because home sellers are favored when there’s low inventory, that doesn’t mean every property will sell for top dollar immediately just by picking a price and going on the market. Buyers in our market are extremely savvy and very selective, and if you’re getting ready to sell, you should take that into account when preparing and pricing your home for sale. So what can you do to help attract the most interest and get top dollar for your home in the shortest amount of time? Make your home move-in ready. Call it the HGTV effect, but more and more buyers come to the market with high expectations and desires for a move-in ready home with the latest updates and designs. Stage your home for success. Staging is critical these days, and a huge value-add for your sale. Many buyers have trouble imagining themselves living in a home, or hoe their belongings will fit into each space. Staging allows a buyer to mentally move into the home and shows how each room “lives” and […]
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