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Common Home Buyer Questions | Biggs Realty Blog

Friday, October 27, 2023   /   by Kenneth Brands

Unpacking the Long-Term Benefits of Homeownership

If you’re thinking about buying a home soon, higher mortgage rates, rising home prices, and ongoing affordability concerns may make you wonder if it still makes sense to buy a home right now. While those market factors are important, there's more to consider. You should think about the long-term benefits of homeownership too.
Think about this: if you know people who bought a home 5, 10, or even 30 years ago, you’re probably going to have a hard time finding someone who regrets their decision. Why is that? The reason is tied to how home values grow with time and how, by extension, that grows your own wealth. That may be why, in a recent Fannie Mae survey, 76% of respondents say they believe buying a home is a safe investment.
Here’s a look at how just the home price appreciation piece can really add up over the years.
Home Price Growth over Time
The map below uses data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (F. ...

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Monday, August 28, 2023   /   by Kenneth Brands

Homebuyers Are Still More Active Than Usual

Even though the housing market is no longer experiencing the frenzy that was so characteristic of the last couple of years, it doesn’t mean today’s market is at a standstill. In actuality, buyer traffic is still strong today.
The ShowingTime Showing Index is a measure of how much buyers are touring homes. The graph below uses that index to illustrate buyer activity trends over time to help put today into the proper perspective.

It shows there’s seasonality in real estate. If you look at the last normal years in the market (shown in gray), there was a consistent pattern as buyer activity peaked in the first half of each year (during the peak homebuying season in the spring) and slowed as each year came to a close.
When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, that trend was disrupted as the market responded to the resulting uncertainty (shown in blue in the middle). From there, we entered the ‘unicorn’ years of housing (sho. ...

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Tuesday, May 9, 2023   /   by Kenneth Brands

Buyer Activity Is Up Despite Higher Mortgage Rates

If you’re a homeowner thinking about making a move, you may wonder if it’s still a good time to sell your house. Here’s the good news. Even with higher mortgage rates, buyer traffic is actually picking up speed.
Data from the latest ShowingTime Showing Index, which is a measure of buyers actively touring homes, helps paint the picture of how much buyer demand has increased in recent months (see graph below):

As the graph shows, the first two months of 2023 saw a noticeable increase in buyer traffic. That’s likely because the limited number of homes for sale kept shoppers looking for homes even during colder months.
To help tell the story of why the latest report is significant, let’s compare foot traffic this February with each February for the last six years (see graph below). It shows this was one of the best Februarys for buyer activity we’ve seen in recent memory.

In the last six years, we saw the most February buyer traffic in 2021 . ...

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Tuesday, February 7, 2023   /   by Kenneth Brands

Experts Forecast a Turnaround in the Housing Market in 2023

The housing market has gone through a lot of change recently, and much of that was a result of how quickly mortgage rates rose last year.

Now, as we move through 2023, there are signs things are finally going to turn around. Home price appreciation is slowing from the recent frenzy, mortgage rates are coming down, inflation is easing, and overall market activity is starting to pick up. All of that’s great news for the housing market this year. Here’s what experts are saying.
Cristian deRitis, Deputy Chief Economist, Moody’s Analytics:

“The current state of the housing market is that it is certainly in transition.”
Susan Wachter, Professor of Real Estate and Finance, University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School:

“Housing is going to ease up. I think 2023 will be a turnaround year.”
Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist, National Association of Realtors (NAR):

“Mortgage ...

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Monday, December 12, 2022   /   by Kenneth Brands

What’s Going on with Home Prices?

If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home this year, you may have questions about what’s happening with home prices today as the market cools. In the simplest sense, nationally, experts don’t expect prices to come crashing down, but the level of home price moderation will depend on factors like supply and demand in each local market. That means, moving forward, home price appreciation will continue to vary by location, with more significant changes happening in overheated areas.
What Are The Experts Saying?
Danielle Hale, Chief Economist at realtor.com, says: “The major question on the minds of homeowners and aspiring buyers alike is what will happen to home prices. . . Soaring prices were propelled by all-time low mortgage rates which are a thing of the past. As a result, home price growth is expected to continue slowing, dipping below its pre-pandemic average to 5.4% for 2023, as a whole.”
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