December 2020

In my fourteen years as a Realtor, December has always been a great time to help bargain hunters pick up a house that's been languishing on the market. After all, December is the worst time to sell, right? Not this year. This December we saw 44 houses sold in 14 days in comparison to the 20 houses sold in 26 days in 2019. Pricewise houses sold roughly 2.5% above last year's sale price on average.                                                                              

Is now a good time to sell? Absolutely! Thanks to ridiculously low interest rates and huge buyer demand looking to shelter in place in a bigger home with a yard. However, the condo market is not so lucky. Debt and interest rates are connected so don't plan on interest rising soon especially with all the debt the world is taking on.                                                       

Speaking of debt, on January 3, 2021, nearly a week after Congress passed the new stimulus bill, President Trump signed the $900 billion package into law. California’s new unemployment claims fell 23 percent last week from the previous week. However, California’s unemployment remains significantly higher than the national average. Mortgage applications fell 5 percent last week, but were still 26 percent higher than the same time a year prior. Buyer demand in California remains strong and increased by double digits compared to 2019, regardless of no open houses and only private showings. An additional 37,000 mortgages went into forbearance during the week ending on December 15th, bringing the total to 53 million mortgages, 5.3 percent of the nation’s total. Borrowers with the Federal Housing Administration have until February 28, 2021, to request forbearance, and the Federal Housing Finance Authority and Department of Housing and Urban Development have extended moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures for single-family homes through the same date. Yet for lower-income Californians, the housing crisis remains severe: While rents may not be rising by the same rates in bigger cities, widespread job losses and wage reductions put these residents in a perilous situation and not just renters, but also for the landlords who have mortgages but aren't getting rent.