The Season of Weddings, Vacations and Home Sales!

 Sales Activity and Interest Rates

Home sales activity has slowed down with the sudden uptick in rates combined with general market volatility.  In the past, the summer months represented the lion’s share of home sales.  However, this has changed in the past five years or so.  Today there is no real “sales season” as home sales remain fairly consistent year-round—at least here in California.

The recent rise in mortgage rates has stalled out, with rates ranging from the mid 4’s well into the 5’s.  The rate chosen by a borrower depends on many factors to include FICO score, loan term, (a 5- or 10-yr ARM vs. a 30 year fixed) loan program, (FHA, VA, Conforming or Jumbo)  loan purpose (purchase vs. refinance) and primary residence vs. second home or investment property. 

Some market analysts believe that rates may come down a bit.  Did you know the historical “normal rate” is 6.25%?

On home prices, we still have no reason to believe that values will fall.  There is simply too much demand and not enough inventory.  Flatten out a bit, possibly.

Family Fun

I was able to spend the Memorial weekend with my grandchildren, while my partner (and daughter) Katie and her husband were in Napa and Sonoma with friends.  The kids had a great time at the Long Beach Aquarium and were able to find and identify the Hawaii state fish, the Humuhumunukunukuapa’a.  And yes, they know how to pronounce it! 

After lunch at Bubba Gumps’ we ventured to the Los Alamitos Yacht Club to watch my grandson Theo in a sailboat race.  After two days of racing, he came in 2^nd overall!  A great achievement!

While Theo was racing, Steve was also in a race Saturday overnight from Cabrillo Yacht Club in San Pedro around Catalina Island and back to Dana Point.  His boat, Chaos Theory won first place in its class!

We are off for some scuba diving in Mexico.  I was certified only sixteen years ago but Steve was certified in 1970.  Wow!  No dive computers back then, you dove by the Navy Dive tables and had to hand calculate your dive times/depth using the charts. Actually although computers were coming into regular use when I was certified, we still learned with the tables.  Now we use dive computers that do all the calculations for us.  😊

Happy Summer!  Please call us with any questions you may have.

Karen