The Savvy Synopsis

We talk about some of the recent real estate headlines to see what Angie thinks and how it relates in the Triangle housing market.

You may have heard or read some recent real estate articles in the news and wondered how true it is in our area here in the Triangle. Angie gives her thoughts on these headlines as well as some advice for those looking to buy or sell a home in this episode of the Savvy Realtor podcast.

Freddie Mac, a mortgage loan company, predicts a strong housing market in 2020. Angie has seen a market shift in 2019, slightly more toward a buyer’s market. The drop in interest rate has meant more buyers in the market who can afford homes. So, while it is still a strong housing market, don’t panic if your home doesn’t get multiple offers within the first day of listing it!

Homes priced between $100,000 to $250,000 are experiencing a scarcity across the country as well as here in the Triangle, which makes for a competitive market in that price range. If that’s your price point, there are still homes there but you can’t be quite as choosy. If you are working in a lower budget, implement different strategies to win the bidding war (like by offering more in due diligence).

When is the best time of the year to buy a home? While some may think winter is a tough time to buy or sell a home, some data may suggest that days around the holidays can be bought at a discount. Angie shares some of her experience with home shopping at this time of year.

Listen to the full episode or click on the timestamps below to hear Angie discuss some of the latest headlines in real estate.

0:38 - In the News: Freddie Mac is predicting a strong 2020 housing market.

2:44 - Low price homes are experiencing a scarcity across the country.

4:33 - Set your expectations accordingly if working in a lower budget.

7:33 - In the News: Are decks a thing of the past?

10:35 - In the News: Is winter the best time for homebuyers?

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Show Transcription:

Note: This is an automated transcription. Please forgive the robots as they tend to make some (a lot of) mistakes...

Speaker 1: (00:02)
It's time for the savvy real tour podcast. I'm Walter Storholt alongside Angie Cole, the owner and broker in charge of a Cole Realty serving you throughout the triangle, teaching you about the ins and outs when it comes to buying or selling a home. You can find the team online by going to eight Cole realty.com that's a C O L E realty.com or by calling (919) 578-3128 that's (919) 578-3128 and now it's time for one of the top realtors tours in the triangle, Angie Cole and the savvy real tour podcast. Andrea, as we approach the end of the year, got a couple of news headlines. I want to kind of throw your direction, see what you think of these things. All relating to the real estate market. First thing that caught my eye recently was a Freddie Mac. You know the the mortgage behemoth, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, we always hear them in the news. Of course they're predicting a strong 2020 market, so they are predicting a small drop in interest rates and continued home price growth, albeit a little bit smaller slowing home price growth but growth than the less, and they're going to say that those two factors will aid to a strong housing market. Do you kind of agree with that as a whole? Do you think that'll be what we experience here in North Carolina as well?

Speaker 2: (01:17)
I, I, do you know what we've already seen in 2019 the, the market has shifted a little bit. We've definitely seen a shift where we've been in such a strong seller's market for so long that, you know, it's gearing a little bit more towards a buyer's market and with the drop already, interest rates are definitely low, but even does the smallest bit of drop is making homes now a little bit more affordable for every buyer. Right? The lower the interest rate more that you can qualify for because the lower your mortgage payment is as well. Um, and so I feel like by allowing more buyers to be in the market, because now they can afford, more now more homes will be purchased. So it's just really strengthening the overall real estate market. But once again, I got a little crazy and out of hand with it being such a strong seller's market that it was going to give eventually. So we are seeing the average days on the market is increasing. So don't freak out if you're a seller and your home doesn't sell in a day with multiple offers because you know, although we love to see when that happens, it's just not as common. Now homes are sitting on the market just a little bit longer, but we're still seeing that the market is slowly appreciating, um, in most areas. And once again, the affordability is just wonderful for buyers. So it's a win win.

Speaker 1: (02:34)
Yeah. It seems like it's kind of a level playing field at the moment. Yeah, I'd say. Yeah. Yeah. And it looks like it'll continue to be so going on into 2020 as well. So we'll see if that holds true. Another little headline I saw as well talked about low priced homes. The scare city for those has continued. So you see you're seeing this as well before I even give the data. You're out, you're jumping all over. Uh, October data shows a 6% in the supply of homes in the 100,000 to $250,000 range. So you're, you're seeing this definitely a problem in our area too.

Speaker 2: (03:08)
100%. And remember we are teammate core Realty, we cover, um, a very vast, you know, majority of like Lord location pretty broad, right? And so, you know, in different areas there is definitely a higher volume of those price points when you go a little bit more on the outskirts and more rural areas. But you know, you go and you try to find a home in Raleigh and carry in that price point. When they hit the market, they are gone. And so it's tough. I mean we, we love helping buyers no matter what price point they're in. But a buyer comes to us. I was looking for $150,000 single family home in Raleigh. You know, it's not saying that we cringed, but you know, it's, we feel bad for the client because there's just not many options out there. And if there are options out there, they're typically flying off the market with multiple offers. So it's just a really tough position to be in, you know, when you are in that price point. Because the overall market we're, we're appreciating slowly and unfortunately it's kind of driving out those lower price points where the inventory just doesn't exist anymore. Now it's still there. So don't freak out if that's your price point. We, you know, we love working with everyone and there are still homes. They are, but it is just a little bit more difficult. You know, it's, it's, uh, you're not able to cherry pick as much.

Speaker 1: (04:19)
What do you then tell those folks? I mean, like what are some of the solutions that you have for people if they want that? I mean, they're obviously, their price range is the price range, right? So, I mean, what do you, what do you do?

Speaker 2: (04:29)
Yeah, yeah. And you know, and that's, that's something you, you know, we, we work with it, right? But we go ahead and we set the expectation of you aren't definitely going to, you know, find a home day one, right? Because we might chat about your housing criteria and there might not even be a home on the market for you to look at at this point. So, you know, make sure that you have time on your side. Um, also I would highly suggest that we're not looking at your top budget. Reason being, say your top budget is 150, maybe let's look at homes up to one 40 so that if you find a home you love at that one 40 and we get into a multiple offer situation, you're in a position where you can go above asking price. Because if we look at the very cap of your budget, you're stuck.

Speaker 2: (05:12)
If you get into one of those multiple offers situations, there's no way for you to win that time because almost always it will go above asking. So don't really cap yourself out and look at the Barre max max that you can afford. Um, also be prepared to put a decent amount of money upfront as like good faith. You know, that's what we're seeing is really winning offers these days. You know, it's not always the highest price, but a lot of times it's the offer that has the most due diligence money or shortest due diligence timeframe. So there are ways to tweak our offer to make it more attractive to a seller. Even if maybe you're not the most financially stable or the best offer price. We can also make your offer attractive in other ways. So make sure you're to give a, a hefty amount of due diligence money up front. Be prepared to probably go above asking price if you're within that budget. And then also just remember that your options are probably going to be a little bit limited. So it's just setting expectations for our buyers, but we help buyers all the time in that price point.

Speaker 1: (06:13)
Just for perspective, uh, just did a search in Raleigh. Okay. So for a hundred and I put it at 200,000 uh, but a hundred to 200,000 so what we would consider kind of definitely affordable range of a home, the lower end of the spectrum for finding like a single family home. And now I limited it to just, you know, just a home. So I didn't include condos and those kinds of things. So just to stand, you know, freestanding single family home. And I did the traditional three bedroom, two bath and no other stipulations. Only 19 homes in Raleigh. Yeah. All of Raleigh. Raleigh match that. Yup.

Speaker 2: (06:47)
And who even knows the condition, right? I mean we haven't even gotten into that, but I'm

Speaker 1: (06:50)
exactly, and they're all, all of them are East of Raleigh, so if you want it to be on, you know, in West Raleigh or something like that. Well zero. So

Speaker 2: (07:00)
I know, I know it's so, it's really tough, right. It, you know, it did. The area has become unfortunately, you know, not affordable for some, but you know, on the flip side though, the rental market is increasing as well. So, you know, I, I still feel like, you know, just based on numbers, not even a feeling, but you know, statistics show, you know, a mortgage payment in most cases is still going to be less than what you would pay in rent. So it, it's a kind of a catch 22 either way you go, it's just our, our market is getting more expensive.

Speaker 1: (07:31)
You got it. Great point Angie. Another headline here. This one, uh, we can hit hit real quick. I just got thought it was kinda interesting. And the article was our decks, a thing of the past. Studies show a small decline in the number of decks being built, only going into 22% of new homes, which is down a percentage point from a year ago. And looking at it regionally, the Pacific territory had 21% of homes with decks and our area, Angie and the South Atlantic is the lowest in the country. It only 18% of homes. That really surprised me cause I feel like I know a ton of homes that have decks. So

Speaker 2: (08:06)
I agree with the stat. I, um, yeah, this was,

Speaker 1: (08:11)
and you know,

Speaker 2: (08:12)
well we have to remember, you know, there's a lot of patio homes, right? Or like homes with slabs and when a home's on a slab, there's typically not a deck because it's sitting on the ground. So then you have a patio. Yeah. Paver patios or some type of, you know, just cement patio. You don't have an actual deck deck. You're only going to typically have a deck if your home is built up. So you're on a crawl space. Um, so definitely in areas where a crawl space is not common for sure you're not going to have decks. But here in our area, I mean, almost feel like a deck is very important for a lot of, you know, a lot of buyers, um, above and beyond that, you know, a screened in porch is something that, especially with these mosquitoes that we have, right. We have bugs and another is they don't have the bugs we have.

Speaker 2: (08:58)
I bet we're winning in that category. Right, exactly. So, you know, I feel like for many as screening porches, even a must, you know, if there's going to be a deck, it actually needs to be covered and screened in. So I, I, I'm not, I'm not on par her on board with these percentages because I don't feel like we're seeing that in our area. I feel like a deck is very still very, very important that outdoor living space, you know, for our area and you know, bright area. We had our true four seasons, right. So I feel like most people that live in our area, they enjoy the outdoors, they enjoy, you know, just, you know, sitting outside and enjoying their yard. So I think a deck is really important to them.

Speaker 1: (09:36)
Yeah. To poke a hole in the study, by the way, they made it sound like, Ooh, it's dropped another percentage point. But it's actually up from 2000 and I think it was 2012 in the data. It was even lower than it is now. So it's not exactly like it's falling off a cliff. The a, it's just sort of stabilized around that 22 to 24% Mark. So,

Speaker 2: (09:57)
well it's still, it's crazy to think that you said 22% of new homes only have a deck. Is that correct? Am I reading that? Yeah.

Speaker 1: (10:04)
Uh, 22% of new homes or having a deck put in. Right.

Speaker 2: (10:08)
I mean to me, I think about new builds and you know, once again, if it's on a crawl space versus a slab, I feel like probably 90% of homes in our areas have decks. Like that's, yeah.

Speaker 1: (10:20)
So that's why it does seem seem odd, that's for sure. Um, I guess we do have a lot of, you know, flatter areas where maybe we're just underestimating the amount of, you know, the slab homes that there are. But gosh, it just seems, it does seem kind of low. It does. Uh, but anyway, I thought it was interesting. Last but not least, Angie winter is the best time for buyers. So this was a real estate data company and they went through and they looked at all 365 days of the year and they are proposing that the best days of the year to buy a home, fall in December, specifically December 26 the day after Christmas, that's when it's alleged. You'll see the biggest discounts below full market value compared to the other 364 days of the year. And the number two day is new year's Eve, December 31st that's the other prime date. What do you think of the, uh, of that theory of that, of that data?

Speaker 2: (11:10)
I don't know what to think. I, I'm not sure that I've seen this or have noticed this type of decline it, if anything or, you know, savings per se, almost like it's a black Friday for homes. If anything, I've noticed that typically around the holidays, people take their home off the market. You know, it may be, it's a time, maybe their home hasn't sold. It's a time to let the days in the market calculator reset, let's put it back on the market in January. But for those that we have listed in December, you know, I wouldn't say that we are just discounting or reducing the prices. I don't know. Am I having, I'm having trouble with this one. I don't know about this data.

Speaker 1: (11:49)
Maybe that's the, the ticket is those who do then leave the home on the market through the winter or list it right during the winter there. I don't want to say desperate, but they're motivated. Right. So I get that. I get that because maybe they're generous because it's the holiday. So they're willing to give more discounts in the negotiations,

Speaker 2: (12:06)
right? No and I, yes. So I, I get that part of it. Um, so you're right, they are probably a little bit more excited to get their home sold. Right. So maybe a little bit more flexible when it comes to pricing. So maybe overall, maybe they've already done some price corrections and their home store on the market in December. So maybe just across the board, the average listing that would be on the market is maybe priced lower than where it would be priced if it was listed. You know, in the spring market or summer even. So yeah, I would say there's probably more motivation to get it sold if they do have it listed during that time. I agree.

Speaker 1: (12:41)
Must be the reason. So there you go. If you're a buyer seller, you know, don't, don't necessarily think that the year is over for your chances to buy or sell a home. There's options out there and it sounds to me like a, you know, you might get a benefit if you're a seller, it might go, uh, this time of year, don't necessarily assume it won't. And if you're a buyer you might get a good deal out of it. So there you go. Kind of cool, interesting information on it. Today's a show you've been listening to the savvy real tour podcast. I'm Walter store Holt alongside Angie Cole. She's the owner and broker in charge of Aiko Realty here in the triangle. And if you have questions for Angie, we invite you to go online to a Cole realty.com listen to past podcast episodes on the website. Read the blog and all the great information, including the option to find a home right there on the website. That's a Cole real t.com and you can also call Angie with your questions. (919) 578-3128