Found 10 blog entries tagged as Discuss with Matt.

May 2022 Housing Market Report


The market is finally starting to cool down nationally as the interest rates start to rise but the question is, “What is happening here locally in the Huntsville real estate market?” 

I was reading an article by the National Association of Realtors where they were stating that the volume, not sales prices, but the sales volume has actually decreased 3.2% month over month. I was also looking at a Realtor.com article where they're actually now predicting that home sales nationally decrease, not the actual sales price, but the volume decreases 6.7% over the next year. Other articles and other economists are predicting as much as 20% decline in sales nationally. Again, this is not home sales prices, but the number of…

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Housing Supply Rebounding?

Active inventory of homes grew for the first time since 2019, so what does this mean for the housing market? Realtor.com recently reported that the weekly inventory was up slightly year over year. The number is still rounded down to about 0%, but this is still a good sign with three straight years of declining inventory.

According to this chart, it shows approximately 409,000 active homes across the U.S. which is up from a low of 376,000 active homes that we had in February. We're still down approximately 70% over the past four years with still approximately two weeks worth of supply locally. This is much lower than a balanced market of four to six months worth of supply.

Average mortgage rates have risen…

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Real Estate Crash in 2022?

Are we heading for a real estate crash in 2022? Responses and comments I've received have many asking if home values have finally peaked and if home values will start to crash in 2022. Many people are fearful they will overpay, but I believe that 'fear' stands for 'False Evidence Appearing Real' and 90% of the things that we fear actually never happen. I like to look at the data and make an informed decision. So here's the data on this question.

Data shows we have an extreme supply imbalance, there is currently a 5.5 million home deficit and our supply has shrunk 75% in the last five years. Also, 40% of the U.S. dollars have been printed in the last two years. So there's a lot of cash in this market that's…

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Why Rents Are Rising

According to a recent article by Redfin, the average rent in the U.S. increased 14.1% year over year. Why are rents rising and when will these rents come back down?

1) We all know that we're experiencing the highest inflation rate we've seen in twenty years of 8.5%. This is a result of the Fed printing more and more dollars. In fact, 40% of the dollars in circulation have been printed in the last two years.

2) Demographics. Our nation is continuing to grow but our housing has not kept pace since the 2008 real estate crash.

3) Millennials and lack of buying opportunities for this generation. Many of them are at prime ages to settle down and purchase their first home. However, the challenge is that they're losing…

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The Future of Huntsville Home Prices

Huntsville, Alabama has been touted as one of the most affordable cities in the U.S. to live in with high average salaries and below average cost of living, including home prices below the national median. But will that continue? Yahoo! Finance recently did an article with predictions on when several major cities throughout the US will become too expensive.

Guess who made that list? You got it, our very own Rocket City. The article references a study done by Go Banking rates, which predicts Huntsville loses its label of affordability in 2030. In that year, it’s predicted that the average home value surpasses seven figures and comes in at nearly $1.2 million. That's an increase of nearly four times our…

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Could Floor Plans Become Illegal?

Could you get sued for creating a floor plan of your own home? Forbes magazine recently reported that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is fighting a court ruling that states “homeowners that post floor plans of their own homes on websites could trigger a copyright lawsuit”. Seriously!? With all of the challenges we have currently with the undersupply of housing, the courts have decided to make creating a floor plan of your home a copyright infringement?

That just seems crazy since floor plans are critical pieces of information for both builders and sometimes property owners to sell their home. The appraisal process also uses floor plans to calculate square footage and determine value for the…

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Inflation is Legalized Counterfeiting

According to a recent MarketWatch article, inflation hit 8.5% in March which is the highest amount in 40 years. This raises the question, “Is Inflation Legalized Counterfeiting?” Also, how do you survive and even thrive during a period of high inflation?

Inflation is Legalized Counterfeiting 

Inflation is legalized counterfeiting and it's bad for consumers. Inflation penalizes savers, with 8.5% inflation you lose $8,500 a year in spending power on $100,000 in savings. Inflation is also a hidden tax. When the government decides to spend more money, they found that the country would revolt if the government imposed a flat 8.5% tax on all savings.

However, they can get away with it by just printing…

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Bad News for Huntsville Renters

There's bad news out there for renters in Huntsville, Alabama with rents rising 17% nationally. Our local WAYY 31 reported average rent is up $283 a month to an average of $1,792. That's over $3,300 per year which is the difference between a staycation at the apartment pool and heading to the beach this summer.

The article also cites the chief economist at Realtor.com who said, “Rents will remain high and expect some cooling from the current pace.” I think that's a little optimistic because some cooling could also mean we rise 6%, 8%, or even 10%. So with that, I still think there's going to be a lot more room for these rates to rise. 

The reason for that is 40% of US dollars have been printed in the…

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Huntsville Interest Rates Are Rising

The Fed announced six interest rate hikes in 2022. The question is what will rate hikes mean to the Huntsville real estate market and are we going to see a real estate crash this year? Before we answer that, let’s recap on what created this historic sellers market with both record low inventory and record appreciation.

The Cause

#1 - Housing Deficit

We have a 5.5 million home deficit in this country that dates back to the 2008 housing crash. Builders slowed down the supply of new homes in this country but we continued to have family formations which created that 5.5 million home gap.

Due to this deficit, we now have record low supply of about 800,000 homes nationally. Normal supply is…

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Should America become a 'Nation of Renters'?

When you think of the American dream, what do you think of? If you're like most people, it's owning your home with a white picket fence. Okay, maybe not the white picket fence anymore.

Bloomberg published an article recently by Karl Smith that our Nation's becoming a ‘Nation of Renters’, which unfortunately I believe is the case. The article said, “America actually should become a nation of renters”; which I think is absolutely preposterous. Let's take a look at some of those arguments and why it is so ridiculous:


#1 - Lack of Liquidity


They pointed to the lack of liquidity in the housing market which sometimes makes it challenging to migrate to new areas. While this is true in some…

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