Discussing 7 Key Areas in Our Market

What's going on in our market? I'm joined by Chris Moscarino from Bold Real Estate Consultants to help me update you on Berea, Brookpark, Parma, Middleburg Heights, Strongsville, Brunswick, and Medina.

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For today's update on the northeast Ohio market, I've asked Chris Moscarino of Bold Real Estate Consultants to come help me explain things. We're focusing on seven areas in particular today.

Berea: Inventory is 1.9% lower than last February and sold homes are up 14.3% with 23 homes pending. It's a neutral market but appears to be shifting to a seller's market. 

Brookpark: It's a seller's market with inventory down 60% from last year. Sold homes are down 20% with pending sales up 18.8%. The good news for sellers is that 19 of 20 homes for sale went under contract.

Parma: It's also a seller's market with inventory down 21.2% and sold homes up 14.9%. Almost 50% of the inventory is going under contract, which is great news. We're almost to a point for the first time in a decade when available inventory is down below 200 homes. 

Middleburg Heights: Current inventory is down 66.1% with just 21 homes on the market. Sold homes are up 18.2% and pending sales are up 31.3%. This tells us that almost all homes going under contract are selling.

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Inventory is 66.1% lower now than it was at this point last February in Middleburg Heights.

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Strongsville: Inventory levels are down 43.7% and sold homes are down 33.3% with pending sales up 10.2%. It's another area with over 50% of the inventory on the market going under contract. 

Brunswick: The market is neutral but shifting to a seller's market. The number of sold homes is down 40% from last year and pending sales are down 1.6%. These decreases are due to lower inventory.

Medina: Inventory is down 19.2% but the number of sold homes is up slightly. Pending sales are up 11% as well. The market is consistently neutral.

If you have any other questions about your particular area, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be glad to help you!

The Do’s and Don’ts of the Home Buying Process

To help you deal with being a homebuyer, I’ve laid out the do’s and don’ts of the home buying process.

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What are the do’s and don’ts of the home purchasing process? Today I’m joined by Tom Swan of All American Home Lending to answer that question for you.

By the “home purchasing process,” we mean the time period during the loan process, or from when you buy your home until a couple weeks after closing when you get your keys. According to Tom, the do’s and don’ts are as follows:

DON’T:

• Make any large deposits
• Move money around
• Let anyone pull your credit
• Open any new credit accounts
• Make any large purchases (i.e., buy a new car or go furniture shopping)
• Pay off any large debts
• Jump jobs (if possible)

Some of these items are self explanatory, but others aren’t. If you absolutely must make some kind of large purchase or go out shopping for furniture for your new home, don’t give any information to any salespeople you interact with. Why? They’ll typically push you into making the next step, which is entering your information (name, date of birth, etc.) into a database. That will then show up as an inquiry and another account that your lender will have to scrutinize.

Inquiries like that can affect your credit score and even result in a turndown of your loan. Not only that, but it can also impact your interest rate. Everything is score-based in 20-point increments, so if you drop 20 points in your score, your rate would jump from 3.875% to 4.125%.

Additionally, paying off a large debt might seem like a good idea in the sense that you’re increasing your ability to buy, but it’s actually not. That kind of activity adds a layered risk because your lender has to then source where you got the money to pay off that debt. 

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Inquiries can affect your credit score and even result in a turndown of your loan.

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If you have no choice and have to make a switch in your career by jumping jobs, then by all means do so. That’s understandable. Otherwise, changing jobs can result in changing titles from a salary-based position to a commission-based one, which is where the problem lies. This is because your lender will need at least a year’s worth of proof that your commissioned income is as reliable as your salary income was. 

DO:

• Make sure your IRS dealings are in order
• Find a Realtor you’re comfortable with
• Get fully pre-approved by a lender
• Beware of online pre-qualifications

Regarding your IRS dealings, if you haven’t filed your taxes on time or you have a deficiency to the IRS, that will stop you dead in your tracks. As far as online pre-qualifications go, there are many disclaimers to the pre-qualifications process, and the results of an online test can be skewed based on a number of different factors that don’t show up.

I want to give a special thanks to Tom for joining me today. If you have any more questions for him about navigating the home buying process, you can give his office a call at (440) 234-1400.

If you’re looking to buy, sell, or invest in real estate, please don’t hesitate to give us a call. We’d be happy to help!

The Latest Trends in the Northeast Ohio Real Estate Market

How did the December 2016 market stack up against the December 2015 market? We’ll look at the latest numbers today. 

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Today, we’ll take a look at the latest market numbers from a few different areas and compare December of 2016 to December of 2015.

In Parma, inventory dropped by 22% from December of 2015 to December of 2016. At the same time, the number of properties going under contract went up 16%. Overall, Parma continues to be in a seller’s market. If you’re hesitating to sell this time of year, you should know that Parma is still in a great place for you to list your home and net more money. 

In Middleburg Heights, inventory levels are down 62% and the number of properties going under contract is up by 30%. Middleburg is also in a seller’s market.

North Royalton saw a 39% decrease in inventory and a 19% increase in properties under contract. North Royalton is in a neutral market compared to a few months ago, when we were in a strong seller’s market.

In Strongsville, inventory levels are down by almost 50% year over year, while pending properties are up 88%. Strongsville is in an incredibly strong seller’s market, which is great news for homeowners who may have been under water back in 2008 or 2009. If that’s the case for you, now is a great time to get your property back on the market and net more money.

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Now is a great time to put your home on the market.

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Brunswick also saw a decline in inventory, with inventory dropping by 42%. The number of properties under contract also dropped to 28.3%. Why? A lot of the inventory out there right now is stale, so the good inventory is going quick. Brunswick is still in a seller’s market.

Inventory in Medina dropped by 27% but the number of properties going under contract increased by 27%. Medina continues to maintain a neutral position in the market right now.

So, what does that mean to you? If you are a seller and you have been hesitating about putting your home on the market, now is a great time to sell. A lot of people have pulled their homes off of the market to wait for spring, which means you will face less competition. Not only that, demand is still strong and there are plenty of buyers out there on the market.

If you have any other questions about the current market or about selling your home, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!