The Bewitching Market, The Sequel
Like this time last year, the big Bogeyman in the real estate market is interest rates, which hit 8% last week. Yikes!! If anyone would have suggested that number 16 months ago, they would have been labeled a doom-and-gloom monster looking to terrorize both buyers and sellers. Let’s take a peek at some of the other sometimes ghoulish, sometimes saintly numbers:
- Trick: Existing Home Sales have reached their lowest levels in over a decade.
- Trick: The housing market is suffering from a supply shortage rather than a glut.
- Treat: Year-over-year home prices have rebounded into positive territory.
- Trick & Treat: Existing home sales are low partly because current homeowners are reluctant to give up their 2-3% mortgage rates for new, higher rates.
- Chocolate Treat: Home values are trending higher, nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.
- Non-Chocolate Treat: Recent comments from the Federal Reserve suggest they might be done hiking rates unless unexpected inflation occurs.
- Trick or Treat? Market sentiment indicates that a significant shift in rates could be underway, supported by bounces in 10yr Treasury yields just under 5%.
- Trick or Treat? The market’s next focus is on the Fed’s upcoming rate announcement on November 1st and the critical jobs report due on November 3rd.
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What Lurks Behind the Creaky Door?
That is the question to shudder over. While there are concerns, there are also positive signs in the housing market, as well as in the economic data. And oddly enough, like last year, there is a silver bullet…er, lining: although inventory is down, home values are normalizing to pre-pandemic levels. Let’s hope it sticks and rates come back to earth. At the end of a long dark night, even with a chamber of potential perils, positive indicators abound—as well as some tasty milk-chocolate-and-caramel treats that could be in the bag for the astute home buyer. As a case in point, see below:
All Treat, No Trick
Our team recently closed a deal in Redondo Beach for the buyer of a 4-bedroom, 5-bath property at 88% of the original listing price, outperforming the area’s average of 92%. Utilizing data analytics tools and timing the offer to coincide with a market dip as mortgage rates passed 7.0%, we secured a property at a favorable price per square foot compared to area averages.
(NOTE: We’ve just opened escrow for buyers on another promising deal as well, so stay tuned for that case study.)
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SPECIAL FRIGHT NIGHT FEATURE!!
Yes, it’s that time of the year again when the line between the real and unreal, dead and un-dead, becomes ever so blurred. In keeping with my annual tradition, let’s venture out into the fog-laden night of things that go bump. Yes, ghostly sprites and ghastly bugaboos abound in Hollywood, that citadel of dreams. Grab your nerves and an LED flashlight to join me in exploring some of Los Angeles’ most famous and eerily spine-chilling sites.
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The Hollywood Sign
It’s a tourist attraction. It’s iconic. But is it haunted? Some say so. Decades ago, an aspiring young actress leaped to her death after failing to make it big on the silver screen. Over the years, visitors to the famous sign have reported seeing the apparition of a woman gliding toward them, seemingly out of nowhere.
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Cecil Hotel
Unexplained deaths, serial killers, and other dark and dastardly occurrences plague this landmark hotel that was built in the 1920s. The most recent incident occurred in 2013 when a woman (Elisa Lam) mysteriously disappeared. The circumstances of her inevitable death only add to the mystery and supernatural implications. She was last seen on an elevator camera on the 14th floor—presumably talking with her killer.
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The American Horror Story Murder House
This is the house used in the movie American Horror Story. The actual Rosenheim Mansion was built by famous architect Alfred Rosenheim in 1908 for his family home. But today, it is better known as the “Murder House,” thanks to the movie. And word is, it was sold in 2013 to actress Angela Oakenfold for $3.2 Million.
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