Mortgage rates have doubled to over 7% since the Fed raised interest rates in 2022.
At a rate of 7%, the median monthly mortgage payment for a $392,200 home is roughly $2,800, near a record high, according to a Redfin analysis. At a rate of 3%, that monthly payment would be close to $1,800.
This makes buying a home less affordable, with monthly payments for a median-priced home nearly double what they were at 3% rates, according to a Redfin analysis.
Historically, 6% mortgage rates are normal, but very low rates during the pandemic spoiled many buyers.
Fannie Mae doesn’t expect rates to return to 3% in our lifetimes but predicts a more normal range of 4.5% to 6% in the coming years.
Fannie Mae forecasts rates to fall below 7% as early as the start of next year, with home price growth also slowing down.
For Koh and Susan’s 30 year anniversary, they decided to go somewhere they have never been, and since they were short on time, they picked a place that was tropical, not too far, and reachable by Southwest Airlines (they love Hobby Airport!). Have you ever heard of the island of Aruba? It is off the coast of Venezuela. Southwest flies through Orlando in order to reach there. Aruba is actually a part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands! It is only 20 miles from the north tip to the south tip and at it’s widest, it is only 6 miles across. There are two official languages there: Dutch (sole language for all admin and legal matters) and Papiamento (spoken language by the locals) but everyone also speaks perfect English and Spanish. Incredibly, all kids learn FOUR languages growing up in their education system! If you go to Aruba, we highly recommend all the things we did: take an all day tour with ABC Tours Aruba, do a private Seabob snorkel trip with Tio1 Adventure Aruba, rent a car and visit all the different beautiful beaches, watch the sunset from the northern tip, stay at the Embassy Suites Aruba. ABC Tours will bring you to all the major sightseeing spots: the lighthouse, the natural bridge, the gold milling fort, the first Dutch church, into the National Park to see the caves and to swim in the Conchi Natural Pool. They will also serve you lunch during the tour and bring you snorkeling at Baby Beach. Highly recommended! Tio 1 Adventure will guide you on your own Seabob to see the sea turtles and all kinds of tropical fish. We were lucky to even see a manta ray swim by! In total, we were there for 5 days and 4 nights, which was plenty of time to catch all the major sights plus relax at our resort by the beautiful pool. If you have never been to Aruba, put it on your list of places to visit next to Turks and Caicos!
The law is changing and starting August 17, 2024, all realtors and their clients will be affected. This change in business practice is the result of a lawsuit against the the National Association of Realtors. Until now, it was fairly common to work with a buyer to find a house without requiring the buyer to sign a ‘Buyer Representation Agreement”. A buyer would simply contact a realtor and the realtor would help them find a house to buy. The new rules state that before the realtor can show that buyer any homes, the buyer will have to first sign a Buyer Representation Agreement, which will bind the buyer to pay for his agent’s commission, with the amount negotiable between the parties. Until now, it was customary for the seller to pay commissions to his own realtor (the listing agent), who would then offer a portion of this commission (usually half) to any cooperating realtor who would bring a buyer. Because of this, the buyer did not have to pay any commissions to his agent. The buyer’s agent would be paid by the seller’s agent, and all the commission money would actually come from the seller. The offer of commission was denoted on HAR.com so that the public and all realtors could see it and know how much it was. However, starting August 17, the MLS (for Houston, HAR.com) will no longer be allowed to display the offer of commission, so this field will be removed. Before showing any homes, the buyer’s agent will need to call the agents of all the homes the buyer wants to see, to verify if the seller will help the buyer pay for the buyer agent’s commission. It is highly anticipated that the seller will still offer a ‘buyer’s concession’ to help the buyer pay for his agent’s commission. They know that if they do not, the number of buyers that can see the home could be drastically limited, as many buyers barely have money for their down payment and can not afford to pay the buyer agent’s commission. It is important to note that if the seller says he will not offer a buyer’s concession, the buyer will then have to decide whether or not they still want to see the house. In the case where the seller will not offer a buyer’s concession to help the buyer pay for the buyer agent’s commission, and if the buyer does not have money to pay for the buyer’s agent’s commission, then that house would either not be shown or the Buyer Representation Agreement would have to be revised before it can be shown. Needless to say, the process to show houses to buyers will become a much more difficult and time consuming process, and could potentially cost the buyer a significantly higher cost if they have to pay their own realtor’s commissions. HAR.com has made these videos to help the illustrate the changes: https://cms.har.com/the-reality/.
How much can a family do in two weeks? A LOT!! At the time of our last newsletter launch, we had just wrapped up the school year. With Zach scheduled to leave for Japan on June 3 and Joe needing to be in Los Angeles for his summer internship, we squeezed in a double header party on June 2. First it was Zach’s 12th birthday party and then right after that was Ty’s graduation party. After the last guest left at 12am midnight, we rush cleaned the whole house, packed our bags, and got up early the next day to bring Zach to the airport. Every summer, Zach goes to Fukuoka to visit his Japanese grandparents, attend Hakata Elementary School, and to participate in the traditional Japanese festival Yamakasa. We are proud of him for flying all the way there (with a stopover in Tokyo) by himself! After dropping him, Koh, Susan, Joe, and Ty made a mad dash across half the United States to California, BY CAR! It took one full day to get through Texas, but we made it to El Paso by the end of the night, then to Thousand Oaks by 1am the following day. Joe settled into Susan’s cousin’s house (thanks Jennifer and Eric!) and the other 3 of us went sightseeing to Ojai and Santa Barbara. We met up with Joe’s boss, Eugene Izumo, a friend of Susan’s from USJC, who recently left his big Investment Banking firm to form his own IB Startup. Lunch with Eugene at Eataly in Century City was an unforgettable experience! The family also had time to meet up with Susan’s former business partner Matt Takahashi and to enjoy some time with Susan’s cousin’s family before saying bye to Joe and flying back to Houston Saturday afternoon. A few hours later, Susan and Koh re-packed their bags and flew off to Aruba to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. Highlights included an all day tour on a 10 passenger open air jeep, snorkeling at several pristine reefs, a private Seabob tour to see the turtles, and just spending some good quality time with each other. 30 years is a very long time when your 52. Happy Anniversary to us! Last week, the Annoura family was all over the world with us parents in Aruba, Zach in Japan, Joe in Los Angeles, and even Ty hopped on a plane with 3 of his friends and flew to Tokyo. This is probably the busiest, craziest travel summer we’ve ever had and it’s only just beginning!
Nearing the halfway mark for 2024, I have to say I don’t feel like the market has slowed at all. The last four listings I have put up, went under contract in single digit days and for very strong prices. Both our listing in Towne Lake as well as our listing in the Heights made it out of option last week. We are targeting a July 1 close date on both of those homes. In exciting news, we put up a listing in Clear Lake in the Bay Glen subdivision and found a buyer in the first few days, negotiated all repairs, and closed it in two weeks! Congratulations to one of our all star investors who decided to ride the seller wave and unload one of his rentals after his tenant moved out. A fourth victory was the closing of Baltic, also owned by one of our investors. This couple actually lives in Koh’s hometown in Japan and bought Baltic with a different real estate company. After being severely mismanaged, they Googled to find Annoura Realty and immediately engaged us in helping them turn their situation around. We were able to take over management, lease the home the home, stabilize the financials, then when the tenant moved out, got the house remodeled and put it on the market for sale. June 6, with Mariko at the helm, Texas Title helped us get Baltic closed with a remote online notary and a power of attorney for the Japanese sellers. Aside from these four active closings, we had two lease backs end. We bid farewell to the Iwata Family, who turned their home over to their buyers on June 12, then moved to Michigan. We also congratulated Robert Gondo who took possession of his golf course home on June 7th, and immediately started remodeling. I hear a wine wall will be going in to the formal dining room and I am excited to see how that turns out! Over on the leasing side of things, our Tokio Marine expat moved into his Galleria area highrise on the 14th and we welcomed a new Kuraray expat into his predecessor’s home on the 15th. Our two new Daikin expats will be moving into their new digs in a couple of weeks, and two new Mitsui expats have chosen their apartments and are now just waiting for their move in day to come! Coming up on the horizon, we have our next wave of expats, several are doctors at the Texas Medical Center, and newcomers from Nippon Steel, Benichu, and NOEX! As always, we greatly appreciate all of your referrals and are diligently tracking our lead sources. If you tell someone about us and they use us, please remind them to mention your name. We are working on some very special gifts to all our referral sources!