Last month, I talked about how high housing prices, unpredictable and rising mortgage rates, combined with runaway inflation were making it tough for consumers to buy homes. In making suggestions for ways that might help consumers make buying a home more affordable, one of the ideas was to investigate the recent changes in “conforming loan”… Continue reading
Category: Real Estate
HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2023! WHAT’S THE HOUSING MARKET LIKE? IS IT TOO LATE TO BUY?
What a difference a year makes. A year ago, the real estate market still seemed hot. 2021 had seen mortgage interest rates hit an almost unheard-of annual average low of 2.96 percent. The supply side problems of the pandemic made new construction materials hard to obtain, and therefore much more expensive. Home buyers turned to… Continue reading
Chicago’s South Side Real Estate Market is Hot!
ABC News in Chicago reported on May 7, 2022 that “an analysis of property values reveals new insight about the real estate market on Chicago’s South Side, which is also home to some of the city’s largest new development plans.” Apparently, the real estate market on Chicago’s south side can be summed up in one… Continue reading
Steep Rise in Home Utility Bills
Home utility bills have been increasing for many consumers as more people spend more time at home. Extreme weather events also seemed to contributed to higher utility bills in 2021. In 2020, median household electricity usage rose by 8.2 percent year-over-year, and only declined slightly in 2021. Between April and October, the period of peak… Continue reading
Home Values Keep On Climbing
After 2021 marked the largest home price gains on record, home prices seem poised to continue to grow in 2022. In 2021, the median sales price for a home rose to $346,900, up 17 percent from one year earlier, a gain of $50,200 for the average homeowner in just one year. Many economists cite this… Continue reading