It appears that Americans are regaining faith in the U.S. economy. The following indexes have each shown a dramatic jump in consumer confidence in their latest surveys:

1. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index
2. National Federation of Independent Businesses’ Small Business Optimism Index
3. CNBC All-America Economic Survey
4. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Survey

It usually means good news for the housing market when the country sees an optimistic future. People begin to dream again about the home their family has always wanted, and some make plans to finally make that dream come true.

If you are considering moving up to your dream home, it may be better to do it earlier in the year than later. The two components of your monthly mortgage payment (home prices and interest rates) are both projected to increase as the year moves forward, and interest rates may increase rather dramatically. Here are some predictions on where rates will be by the end of the year:

HSH.com:

“We think that conforming 30-year fixed rates probably make it into the4.625 percent to 4.75 percent range at some point during 2017 as a peak.”

Svenja Gudell, Zillow’s Chief Economist:

“I wouldn’t be surprised if the 30-year fixed mortgage rate hits 4.75 percent.”

Mark Fleming, the Chief Economist at First American:

“[I see] mortgage rates getting much closer to 5 percent at the end of next year.”

Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist:

“By this time next year, expect the 30-year fixed rate to likely be in the 4.5 percent to 5 percent range.”

Bottom Line

If you are feeling good about your family’s economic future and are considering making a move to your dream home, doing it sooner rather than later makes the most sense.

by The KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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Some Highlights:

• Realtor.com recently shared “5 Habits to Start Now If You Hope to Buy a Home in 2017.”
• Setting up an automatic savings plan that saves a small amount of every check is one of the best ways to save without thinking a lot about it.
• Living within a budget now will help you save money for down payments and pay down other debts that might be holding you back.

by The KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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You may have heard that the Federal Reserve raised rates last week… But what does that mean if you are looking to buy a home in the near future?

Many in the housing industry have predicted that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the policy-making arm of the Federal Reserve, would vote to raise the federal fund’s target rate at their December meeting. For only the second time in a decade, this is exactly what happened.

There were many factors that contributed to the 0.25 point increase (from 0.50 to 0.75), but many are pointing to the latest jobs report and low unemployment rate (4.6%) as the main reason.

Tim Manni, Mortgage Expert at Nerd Wallet, had this to say,

“Homebuyers shouldn’t be particularly concerned with [last week’s] Fed move. Even with rates hovering over 4 percent, they’re still historically low. Most market observers are expecting a gradual rise in home loan rates in the near term, anticipating mortgage rates to stay under 5 percent through 2017.”

Bottom Line

Only time will tell what the long-term impact of the rate hike will be, but in the short term, there should be no reason for alarm.

by The KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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There are some who are calling for a decrease in home prices should mortgage interest rates begin to rise rapidly. Intuitively, this makes sense as the cost of a home is determined by the price of the home, plus the cost of financing that home. If mortgage interest rates increase, fewer people will be able to buy, and logic says prices will fall if demand decreases.

However, history shows us that this has not been the case the last four times mortgage interest rates dramatically increased.

Here is a graph showing what actually happened:

Last week, in an article titled “Higher Rates Don’t Mean Lower House Prices After All,”the Wall Street Journal revealed that a recent study by John Burns Real Estate Consulting Inc. found that:

“[P]rices weren’t especially sensitive to rising rates, particularly in the presence of other positive economic factors, such as strong job growth, rising wages and improving consumer confidence.”

Last week’s jobs report was strong and the Conference Board just reported that the Consumer Confidence Index was back to pre-recession levels.

Bottom Line

We will have to wait and see what happens as we move forward, but a decrease in home prices should rates go up is anything but guaranteed.

by The KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

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While purchasing a home can be a wonderful thing, if you don’t do your due diligence when it comes to checking things out beforehand you may find yourself in a bit of a mess.  Below you will find a few things that you should look for before you purchase a home. 

1. If you go to look at a home and the house seems smaller than the listed square footage you may want to get someone to check it for you. It isn’t likely that a seller of a home will out and out lie about the square footage of their home but they might include things that shouldn’t be included in the total such as attic space or garage areas.
2. Another thing you should check out before you purchase a home  is crime in that particular area.  You can do this by looking online at such sights as Trulia but you can also call the local police department in that area and ask point blank what the crime rate is there.  You can also check for registered sex offenders to see if any might live nearby.  Once you find out these things it may change whether or not you actually want to purchase that home.
3. If the home you are looking at is in a neighborhood that has an HOA you need to check into all the details surrounding the home owner’s association. These details might make or break the deal for you.
4. Be sure not to pass up the pest inspection before you purchase a home. Sometimes folks will skip this part of the inspection to hurry up the process of home buying.  This is a very important step in home buying  that can potentially cause you to be sorry you bought the house in the first place if you don’t have it done.
5. Lastly be sure to talk to those who know the house or live near the house and ask them if there are any weird stories about it such as a death in the home or rumors of ghosts. While this may seem silly, it is my guess that no one wants to purchase a home with either of these issues.

If you do your best to get the answers to all of your questions about a particular house before you buy it, you will likely be happy with your purchase.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

Get Orlando Daily News delivered to your inbox! Subscribe here!

Some Highlights:

• Many buyers who are searching for their dream homes are turning to new home construction after 10% of all new home buyers sighted a lack of inventory of existing homes as their reason for purchase.
• The median home price decreased slightly from September’s high of $314,100 to $304,500 in October.
• The West saw the largest month over month jump in sales at 28.7%.

by The KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

Get Orlando Daily News delivered to your inbox! Subscribe here!

Many times folks hear about a reverse mortgage on the television and they think it sounds like the best thing since sliced bread.  There are a few things you need to know about reverse mortgages before you decide to move forward with one and below we have listed a few tips on how to avoid a reverse mortgage nightmare.

1. One way to avoid even thinking about doing a reverse mortgage  is to not wait until you simply don’t have any other option.  Do not go into something like a reverse mortgage without counseling with a HUD-certified housing counselor.  If you make huge decisions such as getting involved with a reverse mortgage during a time of financial stress, you will likely end up worse off than you started.
2. Another tip for avoiding a reverse mortgage nightmare is to search around for all that is offered. You don’t have to settle for a reverse mortgage just because you think it’s the only thing you can do.  Talk to a financial counselor and find out what all of your options might be and then make an informed decision based off of the facts and not just what you think the facts might be.
3. If the lender you have chosen to move forward with suddenly starts telling you that your home needs a ton of repairs, be sure to find a new lender as quickly as possible. HUD insures over 95% of reverse mortgages and they only require that the home be safe and functional.  Any small issues that your home might have shouldn’t even come into play during a reverse mortgage consultation.
4. If you feel pressured at all to sign on the dotted line to receive a reverse mortgage, do your part and do not sign the papers. You don’t want to end up in a reverse mortgage nightmare just because you felt like you were being pressured into signing the papers.  Again, get up and leave the room if you feel any kind of pressure to sign on the dotted line for a reverse mortgage.
5. Be sure to show up for the closing if you do decide to do a reverse mortgage. If you are not present things may go astray and you might end up with a raw deal in the end.

These are just a few tips to avoiding a reverse mortgage nightmare.  Do your part to pay close attention to detail so that you don’t end up living in the middle of a real nightmare.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

Get Orlando Daily News delivered to your inbox! Subscribe here!

Some Highlights:

• The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently released their latest Existing Home Sales Report.
• First-time homebuyers made up 33% of all sales in October.
• Homes are selling quickly with 43% of homes on the market for less than a month.
• A limited supply continues to drive up prices for the 56^th consecutive month.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

Get Orlando Daily News delivered to your inbox! Subscribe here!

by The KCM Crew

Although buying a new home may be a happy time in your life, if you do not do your due diligence in a few areas of home buying you may find yourself a bit frightened by the outcome.  Below is a list of a few frightening home buying regrets you should try to avoid at all costs.

1. One of the number one regrets of folks who are in the market for a new home is putting off house hunting until the last minute.  If your family has already gotten too big for your current house you may cause yourself undue stress by not starting your new home search as quickly as possible.  Also if you have already sold your home but you still haven’t quite found the home of your dreams you may be in for a bit of stress trying to move out quickly at the last minute.
2. Another frightening home buying regret to avoid is not paying attention to the schools that border your new home. Even if you don’t have children yet you need to pay attention to the school systems in your new area before you purchase.   You may not think you are going to live in the new home long enough for it to affect your future children but you just never know where life may take you and you don’t want to end up sending your children to a less than stellar school system.
3. Buying too much of a house for your budget is another big issue that can become very frightening to you and your loved ones. The first month in a new home is typically pretty peaceful but once the mortgage bill comes around and its more than you can handle, it isn’t so pretty anymore.  Figure out your budget before you go house hunting and do your best not to go beyond that budget and you should be fine.
4. If there are things in the house you plan to buy that you do not like the looks of, do not figure you will just fix them once you move in, make a few demands of the seller and see what you can get before you have to throw a ton of money on top of the purchase price to make repairs. You don’t know what the seller might be willing to do unless you ask.

Now that you have a few ideas on home buying regrets to avoid, you will be able to make the best and right decision on buying a home for your family.

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

Get Orlando Daily News delivered to your inbox! Subscribe here!

According to the Census Bureau, millennials have overtaken baby boomers as the largest generation in U.S. History. Millennials, or America’s youth born between 1982-2000, now represent more than one quarter of the nation’s population, totaling 83.1 million.

There has been a lot of talk about how, as a generation, millennials have ‘failed to launch’ into adulthood and have delayed moving out of their family’s home. Some experts have even questioned whether or not millennials want to move out.

The great news is that not only do millennials want to move out… they are moving out! The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently released their 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers in which they revealed that 61% of all first-time homebuyers were millennials in 2015!  

The median age of all first-time buyers in 2015 was 31 years old. 

Here is chart showing the breakdown by age:

Many social factors have contributed to millennials waiting to buy their first home. The latest Census results show that the median age of Americans at the time of their first marriage has increased significantly over the last 60 years, from 23 for men & 20 for women in 1955, to 29 & 27, respectively, in 2015.

Those who went to college and took out student loans are finally paying them off, as the terms on traditional student loans are 10 years. This means that a large portion of the generation is making its last loan payments and is working toward saving for a first home.

As a whole, the first-time homebuyer share increased to 35% of all buyers, up from 32% in 2014. Not all millennials are first-time buyers, they also made up 12% of all repeat buyers!

Bottom Line

Millennials will continue to drive the housing market next year, as well as in the years to come. As more and more realize that owning a home is within their grasp, they will flock to own their piece of the American Dream. Are you ready to buy your first or even second home?

by The KCM Crew

Access Teri’s one-stop Orlando FL home search website.

Teri Isner is the team leader of Orlando Avenue Top Team and has been a Realtor for over 24 years. Teri has distinguished herself as a leader in the Orlando FL real estate market. Teri assists buyers looking for Orlando FL real estate for sale and aggressively markets Orlando FL homes for sale.

You deserve professional real estate service! You obtain the best results with Teri Isner plus you benefit from her marketing skills, experience and ability to network with other REALTORS®. Your job gets done pleasantly and efficiently.  You are able to make important decisions easily with fast, accurate information from Teri. The Orlando Avenue Top Team handles the details and follow-up that are important to the success of your transaction.

Get Orlando Daily News delivered to your inbox! Subscribe here!