Using a HELOC To Make Your Move

Here’s how you can use a HELOC to buy a new home before you sell. 

Are you looking to move? If so, you probably need to sell your old home before you can buy a new one. If you’re in this position, how can you sell your house without going homeless? I have a great tip that’s helped plenty of our clients, and I want to share it with you today. 

The big issue in our market right now is our low inventory. Sure, you can get a great deal on your home, but what will you do when you have to buy? Fortunately, we’ve worked closely with lenders to help solve this situation, and you may be able to use a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, to make your move. 

So how would this work? Let’s look at an example: Say you want to move up from your existing house into a bigger one. Because homes have appreciated so much in the last few years, you probably have a lot more equity than you think. In this instance, you can use a HELOC to pull the equity out of your home. It doesn’t cost any money until you deploy the funds, so you can use that cash to pay for a down payment on your new home. 

"You probably have more equity than you think."

Even if you aren’t looking to move, there are plenty of good reasons to take out a HELOC, such as an emergency fund. While I’m not a financial expert, I will caution against spending your equity on things like expensive cars. If you need a lender to speak with about this topic, please reach out to us. We'd be happy to put you in touch with a great one.

If you have questions about today’s topic, please call or email my team. We are always happy to be a resource for you!

Home-Seller Seminar - How To Get Top Dollar

REGISTER HERE!

Are you thinking about selling your home in the Puget Sound area? You're invited to myHome-Selling Workshop: How To Get Top Dollar in Uncertain Times on April 28 at 7 p.m PST.It's a virtual, online event to stay safe.

I'm going to answer your biggest questions about selling your home, including:

• Is COVID-19 affecting prices?

• What if I can’t pay my mortgage?

• Can I get an instant offer?

• Can my home be sold safely?

• Are home prices dropping?

• Is now a good time to sell?

• Do I need to repair my home?

• Will my home pass inspection?

• What mistakes should I avoid?

• How do I get rid of my “stuff”?

• How do I attract buyers now?

• How do I get top dollar for my home?

You'll learn how to increase the value of your home in an uncertain market and what repairs to make (or avoid). You'll also get a free neighborhood market report with a complimentary listing price recommendation after you attend, too.

Hurry! It's limited to 25 homeowners. You can attend safely from your computer, phone, or tablet.

If you're thinking about selling your home, you need to attend this.

 

Get your free ticket on Eventbrite here.

Our Latest Pierce County Market Update

Here’s what’s happening in our Pierce County market in October.

Today I’m sharing what’s currently happening in the greater Pierce County real estate market. Feel free to refer to the graphs in the video above if you’d like a visual representation of the data.

September had a median sale price of $507,480, which is the third month in a row we’ve seen a small decrease in prices. That isn’t unusual for the season, and we’ve seen a rise of 14.3% in home values compared to this time last year. That’s excellent appreciation; the normal rate is about 4% to 5% in a single year. So we’ve seen about three years’ worth of appreciation condensed into just this past year. 

Sellers are getting 2.7% over the asking price when they sell and are doing so very quickly at an average of five days on the market, on average! When we look at pending sales, the number of sales that are taking place has grown 7.3% compared to September 2020. The number of homes for sale has improved by 19.5%, and homes sold have climbed 4.4% in the last year. Our market truly needed more inventory, and we’re starting to see it. I would say the jump in sold homes is due to having more options available for buyers. 

"We’ve seen about three years’ worth of appreciation condensed into just this past year."

When we have less than six months’ worth of homes on the market, we’re in a seller’s market, and home values are usually escalating. When we have six to seven months of inventory, we’re in a neutral market (not a buyer’s or seller’s market), and home values follow inflation. Neutral markets rarely last very long. When we have over seven months of houses for sale, we’re in a buyer’s market, and home values frequently decrease. 

Even though inventory has been creeping up a bit, we’re still very much in a seller’s market at 0.7 months of inventory, or just 21 days. We’re still desperate for more homes to hit the market, which is fairly consistent all across the U.S. right now. Diana Olick, CNBC’s Real Estate Correspondent recently said: 

“Fall is usually the start of the slower season for the housing market, but nothing is usual in today’s pandemic-driven housing market. Potential homebuyers are seeing a slight rise in inventory and consequently rushing back into the fray. Mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped 7% last week from the previous week… That is the highest level since April of this year.”

That’s a great sign that buyers are still interested, and as more inventory is becoming available, they’re excited and taking action. 

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team via phone or email if you have any questions about our market or real estate in general. We’re here to be of service to you. 

Home-Buyer Workshop

REGISTER HERE

Are you thinking about buying in the Puget Sound area? You're invited to my Home-Buying

Workshop: How To Best Position Yourself as Qualified Buyer, on May 18 at 7 p.m PST.

It's a virtual, online event to stay safe.

I'm going to answer your biggest questions about buying a home, including:

• Is COVID-19 affecting home prices?

• How much house can I afford?

• Can I safely tour homes?

• Are home prices dropping?

• Is now a good time to buy?

• What is an inspection?

• What mistakes should I avoid?

• How do I find movers?

• How do I get the best price for my new home?

Hurry! It's limited to 25 homebuyers. You can attend safely from your computer, phone, or tablet.

If you're thinking about buying a home, you need to attend this.

Get your free ticket on Eventbrite here.

Pierce County Real Estate Market Update

Here are the latest stats from the Pierce County market as of September 2021.

Today I'm sharing the latest information about our Pierce County real estate market. The median sale price is $515,000. Though prices have plateaued in the last three months, that still represents a 16.5% increase in home values since August 2020. To give you some context for how huge that is, real estate historically appreciates by about 5% per year—we got almost three years of appreciation crammed into one! Many people have been concerned about the idea of being in a market bubble. I assure you that very few experts think that we’re in a bubble. The general consensus is that appreciation is slowing down and leveling off (rather than home values simply plummeting like back in 2007 and 2008), bringing us back to a more balanced market. Homes in Pierce County are selling on average for over 2.1% over their asking prices. Keep in mind that asking prices are just starting bids. Homes are also selling very quickly; five days is the median days on market in our county right now. Pending sales are the number of homes that have offers accepted on them but haven’t yet officially closed. The number of pending sales has increased by 5.6% since this same time last year. This shows that even though there isn’t as much inventory in the market, the number of sales has increased.

"With only 18 days of inventory, you can see how much of an extreme seller’s market we’re in."

At 3:20 in the video above, you can see a chart that compares the number of active listings (in red) to the number of sales (in green). The number of homes for sale is up 3% compared to a year ago, and the number of homes sold is up 9.6%. This is a good thing because we definitely need more inventory in the market. Despite the increase in inventory, now is still a great time to sell a home. Demand for homes is still high in comparison to the number of homes available for sale. When a market has less than six months of inventory, that means it’s a seller’s market. It’s in this kind of market that we see home prices continue to rise, as we’ve consistently seen for the past several years. Given that we only have 18 days of inventory, you can see how much of an extreme seller’s market we’re in. The good news for sellers is that you’re very well positioned to be able to sell your home and get top dollar. For buyers, we’ve seen that many are going through what’s called buyer fatigue. Multiple-offer situations are rampant, and many are getting beat out for the homes they want. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out over the next several months, but we’ll keep an eye on it and keep you posted as to what we’re experiencing. If you have any questions or would like to have a deeper conversation about what’s going on in our market, feel free to reach out to us by phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.