roger and teresa moen

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Interest Rates for your mountain home

First off, Happy Holidays to all of our clients past, present and future!

We hope you are enjoying all this great snow. We are having a ball and you know what they say, “If you are lucky enough to live in the mountains you are are lucky enough” We try to never forget this and truly believe it.

According to Freddie Mac, the national average for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage as of December 14, 2023, dropped below 7% for the first time since August, currently around 6.95% which is still pretty cheap money. It is difficult to remember this as we are got pretty spoiled with those 3 and 4% interest rates we have seen for the last couple of years.  On Wednesday, Dec 13, 2023, the Federal Reserve announced that it would not be raising interest rates. YAHOO! This is good news!

Many believe that this means the Feds are halting the  twenty-one month crusade of interest rate hikes against rising inflation. That crusade saw 11 rate hikes since March 2022. The  Fed’s rate hikes affect borrowing and savings rates consumers experience on a daily basis. 

We’ll keep you posted.

How is the market in Summit County you ask?

Here are the reports comparing November of 2022 with November of 2023. For condos and townhomes in Summit County.

The number of Sold listings has dropped and the amount of time it takes to sell a property has risen which suggests the market is moving in favor of the Buyers based on just this one month of data. Contact us for a more complete analysis.

Scroll down for data for single family homes in this time period.

The chart below shows single family homes also comparing November 2022 to November 2023. The single family home market is slowing more than the condo/townhome market. This could possibly be because there are more condos/townhomes to choose from and typically the prices for single family homes are in a higher price point.

The Market for 2022

I may sound like a broken record…

Here we are in 2022. And many of our clients have asked us how we think the market will be in 2022….

Today’s market is defined by an intense sense of urgency felt by buyers and buyers’ agents. Compared to last year, inventory is lower, demand is greater, and interest rates are rising.
I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to be prepared if you are purchasing a property in Breckenridge or other areas in Summit county to have everything lined up and ready to go.

  • Cash is king (usually).
  • If you are getting a loan a local lender will feel less of a risk to the seller.
  • Get a Pre-Qualification Letter before hand so that we can present it with the offer.
  • Quick closing, or put in a clause that gives the seller some choice on the closing date.
  • Offer above asking price and have an escalation clause (I will blog on what that is next).
  • Make the offer clean, in other words don’t put a lot of pressure on the seller. An example: leave off something small like ‘carpets to be professionally cleaned’.
  • Seller can rent back after closing if needed
  • Offering higher amounts of earnest money (normally 2%) will show the seller you are less apt to walk away from a deal with lots of money on the table and the risk of losing it if you don’t perform as contract dictates.
  • Another option is to state that earnest money goes “hard” after all contingencies are met. This shows, again, you are a serious buyer.
  • If you are buying investment property in Breckenridge the seller may have rentals on the books at the time of closing. Be flexible on those as far as closing after the bookings or letting seller keep what is on the books already, etc.

There are many tricks to make an offering that is appealing to seller. Roger and Teresa Moen, with eXp Realty have been doing this for 25 years. We are in a new world as I have said before, so we have to forget everything we thought we knew about buying and selling real estate in Breckenridge (which I know is difficult). We, Roger and Teresa Moen, have had to change with the times. We wouldn’t ask you to do what we are not willing to do ourselves.