Ways to Watch This Year’s House Market Trends

The prediction this year is a challenging one for the housing market. Mortgage rates will increase as well as home prices making it harder to afford a new home. Along with the decrease in affordability, there will also continue to be a short supply of homes to purchase.

On the flip side, 2019 sees more entry-level homes being built and mortgage lenders are making it easier to qualify for a home loan. First time home buyers should have a better chance at purchasing their first home this upcoming year.

A great way to look for a good opportunity is to follow the market trends. Here are several housing and mortgage trends to watch for this year.

Supply and demand is always for the buyer or for the seller. The best time to buy is when the market exceeds the demand. The real estate market has been on the seller’s side now for almost a decade.

There is just more buyers out there then there are homes for sale. Although this is not an ideal situation for those looking to purchase a home, the forecast does show there might be some fortune coming their way. Reports have shown that there will be a rise in the number of homes for sale in 2019.

Secondly, look at the home price trends. Are the home prices on the rise or holding steady? It is predicted that the prices of homes will rise this year but at a slower pace than in the previous years. The National Association of Realtors estimates the prices to rise 2.5% in 2019 to a median of $265,200 making the spike 2.2% less than in 2018 where the rise was 4.7% to a median of $258,700.

“Home price appreciation will slow down — the days of easy price gains are coming to an end — but prices will continue to rise,” says Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.

Another trend to watch is the rise in Mortgage rates. Again, it is predicted that the mortgage rates will rise at a slower pace in 2019. A 30-year fixed mortgage should rise half a percentage point this year according to Freddie Mac compared to the 2018 30-year fixed mortgage rate which went up just under three-quarters of a percentage point.

A shy buyer’s market can be concerning. Potential home buyer’s should gauge home ownership affordability. When the prices and rates go up, it is harder to find affordable homes.

“We do worry about affordability, particularly in some areas that have lower inventory” of homes for sale, says Randy Hopper, senior vice president of home lending for Navy Federal Credit Union.

According to Hopper this will not deter prospective home buyers from purchasing a home. He explains that a quarter or half percentage point rise will only impact a mortgage payment by $75 to $100 per month on a $300,000 home for example.

Hopper states this, “isn’t insignificant, but it’s not necessarily something that impacts the buying decision.”

As far as home prices, Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com predicts the home prices to rise at a slow pace which will cause them to fall back in line with incomes.

Look for ways the builder’s accommodate the price increases in the housing market to make a more affordable home for potential buyers. Builder’s are building new homes smaller and more affordable.

“Continuing a multiyear trend, new single-family home size decreased during the third quarter of 2018,” wrote Robert Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, in a November blog post. “New home size has been falling over the last three years due to an incremental move to additional entry-level home construction.”

Homes built in 2018 averaged out to be about 2,320 square feet which is 4.9% smaller than the median size of new homes built in 2016.

Hopper comments, “I think for many years, the builders were focused on that $500,000-and-up market because the margins were healthier,” he says. “But they’re starting to find now that there’s so much pent-up demand in the lower-end-priced market that they can sustainably offer communities and new construction, and we’ve seen a lot of growth in that space.”

Another trend to be aware of is first-time home buyers. “First-timers have dominated the mortgage market for the past 10 years, and their share today is still high,” according to an Urban Institute report published this summer, which adds: “We don’t see this changing anytime soon.”

Currently first-time home buyers take out approximately 60% of purchase mortgages. Prior to the housing crisis, first-time home buyers only made up 40%. In fact, 80% of the growth in home sales for the past three years are from first-time home buyers.

Tian Liu, chief economist for Genworth Mortgage Insurance reports, “Between 2007 and 2015, our estimate is that roughly 3 million first-time home buyers delayed buying a home, and they’re reaching that age when they can no longer delay.” Liu says. “Their housing needs are really catching up with them. It doesn’t feel right to be raising a family in a rental apartment. They want to own their place. So I think those drivers will be very significant for the next few years.”

Look at the mortgage lending standards. Mortgage lenders want to make sure a borrower can repay their loans. During the financial crisis of 2008, lenders became strict on their lending standards.

Today, mortgage lenders are tending to relax the standards. There are less documents, lower credit scores and smaller down payments that are required.

This leads into what type of mortgages are being chosen by home buyers. When rates on fixed-rate mortgages go up, home buyers tend to choose ARMs (adjustable-rate mortgages).

Arms accept more risk from the borrower. In October of 2018 ARM’s consisted of 8.2% of compared to the 5.5% in 2017.

Last, watch for bidding wars. Even though 2019 is predicted to be a seller’s market doesn’t mean a seller can expect a bidding war. If a home is priced above the median for that area, sellers tend to not see a bidding war.

As a seller, Hale says, “if you’re in that above-median price point, you’re going to have to price competitively and offer incentives for buyers.”


Click Here For the Source of the Information.

A Surge In Construction Job Openings

The housing market was a bit slower in the last half of 2018. Despite the slowdown in the sale and resales of homes, the job openings in the construction industry boomed in the last part of 2018.

The National Association of Home Builders and the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey reported an increase in the number of job openings in the construction field. The quits rate for the construction sector jobs increased 2.8% in the last month of 2018. This was a jump from the 2.2%

reported in December of 2017. The open position rate increased from 3.9% to 4.9% from the beginning of 2018 to the last half of the year. The rate reported at the end of 2017 was just 2.1%. The cycle high was 382,000 in December of 2018 which was much higher than the 149,000 reported December 2017.

The housing market will continue to thrive making the need for more workers in the construction field. The construction industry has had an overall increase in jobs since the end of the recession. It is anticipated that in 2019 the jobs might level off but there will still be a high demand in the industry.


Click Here for the Source of the Information.

New Orleans Mission Opens The Mission Pantry on the North Shore

It is reported that there are over 24,000 St. Tammany residents that are in need of food. These hungry individuals now have a place to go for help called the Mission Pantry.

Started by The New Orleans Mission, The Mission Pantry is the origination’s latest accomplishment. Founded in 1989, The New Orleans Mission has been serving the New Orleans area for three decades. It has helped residents who are struggling with homelessness, addiction, abuse or lack of food.

The Mission Pantry is located in Lacombe on the site of the New Orleans Mission’s Giving Hope

Retreat at 31294 U.S. 190. The Giving Hope retreat is a 58-acre campus where programs are provided to help aide the homeless population. It offers housing to 80 men who are going through a year-long recovery program.

Walmart donated a $75,000 grant to The Mission Pantry which was used to purchase a refrigerated truck. The truck is used to pick up food from neighboring retailers in the North Shore area.

“With the help of our incredible community partners, we hope to get farmers, grocers and other food purveyors to support the program as we attempt to eradicate food insecurity in St. Tammany Parish,” Mission Pantry Program Director John Proctor said in a news release.


Click Here for the Source of the Information.

St. Tammany Tree Bank Will Help Plant 30,000 Trees In 2019

St. Tammany parish is a great place to live and its popularity has shown through the booming housing market. One negative aspect of the growth in the parish is the decline in the beautiful trees the area is known for. St. Tammany parish is the home of oaks, pines and cypress that give the area a canopied greens-cape. St. Tammany parish government has created the Tree Bank program and Adopt-A-Pond program to help with this problem by preserving the tree canopy, enhancing the water quality improvements, increasing flood mitigation and creating Eco-corridors along with wildlife habitat in St. Tammany parish.

“Water quality, flood prevention and preservation of our natural resources, are top priorities in St. Tammany, and we are able to address them all, in varying degrees, through these programs — the Adopt-A-Pond Program and the Tree Bank. This is another example of forward-thinking ideas put

into practice, with wide-ranging results,” said Pat Brister, St. Tammany Parish President. “We also have the benefit of teaching our young people about their own environment and how all of these elements work hand-in-hand to give us our wonderful, natural surroundings, and what they can do in the future to protect our community.”

Funding for the program is fueled by the parish Tree Bank. The Tree Bank is financed by fees that the developers incur when removing trees off land in St. Tammany. Agency partners which include NOAA SeaGrant Program, the LSU AgCenter Youth Wetlands Program, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Sunbelt Innovative Plastics, and are in the Adopt-A-Pond program, also help with monetary needs.

Along with the parish government, the St. Tammany School District has taken the initiative to help reach the goal of planting 30,000 new trees in the parish by year’s end. Boyet Junior High has already planted 325 trees at Meadowlake Pond in Slidell. The Adopt-A-Pond program will allow STEM students from St. Tammany high schools and junior high schools to plant trees along the banks of six ponds around St. Tammany. The school district plans to plant 2,300 trees this month alone.

“I’m excited that these community partnerships are allowing our students the opportunity to participate in hands-on science projects while also improving the environment of St. Tammany Parish,” said St. Tammany School System Superintendent Trey Folse. “These are real life lessons that students will be able to use far beyond the walls of their classrooms.”

Along with the 325 trees along the pond’s banks, 75 young Live Oaks have been planted along Oak Harbor Blvd. in Slidell. So far in 2019, over 400 trees of 13 species have been planted in the community.

Click Here and Here for the Sources of the Information.

Reasons To Why Home Building Should Be In High School Curriculum

A high school degree can only get you so far but coupled with a college degree or a skill set can give you further career alternatives. There is a demand for career and technical education in high school. Here are some great reason why every high school should incorporate home building as an elective.

First reason why is because it’s challenging. Taking those mathematical equations a student learns on paper and applying them in a real life situation is all together different than just applying them on a high school test. Students not only have to figure the problem out on paper but they have to make it

work when building a house. According to Scott Burke, who runs a home building program at Eureka High School in Eureka, Missouri, he has seen honor students who are stumped when applying geometry principles to building homes.

Second reason, it prevents slacking. Students have to work at solving the problems to be able to build. It is much more than just doing a little homework and then taking a written test.

Third reason why is it’s useful. Students get to see a real life scenario of how a subject like geometry can be applied. Students aren’t just sitting in a class room learning the subject but they are also incorporating it into the building of a structure.

Another great reason is because it’s memorable. Students are hands-on in a project. It is easier to remember an equation when they have to apply it to building a home. Math becomes relevant to a student when they physically see the outcome of a nice new home.

The last reason why is because it promotes higher achievement. In the case of Eureka High School, the evidence has been seen that the students who are in the program have an advantage over their peers.

Students need to be thinking more outside of the box and be inspired. Text books are not as inspiring as hands on experience.


Click Here for the Source of the Information.

A Great Start to the 2019 Housing Market

The New Year has started out with a great report on the future for the housing market this year. Still rebounding from the housing crisis, there was a slow moment in 2018 for the market. KB Home and Lennar have reported that shares are up this week. Investors and builders have been given an incentive after hearing the good news.

Last week, Lennar’s net income went above and beyond expectation and shares rose up 10%. This makes Lennar’s shares up more than 11% week to date. Their strategy has been affordability in home prices and with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage around 4.78%, affordable home pricing is the key.
KB Home reports their average selling price at the end of 2018 was down 5% from the previous end of 2017.

Lennar CEO Richard Beckwitt describes current sales as, “increased traffic, increased qualified traffic, increased folks willing to buy.”

KB Home CEO Jeffrey Mezger said, “The economy is expanding. Consumer confidence is high. Employment is strong, wages are growing, and household formation is increasing. Alongside these positive factors, the supply of existing homes remains low at 3.9 months nationally, and below that level in many of our markets, and single-family housing starts for 2018 will once again be well under the long-term annual average.”


Click Here for the Source of the Information.

Dixie RV SuperStores New Corporate Headquarters

Friends Coastal Restaurant in Madisonville has been an abandoned building for close to two years.  Part of the problem for the seafood restaurant was the parking, noise and litter which hindered the nearby residents.  The community was not a suitable fit for the large restaurant.  Fortunately, the building along the Tchefuncte River was purchased by Greg Lala and Steven Guidry of Dixie RV SuperStores.

The proposal for the 27,0000-square-foot building to be renovated into a multi-use complex was approved at Madisonville’s planning and zoning commission meeting on December 4, 2018. The new

structure will include corporate office space and different types of eateries. Mayor Jean Pelloat is in agreement with Lala and Guidry.

“This type of mixed-use development with offices appears to be our best chance to get this building back into commerce,” Pelloat said.

The two business men plan to move their corporate headquarters to the building. The third floor will house the Dixie RV SuperStores Headquarters while the remaining space will be for the eateries.  The second level will be an upscale restaurant and the lower level will be an open-air venue with casual eating served from Airstream concession trailers.

Unlike Friends, who hosted bands that play loud music late into the night, the new establishment will work under the town’s noise ordinance closing all food service no later than 10pm.  The first level open-air venue would stop serving food at 8pm and the music would not be amplified.

“This is not going to be a fly-by-night restaurateur,” said Lala, a St. Tammany Parish resident. “We don’t want to be Friends (restaurant). We want to be good neighbors.”

Click here and here for the Sources of Information.