2014 4th Quarter Update

Welcome to http://www.MichaelLauer.com. It’s been quite a year and there are a lot of macro economic influences impacting the behaviour, pace and pricing in the real estate market. The most recent development is we’ve now launched into yet another war, this time with ISIS and this one has all the makings of a long drawn out battle. That’s making everyone nervous, and nervous people act cautiously. Now caution seems to be the word of the day in overall real estate market. Now interest rates are still very attractive, with the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage hovering at around four and quarter percent, so that’s still very good …

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2014 Mid Year Update

Welcome to http://www.MichaelLauer.com  From March last year till March of 2014 year over year home prices are up on average 6.9%. A home a year ago that sold for $200,000 would cost $213,800 in today’s market. Now we’re still facing low inventory, with more buyers than there are sellers in this market, and in many cases homes are getting multiple bids, in particular newly listed homes that are priced right are going contract faster than before. If you’re a buyer in this market…

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2013 Mid Year Update

Welcome to http://www.MichaelLauer.com  The market is moving, if you have a home listed for sale and it is priced right, most likely it’s not going to take long to bring a good buyer in. Now the Case Shiller Index has recently released their statistics for the year over year price increases. Nationally the prices are up 10.9%, but here in our Tampa market, prices are up 11.8%, that is great news!

Now along with the rising prices, just in the last few weeks interest rates are rising. A few weeks ago, rates were at 3.4% for a typical 30 year fixed mortgage and today rates were quoted at 3.9% as prices rise I suspect that rates are going to continue. Inventory is currently tight, there’s not a lot to pick from…

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2012 Real Estate Forecast

Welcome to http://www.MichaelLauer.com  Boy, wasn’t the 2011 real estate market a lot of fun? Is 2012 going to be any better? Let’s take a look. Well, the year ended with some slightly positive news creeping into our market. The free fall in pricing from prior years has slowed way down. The question is, when are prices going to start going back up? There’s a wide variety of resources, gurus, supposed experts, and governmental agencies all giving their opinion, and none of them can agree on anything.

My take on the market, which reflects my own day to day, in the trenches experience, leads me to think that prices could still slowly erode an additional 2 to 5 percent during 2012. So, don’t kill the messenger, but my opinion is prices will not start to increase anytime in the near future.

 Watch the video for the full prediction…