Real Estate Information Archive

We tend to view most situations from an optimist's perspective, because optimists are more likely to see solutions that pessimists overlook; therefore, optimists tend to be better problem solvers.

Optimism, we have found, is also usually rewarded. The housing recovery has taken longer than most of us would like, but the market is recovering, and the recovery will likely gain pace as we progress through 2012.

Mortgage delinquencies are one area of continued progress. TransUnion forecasts delinquencies of 60 days or more will peak at 6 percent of all mortgages during the first quarter of 2012, and then fall to 5 percent by year's end. This is actually a continuation of a longer-term trend that has been overlooked: delinquencies this year are expected to fall 7 percent, which follows a 7 percent decline in 2010.

The trend in the National Association of Home Builders/First American Improving Markets Index is also cause for optimism. According to the index, the number of improving housing markets expanded for a fourth-consecutive month, rising 37 percent to 41 in December from 30 in November. The index states that the expansion in both number and geographic diversity of markets is proof that markets continue to grow more heterogeneous; that is, more dependent on local factors than national ones. This is a point we've been making for the past six months.

The news on pricing was less upbeat. CoreLogic reports that house prices dipped nationally month-over-month in October. Year-over-year, prices have declined 3.9 percent, but only 0.5 percent when distressed properties are removed from the equation.

A recent report by Barclays Capital should help ease pricing concerns. According to Barclays, the housing market will be buoyed by improving job growth and by the fact that prices for non-distressed properties are stabilizing without government support. On price stabilization, Barclays housing analyst Stephen Kim writes, “[W]e are amazed at how little attention it [the recovery in non-distressed homes] has been getting from the media and the street.

”We, on the other hand, are less amazed. We've been hammering the point on stabilizing prices for months, but we also know that bad news always sells better than good news.Speaking of good news, mortgage rates continue to hold steady and near multi-decade lows. We've noticed that the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes has trended lower most of this past week, which has been something of a surprise, given that the economic news, for the most part, has been positive.

Mortgage rates have been holding steady for the past month or so, but we think upward pressure is steadily building – mostly due to an improving economy and job growth (and for a reason we'll explicate below).

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

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When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

Lower prices and still-low mortgage rates continue to create traction in the existing-home market.The pending home sales index is the latest in a series of recent data releases that prove that economic laws continue to hold: lower prices stimulate demand. On that front, lower prices helped lift the index 10.4 percent to post a 93.3 reading in October. The positive takeaway here is that recent gains portend strong existing home sales for November and December and a positive sales trend heading into 2012.

New home sales have also trended higher in recent months, moving up 1.3 percent to an annualized sales rate of 307,000 units in October. The median price of a new home eased 0.5 percent month-over-month to $212,300, but the year-over-year rate turned positive, at plus 4.0 percent. The news on supply was even more encouraging, with inventory falling to 6.3 months at the current sales rate – the best reading since April 2010 when government tax credits were stimulating sales.

To be sure, pricing remains a bugaboo for new and existing homes in many markets. Lower prices do clear inventory, but they also tend to hinder participation, as more potential buyers are reluctant to buy what they perceive they are buying a depreciating asset.

But severe discounting remains confined to specific markets, notably Atlanta, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. The latter two metropolitan areas continue to post new lows. For much of the nation, though, the severe discounting that occurred from 2007 through 2009 appears to be a thing of the past. Most of the nation should continue to experience price stability, with only minor to modest discounting in selected markets.

The Federal Reserve made news last week that could impact any discounting of mortgage rates. The Fed, along with the world's major central banks, acted to provide cheap-dollar funding to European banks crippled by the debt crises that plague the Mediterranean European countries. In short, the Fed and its European confreres staved off a possible financial collapse in Europe that could have spread to the United States.

Investors responded to the central bankers' unprecedented action by moving out of U.S. Treasury securities and into stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 4.2 percent on Wednesday to post its biggest gain since March 2009. Treasury yields also moved higher, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, the benchmark investment for 30-year fixed-rate loans, rising to 2.1 percent. Mortgage rates, in turn, moved higher across most financing options.

Here's something to keep in mind: Treasury yields and mortgage rates tend to rise with the stock market. If stocks continue to rise, more money will leave fixed-income investments, like Treasury securities, which could pressure mortgage rates to go higher. December tends to be a strong month for stocks, which means December could also be a month for rising mortgage rates.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

News was relatively scarce this past week due to the Thanksgiving Day holiday, but what news was released was, for the most part, encouraging.

The news on existing home sales was particularly encouraging. Sales rose to an annual rate of 4.97 million units in October, which easily beat the consensus estimate for 4.8 million units. The bump up in sales helped drop inventory to an eight-month supply compared to September's 8.3-month supply. Year-over-year, inventory levels have dropped nearly three months.

Existing home sale prices were a little softer than we had expected, with the national median home price easing 2 percent month-over-month to $162,000. Discounting was prevalent in condo sales, but much less so in the single-family detached segment.

Shadow inventory has weighed heavily on prices for the past three years, but this market is also improving. Standard & Poor's, citing improvements in third-quarter default and liquidation rates, lowered its estimate of the time it will take to reduce excess stock to 45 months from 47 months. That's still a lot of inventory, but the goods news is that we are making headway.Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data also point to an improving distressed-property market. The FDIC reports that inventory held by private banks dropped for the fourth-straight quarter to $50.4 billion worth of properties at the end of September, a 1.5-percent decline compared to the previous quarter and a 5-percent decline from a year ago.

There was some negative news on the economy, but it wasn't as negative as many news outlets led us to believe. Gross Domestic Product was downgraded to 2.0-percent annualized growth from a previously stated 2.5 percent. When we dug into the numbers, we found that the downgrade was much ado about little; the revision was mostly attributable to a $13-billion decrease in inventory investment.Last week, we mentioned the good news that fixed-asset investment is trending higher. This week, we are glad to note that consumer spending continues to trend higher. Personal consumption grew 0.1 percent for October, which might seem insignificant, but October's consumption follows a very strong 0.7 percent increase in September.

We haven't seen much improvement in mortgage rates over the past two weeks, which has resulted in a slowdown in refinance activity. That could be about to change. The recently revamped Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), with higher loan-to-value ratios and appraisal waivers for qualified buyers, is sure to spur refinance demand. In fact, more than 1 million borrowers are expected to benefit from the new HARP.This means a change in the demand/supply paradigm. When demand for borrowing increases, mortgage rates tend to rise, not fall. We advise our clients (especially clients who already qualify for a refinance under the current rules) not to wait for the new HARP rules to kick into gear.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

If we were to survey the landscape to see if people rate the decline in housing prices as either a curse or a blessing, we are sure most would say curse. After all, most homeowners have suffered a loss of equity over the past five years.

However, there is an upside to the decline in home prices, particularly for first-time homebuyers and owners looking to trade up, and that's affordability. According to financial data provider Fiserv, the monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced single-family home is 40 percent cheaper than it was five years ago, falling to $700 from $1,140.

Lower prices are really the only way to remedy a supply glut. Watching an asset's price fall is unpleasant, to be sure, but prices fall only so far and the glut clears, and then prices generally rise.

For example, Miami was one of the most overbuilt metropolitan regions and suffered serious price deflation. But the glut in Miami appears to have cleared, thanks to lower prices stimulating more demand. In the third quarter of 2011, Miami home sales jumped 51 percent from a year ago. What's more, prices are again on the rise: the average sales price in Miami for a single-family home has risen 19 percent year-over-year.

It is more informative to focus on local numbers than it is to focus on national numbers. The National Association of Realtors reports that the national median single-family home price slipped 4.7 percent year-over-year to $169,500 in the third quarter. That said, the NAR's national median price really doesn't mean much to any specific local market.

The bottom line for us is that we've seen enough evidence of markets clearing to suggest more markets will resemble Miami in 2012. Fiserv, though expecting some price weakness over the next few months, expects most major markets to post significant price gains in the second half of 2012.

What will financing rates look like in 2012? We thought mortgage rates would be higher this year than in 2010; that hasn't been the case. The Federal Reserve has plainly stated that it is buying long-term securities in order to hold long-term borrowing rates low. It can be silly to fight the Fed.

Then again, markets can be potent forces. Consider this past week: news that another Mediterranean country, Italy , is close to insolvency did little to move interest rates or mortgage rates. In other words, investors weren't rushing into U.S. Treasury securities. In fact, Treasury rates and mortgage rates held steady for the week.

When the Greek crisis occurred, Treasury rates and mortgage rates dropped perceptibly. The fact mortgage rates hardly moved with the latest crisis suggests markets might be less willing to accept ultra-low rates in exchange for a haven from risk.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

Popular financial media can be a good contrarian indicator. When headlines scream one thing, the opposite is more likely to follow.

We see the phenomenon repeatedly. After an extended stock-market rally, a slew of business stories arise to explain why the stock market has likely hit a permanent high. After the stock market has undergone an extended decline, multitudes of stories arise to question the sustainability of capitalism.But as predictably as day follows night, the trends these articles ride soon reach an apex, and markets move in the opposite direction.

Over the past two years, a slew of articles have lambasted homeownership. Many of these articles centered on why we would become a renter society or why homeownership was a relic of the twentieth century.

These anti-ownership writers were emboldened by the drop in homeownership rates, which had been pushed up to 70 percent during the height of the boom. The percentage rate had recently dropped to 66. Now it appears to be reversing. The Census Bureau reports that the nation's seasonally adjusted homeownership rate rose to 66.1 percent, suggesting the decline has abated, if not reversed.

A drop in the homeowner percentage was to be expected: Homeownership has hovered around the mid-60s for decades, so the decline was a matter of returning to the mean. That said, it was unlikely to go down any further. Most of us overwhelmingly prefer to own than to rent, and most of us (especially those with children) prefer the suburbs to the city.

We suspect more people will want to own when they are convinced price declines are over. On that front, Clear Capital reports that home prices increased again at a 0.6 percent rate in October. Year-over-year, though, Clear Capital reports a 2.8 percent decline.

We are always quick to point out that all real estate is local, and many local markets are showing significant improvement. Home prices in Cleveland increased 6.2 percent in September; Texas (which technically isn't local, but the news is encouraging nonetheless) saw housing starts jump 24.2 percent in September; Miami saw existing home sales hit a five-year high, surging 15.1 percent in September.

In other words, markets continue to clear, and we find it encouraging not only that lower prices have promoted more home buying in many markets, but also that firming prices suggest the worst of the discounting is over. This process should stimulate even more buyers to step forward.If it does, buyers are hitting the mortgage market at the right time. The European Union's continued travails with Greek debt have created a surge in U.S. Treasury security buying, which has helped lower mortgage rates over the past week.

However, this, too, could easily pass. Payrolls have been firming over the past couple months, which points to a strengthening economy. What's more, financial crises, like the one in Europe , that seem intractable often turn out to be quite ephemeral instead. Therefore, we still think it's risky to wait and hope for much lower mortgage rates.  

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

You've likely heard the new rules on HARP, the government's Home Affordable Refinance Program, on refinancing underwater loans for borrowers who are current. Credit Suisse estimates that roughly 720,000 borrowers will be able to refinance, resulting in $2 to 3 billion in interest savings annually.

The devil is in the details, and lenders won't be able to adopt the new HARP guidelines until regulators provide more details, which are forthcoming in two weeks. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the new guidelines will be favorable to borrowers desperate to refinance their loans.

We bring up HARP because it could have an impact on the supply-and-demand dynamic and mortgage rates. We expect refinances will accelerate as more details are released. If the details are more favorable than the market expects, that could produce a surge in refinance demand, which could move rates higher.

In short, we don't think now is the time to wait on refinancing. Not only could a surge in mortgage demand move rates higher, but so could continued improvement in the world's economies. The stock market is a useful gauge in measuring optimism and economic outlook. Over the past three weeks, all the major stock-market barometers have been on an upward tear, suggesting more people are becoming more optimistic each day.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

It might be a little stale, but data from S&P/Case-Shiller show home prices continue to stabilize across the nation. Specifically, Case-Shiller's August home price index shows no change. That said, the index points to a slight price contraction going forward. But this really isn't news; recent data from Clear Capital, Zillow, and other data aggregators already show some price weakness in September.

The pricing weakness is likely due in part to aggressive discounting by homebuilders trying to spur demand. The strategy appears to be working. Sales of new homes jumped 5.7 percent in September to an annual rate of 313,000 units. This rise in sales volume, in turn, pushed down supply to 6.2 months at the current sales rate –the lowest supply level in 18 months.

That's the good news. The bad news for homebuilders is that the median national home price is down 3.1 percent to $204,400, posting a third-consecutive monthly decline. What's more, year-over-year price contraction is 9.9 percent –the steepest yearly decline since the recession.

Some of the sting on new home prices is mitigated by the fact that most of the discounting occurred in the West and South: in other words, in the overbuilt regions in Florida, Arizona , and California . It is still possible these regions will continue to skew price data into 2012.

That said, we remain convinced that prices and sales in many parts of the nation will continue to claw forward. Our conviction is bolstered by news on gross domestic product, which improved to an annual growth rate of 2.5 percent in the third quarter. We were particularly encouraged to see more business investment lead by durable goods orders. We mentioned in a previous edition that business investment is just as important as consumer spending to sustained economic growth. The consumer recovered long ago, and now it appears the business investor is recovering as well.

We think this is good news for housing heading into 2012. More economic spending and investing will mean more jobs and less unemployment. Employment, more than anything, is what's needed to pull us out of our doldrums.

What does this encouraging news on GDP growth mean for mortgage rates? An improving economy will mean more demand for loanable funds and possibly rising consumer prices. Admittedly, the economy has improved slower than most (including us) believed it would. But recent events in Europe suggest the Greek debt crisis won't destroy Europe 's banks and the surge in stock market activity points to more risk taking and more economic activity down the road.

In short, the market is leaning toward higher mortgage rates. Next week's data on employment will be key to getting a better idea on where rates are headed.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

One of our recurring themes over the past year has been that the laws of supply and demand are infallible: lower prices drive demand, which, in turn, lower supply and help prices recover.

The process is working before our eyes. REMAX reports that home sales prices are down 3.3 percent from a year ago (though prices have risen in recent months), and at the same time national home sales and median prices are up.

You can most clearly see this law of supply and demand at work in the hardest hit home markets. REMAX data shows that Florida has seen significant reductions in inventories as well as rising median list prices. In fact, Miami had the largest inventory reduction year-over-year at 49.3 percent, while the median list price in Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Fla. , was up 34.4 percent – the highest increase in the nation.

Some other hard hit areas, Las Vegas most noticeably, are still searching for a bottom. We suspect, though, that these areas are close to finding one (housing will not be depressed forever). Our chief complaint is that this bottom-and-recover process would likely occur at a faster pace if we could get more mortgage funds to more creditworthy customers.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

What a difference a month makes. In September, homebuilder mood was in the doldrums, where it has been for most of the year. In October, that mood turned noticeably positive, with the homebuilder index jumping four points to 18 – the highest posting in nearly 18 months.

There is still a long way to go before homebuilders approach the heady days of a few years ago, but at least the market is progressing. Builders began work on an annual rate of 658,000 houses in September, a 15-percent increase over August's starts and the most since April 2010. Much of the increased activity was centered on multifamily homes, which surged 51.3 percent. However, work on single-family homes also increased, 1.7 percent, to an annual rate of 425,000 units.

The National Association of Home Builders, which compiles data for the homebuilder index, warns that builders face pricing pressure from foreclosed properties. The good news is that foreclosures appear less onerous than they did a year ago. At the same time, homebuilders are adding to supply at a record low rate. In other words, the economics of home building are much more encouraging than they were earlier in the year.

The economics of the existing-home market continue to adhere to the recent past. Total inventory declined 2 percent to 3.48 million homes at the end of September, with the sales rate declining 3 percent to 4.91 million units. This came as no surprise; August's sales were exceptionally strong and a slight drop off in the sales pace was expected.

Homes that were purchased over the past two months have been financed with mortgage rates that were prevalent during the youth of the purchaser's parents. In the past couple weeks, though, rates have been trending higher and are up around a quarter percentage point from where they were a fortnight ago. That said, mortgage financing is still a very good deal.

But will mortgage financing become a better deal? Many in the industry think so. We are less sure, especially when factoring in growing price inflation. Overall producer prices are up nearly 7 percent this year, while the core rate, which excludes energy and food, is up 2.5 percent. On the consumer side, overall prices are up 3.9 percent, while core prices are up 2 percent.

The Federal Reserve is trying to hold mortgage rates low by buying longer-term Treasury and mortgage-agency debt. Problem is, the market has been pushing back in recent weeks, as evinced by the spike in 10-year U.S. Treasury note yields. Bottom line, the falling mortgage-rate trend is much less a sure thing than it was a month ago.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.

Mortgage Market Debate It's no secret that a lot of mortgage lending is in government-backed loans. Nationally, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the FHA back nine in 10 new mortgages. The federal government is looking to pull back and see if more private investors and lenders can be lured into the market.

There are legitimate concerns with a prospective federal pull back. There is the possibility of reduced available credit, thus leading to fewer sales and lower home prices. We've already seen some reduction in volume in higher priced homes when limits on loans backed by Fannie and Freddie declined at the beginning of October.

There is also the concern that sellers will find that fewer potential buyers qualify to purchase their properties. Less liberal down payments and lower loan limits could also hamstring trade-up buyers who want to tap their home equity as a down payment for their new residence.

Here's the conundrum: If we went to return to a more market-driven lending environment, we have to attract private investment, which means rates would have to rise. Private lenders and investors require a greater return than public sources of funds. It's worth noting, though, that many private lenders are flush with money they could put to work. What's more, private lenders and investors will add diversity to the market, which it is currently lacking.

The point is, we can see the mortgage market changing. We can't say whether it will be a net positive in the short term, but we think it raises the uncertainly level enough for borrowers to seriously consider taking advantage of the mortgage market as it is today.

Courtesy of Jessica Regan.

Search all Harrisburg PA homes for sale.

When you are buying or selling property in today's Harrisburg PA real estate market, it's important to have confidence in your real estate professional. Don’s commitment as your Harrisburg PA REALTOR® is to provide you with the specialized real estate service you deserve.

When you are an informed buyer or seller, you'll make the best decisions for the most important purchase or sale in your lifetime. That's why Don’s goal is to keep you informed on trends in Harrisburg PA real estate. With property values continuing to rise, real estate is a sound investment for now and for the future.

As a local area expert with knowledge of Harrisburg PA area communities, Don’s objective is to work diligently to assist you in meeting your real estate goals.

If you are considering buying or selling a home or would just like to have additional information about real estate in your area, please don't hesitate to call me at (717) 657-8700, complete my online form, or e-mail me at don@donroth.com.