Here’s why current mortgages rates hover around 3.5%, not 0.5% or 2.5%.

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Oftentimes, people will wonder why mortgage rates don’t follow suit when the fed funds rate drops significantly—as was the case at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and our current recession. The truth is, in today’s market, mortgage rates are not determined by the fed funds rate.
Though not calculated on the fed funds rate, mortgage rates do align closely with the 10-year Treasury yield. If you look at the history of the 10-year Treasury, you’ll notice that that yield tends to be about 2% lower than mortgage rates.
Back in 2007, when we saw the market crashing, mortgage rates were at 6.5% to 7%, and the Treasury yield was at 4.5% to 5%. It took a couple of years for the Fed to step in and start buying Treasury bonds, which caused the rates to go down.
 
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The 10-year Treasury ! ...

Here are my thoughts on how our current recession relates to 2008.

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What would it take for us to have prices go down during this recession like they did in the Great Recession of 2008? During the Great Recession, lending essentially stopped and out-of-work homeowners were simply out of luck.
During this recession, however, the government has allowed mortgage forbearance, thereby allowing people to stay in their homes. The government has also lowered interest rates and foreclosures in Arizona are near all-time lows. ...

Zillow can tell you what your home is worth instantly, but is that number accurate?

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A lot of people want to know whether or not Zillow can give them an accurate estimate of their home’s value. Although it can give you a good starting point, more often than not the price will be inaccurate and come in higher than the home’s actual market value. The reason is that they want to get more clicks to their site and the higher the value it shows, the more often you’re going to visit their site.
One thing that Zillow doesn’t take into consideration is any of the improvements or upgrades you’ve made to your home. If there is anything unique about your home, it’s not going to show up on Zillow.
 
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Your home’s uniqueness won’t be accounted for by Zillow.
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The best way to get a value of your home is to have a real estate profes. ...

These are difficult times, but real estate is still moving. Today I’m sharing some promising signs from our Phoenix market.

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Curious as to how COVID-19 has impacted real estate? Over the last month, roughly 8,500 properties have sold in Greater Phoenix. Considering that we’ll sell 7,000 a month on average, it’s clear that there’s still some very strong demand in the market.
Many people ask the question, “When the market’s going to crash?” Truthfully, it will only crash if demand dies down and supply increases. On the supply side, we have 14,000 homes on the market—a slight increase from 11,000 last month, but historically speaking, our norm here is 30,000; we went into this pandemic with extremely low inventory, which now serves as a barrier keeping home prices healthy. ...

Despite all the economic turbulence caused by the coronavirus, it's been business as usual for real estate.

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How is the coronavirus affecting the real estate market? Sales-wise, it’s been business as usual, and we haven’t seen a drop-off in prices either so far. The same can be said on the mortgage side of things. Part of the government’s $2 trillion-dollar stimulus package involves them buying down rates, which makes now a great time to buy or refinance. ...