The Fed and Mortgage Rates

The Federal Reserve Board announced a further 0.25% cut to the closely watched Federal Funds Rate yesterday, bringing the short-term interest rate down to 2.00%. More importantly, they also signaled that this would be the last rate cut for a while. As has been discussed in previous posts, mortgage rates have recently been moving in the opposite direction as the Federal Funds Rate. Mortgage rates are long-term and are very sensitive to inflation expectations. The

Property Taxes – Troubling Economics

Property taxes are a sensitive subject in Greater Hartford. Just about every year there is a budget referendum in at least one local town as angry residents fight yet another property tax increase. The debate in some towns is more heated than in others (but we won’t mention any names). You may be happy to know that rising property taxes are a hot topic in other cities and states as well. An editorial in this

More on Housing Market Conditions in Greater Hartford

Yesterday the Hartford Courant published an article related to the number of single family homes for sale (housing inventory) in the Greater Hartford area. The majority of towns appear to be a buyer’s market, with more than 6 months of inventory available. But what about the number of single family home sales and the median price for the same timeframe? Here’s the data, taken from the multiple listing service (deemed reliable, but not guaranteed)… As

The Thrill of the Chase?

When the real estate market slows and inventory grows, setting the listing price of a home becomes critically important. “Chasing the market” is a situation no homeowner wants to be in, but many set themselves up for this everyday. Think about it. People hire real estate agents to help them price, market, and sell their homes. Why is it that so many homeowners disregard their agent’s pricing advice, which is based on hard sales data,

Did I Buy the Right House?

Have you ever asked yourself if you bought the right house? Kyle asked me that question this morning. Talk about conversation starters at breakfast! My response was “Well, I don’t know. Which house would we have bought instead?” For background purposes, we looked at a total of 25 houses over 3 days in the towns of Hartford, West Hartford, Farmington, Glastonbury, and Wethersfield when we relocated from Virginia four years ago. We were not familiar