BALANCE

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” - Albert Einstein

It’s officially summer, my friends! I hope you all enjoyed the Summer Solstice this week and the longest day of the year as we officially enter the summer season. As we watch the real estate market starting to balance, it’s likely that we are moving towards a more equal and normalized environment for buyers and sellers to navigate.

In the highly localized market of north county San Diego, we are still struggling with a lack of inventory which may be squeezed even tighter now that the “move up” buyer is choosing to stay in place due to increased interest rates. Today’s homeowners have record amounts of home equity and mortgage debt in the US is now less than 43% of current home values, the lowest on record, and negative equity is virtually nonexistent. 25% of borrowers who were underwater in 2011 and currently only 2.5% of borrowers have less than 10% equity in their homes. Mortgage delinquencies are also at a record low, with just under 3% of mortgages past due. (CNBC)