The Pittsburgh Food Truck Park

Bring your friends, the kids, or even the out of towner you are showing around this awesome city. This riverfront hangout is in the works along the Allegheny and will be there for all of us to enjoy together.

Located in the Millvale Riverfront Park and on the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, we are bringing together some of Pittsburgh’s favorite things. The Pittsburgh Food Truck Park will feature a daily rotation of the area’s favorite mobile food vendors, a beer garden rotating more than 30 local drafts, a performance venue, an event space, and game yard—all at the river's edge. The Three Rivers Heritage Trail allows easy bike commuting to the park from many Pittsburgh neighborhoods, as it’s only an easy two mile bike ride up the Allegheny River from Heinz Field.

April Food Truck Hours:
Fridays: 4pm-10pm
Saturday: 11am-10pm

Enjoy some amazing food, amazing people, and support local businesses! 

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A Tale of Two Markets Infograpgic

Some Highlights:

• A trend that has been emerging for some time now is the contrast between inventory & demand in the Premium & Luxury Markets vs. the Starter & Trade-Up Home Markets and what that’s, in turn, doing to prices!
• Inventory continues to rise in the luxury & premium home markets which is causing prices to cool.
• Demand continues to rise with low inventory in the starter & trade-up home markets, causing prices to rise!

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Getting Pre-Approved Should Always Be Your First Step

In many markets across the country, the number of buyers searching for their dream homes greatly outnumbers the number of homes for sale. This has led to a competitive marketplace where buyers often need to stand out. One way to show you are serious about buying your dream home is to get pre-qualified or pre-approved for a mortgage before starting your search.

Even if you are in a market that is not as competitive, understanding your budget will give you the confidence of knowing if your dream home is within your reach.

Freddie Mac lays out the advantages of pre-approval in the ‘My Home’ section of their website:

“It’s highly recommended that you work with your lender to get pre-approved before you begin house hunting. Pre-approval will tell you how much home you can afford and can help you move faster, and with greater confidence, in competitive markets.”

One of the many advantages of working with a local real estate professional is that many have relationships with lenders who will be able to help you with this process. Once you have selected a lender, you will need to fill out their loan application and provide them with important information regarding “your credit, debt, work history, down payment and residential history.”

Freddie Mac describes the ‘4 Cs’ that help determine the amount you will be qualified to borrow:

1. Capacity: Your current and future ability to make your payments
2. Capital or cash reserves: The money, savings, and investments you have that can be sold quickly for cash
3. Collateral: The home, or type of home, that you would like to purchase
4. Credit: Your history of paying bills and other debts on time

Getting pre-approved is one of many steps that will show home sellers that you are serious about buying, and it often helps speed up the process once your offer has been accepted.

Bottom Line

Many potential home buyers overestimate the down payment and credit scores needed to qualify for a mortgage today. If you are ready and willing to buy, you may be pleasantly surprised at your ability to do so.

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Mortgage Interest Rates Have Begun to Level Off

Whether you are a buyer searching for your first home, or a homeowner looking to move up to your next home, you should pay attention to where mortgage interest rates are heading.

Over the course of 2018, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, rates have increased from 3.95% in the first week of January to 4.40% in the first week of April.

At first glance, the difference between these numbers in such a short amount of time could be concerning, but if we look at the graph below, we’ll see that rates have already started to level off and return to the mark set in February.

This is great news for anyone looking to buy a home this spring! The spring is always one of the busiest seasons for home buying, and with rates increasing even more, buyers have come off the fence to lock in great rates! This is still great advice as the experts believe that rates will continue to rise throughout the year.

Every month, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Association of Realtors release their projections for where they believe mortgage rates will be in the coming months. If we take the average of what each of the four organizations is predicting for the second quarter, rates are expected to rise to about 4.48% by June.

That average climbs to 4.73% by the end of this year.

So, what does this mean?

Waiting until the end of the year to buy, with rates still projected to increase, will end up costing you more money on your monthly mortgage payment. For every $250,000 you need to borrow to purchase your dream home, you will spend $49.21 more per month, $590.52 per year, and over $17,700 by the end of your 30-year mortgage.

And that’s just the impact of your interest rate going up!

Bottom Line

If you are ready and willing to purchase a home, find out if you’re able to. Let’s get together to evaluate your needs and help you with next steps!

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99% of Experts Agree: Home Prices Will Increase

Some believe that the combined effects of the new tax code and rising mortgage rates will have an adverse impact on residential real estate prices in 2018. However, the clear majority of recently surveyed housing experts believe that home values will continue to rise this year.

What is the Home Price Expectation Survey?

Each quarter, Pulsenomics surveys a nationwide panel of economists, real estate experts and investment & market strategists. Those surveyed include experts such as:

• Daniel Bachman, Senior Manager, U.S. Economics at Deloitte Services, LP
• Kathy Bostjancic, Head of U.S. Macro Investors Service at Oxford Economics
• David Downs, Real Estate Finance Professor at VCU
• Edward Pinto, Resident Fellow at American Enterprise Institute
• Albert Saiz, Director at MIT Center for Real Estate

Where do these experts see home values headed in 2018?

Here is a breakdown of where they see home values twelve months from now:

• 21.6% believe prices will appreciate by 6% or more
• 71.6% believe prices will appreciate between 3 and 5.99%
• 5.7% believe prices will appreciate between 0 and 2.99%
• Only 1.1% believe prices will depreciate

Bottom Line:

Almost ninety-nine percent of the top experts studying residential real estate believe that prices will appreciate this year, and over 93% believe home values will appreciate by at least 3%.

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What Is Private Mortgage Insurance?

When it comes to buying a home, whether it is your first time or your fifth, it is always important to know all the facts. With the large number of mortgage programs available that allow buyers to purchase homes with down payments below 20%, you can never have too much information about Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI).

What is PMI?

Freddie Mac defines PMI as:

“An insurance policy that protects the lender if you are unable to pay your mortgage. It’s a monthly fee, rolled into your mortgage payment, that is required for all conforming, conventional loans that have down payments less than 20%.

Once you’ve built equity of 20% in your home, you can cancel your PMI and remove that expense from your mortgage payment.”

As the borrower, you pay the monthly premiums for the insurance policy, and the lender is the beneficiary. Freddie Mac goes on to explain that:

“The cost of PMI varies based on your loan-to-value ratio – the amount you owe on your mortgage compared to its value – and credit score, but you can expect to pay between $30 and $70 per month for every $100,000 borrowed.” 

According to the National Association of Realtors, the average down payment for all buyers last year was 10%. For first-time buyers, that number dropped to 5%, while repeat buyers put down 14% (no doubt aided by the sale of their homes). This just goes to show that for a large number of buyers last year, PMI did not stop them from buying their dream homes.

Here’s an example of the cost of a mortgage on a $200,000 home with a 5% down payment & PMI, compared to a 20% down payment without PMI:

The larger the down payment you can make, the lower your monthly housing cost will be, but Freddie Mac urges you to remember:

“It’s no doubt an added cost, but it’s enabling you to buy now and begin building equity versus waiting 5 to 10 years to build enough savings for a 20% down payment.”

Bottom Line:

If you have questions about whether you should buy now or wait until you’ve saved a larger down payment, let’s get together to discuss our market’s conditions and help you make the best decision for you and your family.

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VA Loans Infographic

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House Prices

House Prices: Simply a Matter of Supply & Demand

Why are home prices still rising? It is a simple answer. There are more purchasers in the market right now than there are available homes for them to buy. This is an example of the theory of “supply and demand” which is defined as:

“the amount of a commodity, product, or service available and the desire of buyers for it, considered as factors regulating its price.”

When demand exceeds supply, prices go up. This is currently happening in the residential real estate market.

Here are the numbers for supply and demand as compared to last year for the last three months (March numbers are not yet available): 

In each of the last three months, demand (buyer traffic) has increased as compared to last year while supply (number of available listings) has decreased. If this situation persists, home values will continue to increase.

Bottom Line

The reason home prices are still rising is because there are many purchasers looking to buy, but very few homeowners ready to sell. This imbalance is the reason prices will remain on the uptick.

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3 Best Dog Parks in Pittsburgh

Our four legged friends need their room to roam. Lets take a look at the 3 Best Dog Parks in Pittsburgh and what makes them unique!

Riding Meadow Park - Fox Chapel
One of the best kept secrets, this park boasts acres of hiking trails, streams, and overall a clean and quiet place for you and your pup to escape too. The majority of the park is fenced in, however be aware of weak spots in the fencing. The wet weather can tend to make it muddy in areas but overall the best dog park in the Pittsburgh area.

South Park Dog Park - South Park
This fenced dog park has drinking water, pickup bags and benches. Dogs on leash are allowed in most of the rest of this 2000 acre park if you want to take advantage of the hiking trails.

North Park Dog Park - Wexford
This fenced dog park has drinking water, pickup bags and benches. Dogs on leash are allowed in most of the rest of this 3,075 acre park. The park is on a slight hill with two fenced in areas- one for larger breeds and one for smaller breeds. Parking is right next to the dog run for easy loading and unloading.

Remember: Make sure your dogs are up to date on all of their shots. Always respect the park, be mindful of other dog owners and clean up after your pet to ensure a safe place for all of our four legged friends!

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