November 2019 Newsletter

Florida’s Growth

Florida is and will continue to grow by about 906 people per day – that’s 330,605 people per year (larger than the city of Orlando). State economists estimate that we will top 22 million residents within the next 3 years.
The estimated population on April 1, 2018 was at 20.84 million, this past April it was 21.2 million, and the forecast for the same day in 2022 is 22.2 million. Finally the report suggested that the population will top 22.8 million by April 1, 2024.
This population growth is primarily from what is called “net migration,” when people move to Florida (rather than by births, which are offset by deaths).
It should be noted that the state’s forecast is actually lower than those of the United States Census Bureau, as the methodologies for reaching the estimates varies.

Price Reductions

In a survey conducted by ShelterZoom, a real estate blockchain company, it was found that most sellers (33%) would reduce the price of their home 3 months after it has been on the market.
20% of sellers would wait 1 month, 17% would wait 5 months, and 9% said they would wait a whole year before considering a price reduction. The remaining respondents said they would never lower the price.
So what else are sellers saying about the process of selling their home?
It was evident in the survey results that waiting and receiving an offer can be stressful. 48% said they would like to make certain their offer was actually presented to the buyers, and would like a way of tracking the offer throughout the process.
It was also obvious sellers thought the process just took too long. 48% said it takes far too long to get a mortgage approved, 36% said it takes far too long for contracts to get signed, and 34% said there are too many people involved in the process.

When you consider how fast everything moves these days, thanks in large part to technology, and how short attention spans and expectation spans have gotten as a result, the home buying and selling processes are even more of an anachronism than they were just a few years ago.
Allen Alishahi, Co-founder of ShelterZoom

Mortgage Shopping

According to a Fannie Mae study, 34% of first-time home buyers last year did not shop around before choosing their lender. In addition, 41% of repeat home buyers followed suite.
Most of the respondents stated that they felt comfortable with the original quote, while 10% said it was a hassle to shop around. And 76% said they had no regrets about not getting multiple quotes.
Fannie Mae says that more than 33% of buyers who did choose to shop around were able to secure a lower interest rate, as well as lower costs for mortgage insurance and other lender’s fees.
Finally a LendingTree study found that buyers who got 5 or more quotes saw savings of about $2,045.