Many potential home buyers are asking, “Do I rent or buy a house?” With mortgage rates at record lows and more houses for sale entering the market in Southern New England daily, experienced real estate professionals note that now is an excellent time to purchase a home in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
The Pandemic’s Impact on the Real Estate Market
Do I rent or buy a house? Renting vs. owning a home has been in debate for generations. Is it a better financial investment to rent or to own a home? Sometimes the answer to this question shifts depending on the housing market.
Homeownership offers a level of stability that renting, often-times does not. As a renter, your landlord can choose not to renew your lease. However, when you have a mortgage, your mortgage lender can’t take away your home loan, or your home, as long as you keep up with your monthly payments. As U.S. mortgage rates continue to remain at record lows, now is an amazing time to buy a home, provided you can find one to purchase.
“The typical U.S. home was worth $266,104 in December, 2020, up 8.4% from a year ago. A total of 5.64 million homes were sold in 2020, up 5.6% from 2019 and the most since before the Great Recession,” according to Lawrence Yun, NAR’s Chief Economist. In fact, 2020 allowed existing home sales to reach their highest level in 13 years.
If you sold a house, whether single-family or multi-family, in Southern New England in 2020, you already know that the market was hot. The question is, will that hot market continue through 2021? Real estate and mortgage professionals say, “Yes,” we can expect that continue.
Suburban Real Estate Increase – “Do I rent or buy a house?”
In fact, according to a report for 2021 Housing Market Forecast report by Fast Company , “The suburban growth seen over the past five years will continue, as more companies require, allow, or encourage working from home.” Working remotely has become somewhat of a real estate catalyst as many city dwellers are relocating to more suburban settings because they are able to work from virtually anywhere there is a high-speed Internet connection.
In 2010, only 1.8 billion people had access to high-speed internet. By 2016, 3 billion people were able to connect to high-speed Internet. And according to experts, it is possible that the world’s 8 billion people will have widespread global high-speed Internet access as early as 2022. What does this mean for real estate? It means that as people can relocate virtually anywhere and continue to complete their jobs, which offers people a lot of real estate options!
2020 Real Estate Market Trends
Trends from 2020 further show homebuyers are placing more importance on work-from-home-office space and homeschooling space for children, which indicates a cultivating need for suburban real estate. “We’ve seen a rise in the importance of home office space and home-school working areas over the past six months,” says Aliesha Noonan, Co-Owner and Realtor with Noonan Lombardi Realtors of Rhode Island.
Chief Economist Lawrence Yun with the National Association of Realtor’s [NAR’S] says, “…When the pandemic began, [there was a] tremendous amount of uncertainty, a large scare, knowing that we encountered the foreclosure crisis 10 years ago. So, what was going to happen with so many people losing jobs? And to our surprise, the housing market not only recovered and then some, it’s roaring past the pre-pandemic activity levels.”
Act Now Before Rates Change
As a prospective homebuyer, remember that the mortgage rates won’t remain low forever, “U.S. home prices jumped 7.9 percent in October, the most since June 2014,” according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released December 28th,2020. “And Mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac reported last week that the average rate on the 30-year fixed-rate home loan remained at a record low 2.66%.”
We’re Your Southern New England Realtors for Life
Noonan Lombardi Realtors operates one of the most successful real estate teams for home sales, property management and rentals in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Our advertising and social media presence are second to none, giving each client the backing of exceptionally experienced realtors waiting to work with you for all of your real estate needs. We use top-of-line resources to make all your property dreams come true.
Our team of professional and experienced realtors are transforming the way consumers make home-related decisions and connect with professionals. Based on our wealth of experience in the real estate markets across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, we feel confident you will be pleasantly pleased with the real estate services we provide, as we strive to meet each client’s specific needs, every single time.