The Real Estate Market for the first 8 months of 2015

Comparing the first eight months of 2015 to the same period in 2014 closed sales have increased by 19.7%.  Resultantly the average sale and median prices have increased by 8.8% and 17.9% respectively. This brings the average sales price throughout Coos County to $181,700 and the median price to $165,000.  Of course these numbers are of the greatest concern for anyone who is actively looking to buyer sell in the immediate future.

The amount of available housing inventory remains fairly consistent over the past three months ranging from 5.8 months of inventory in June to 6.3 months worth in August. This is enough to make the existing inventory remain competitive yet not so small that buyers get into a bidding contest as they seem to be doing in the metropolitan areas.

One thing more alarming to the immediate future buyer or seller is that the Federal Reserve appears to be going to increase their lending rates within the next few months.

Governments have two types of policy tools they can sort of use as jumper cables to kick start the economy, fiscal policy and monetary policy. Fiscal policy relates to the things the government can, in terms of spending or tax reduction, help to move the economy.   Monetary policy refers to the ability of the government to influence or modify the money supply. Currently the Federal Reserve rate is at 0% which inhibits them from lowering the interest rate in the event of a difficult economy. Monetary policy directly affects mortgage rates. The rate that the lenders can borrow at affects the rate that they will loan at. So once again it is commonly thought that mortgage rates will increase soon.