Solano Real Estate Scene: Got milk?

The Got Milk? slogan was created 25 years ago for the California Milk Processing Board. Got a home or got money? Money and housing is like milk: Everybody needs it. Home sales have slowed in 2018 and sellers cannot just put a sign on their lawn and get multiple offers in a week. They need to list their home with a local professional at the right price and the agent needs to have a strategy for finding a buyer. Why home sales have slowed and why asking prices have dropped is hard to determine, but interest rates rising from 4 percent to 5 percent over the past 24 months and the stock market volatility and correction are certainly factors. Demand for affordable homes for first-time homebuyers remains very high and sellers in the $500,000 and above range are now willing to accept offers contingent upon the sale of a local home. So now might be the perfect time to sell and move up to your forever home, and investors may want to sell their lower-level single-family residences and 1031 exchange into new investment property. Everybody needs housing and the money to buy it. As far as refinancing, the number of refinances have drastically reduced over the past 24 months because many of us have lower rates than 5 percent, but now may be the perfect time to refinance and take $75,000 to $100,000 in cash out to remodel your home or consolidate all your credit cards, second mortgage and even auto loan debts into one 15-, 20- or 30-year fixed-rate loan and lower your monthly outgo by $500 to $1,000 per month. Local lenders got money and are very motivated to sell it.