From The Allison Ziefert Real Estate Group:
Stacie Levy
We are thrilled and honored to announce that Stacie Levy has just joined our team. Stacie’s years of experience, local knowledge and sunny disposition will be a great addition to our team and a benefit to our clients.
Manhattan-born and bred, Stacie has called SOMA home since 1999 and she’s been a licensed real estate salesperson since 2008. Trained as a professional chef, Stacie knows how to handle the multiple ingredients of any real estate transaction and she stays calm when there is a “fire” to be put out.
Now that her children are grown, Stacie has traded her heavy involvement in their former schools for more time on the tennis court. She plays in local leagues year round and loves the camaraderie and the workout tennis that offers.
Stacie believes that being successful at what you do, especially in real estate, requires a high level of dedication, compassion and attention to detail. She delivers this and more but most of all enjoys meeting new people who become her clients and often remain as friends after their transactions have closed.
Now for some thoughts on waiting for rates to fall before you buy. A lot of buyers seem to be sitting on the sidelines now waiting for rates to drop as they are predicted to throughout the rest of the year and into next. Is this a smart move?
Let’s look at how a rate decrease could impact your payment when rising home values are taken into account.
Take a $1,000,000 purchase with 20% down at a 6.5% interest rate. Let’s call this “today’s scenario”. Your monthly mortgage payment would be $5057 per month.
Now, with the inventory of available homes at around 1-2 months supply locally (which is very, very low) this should yield annual home price appreciation of about 20%.
Now let’s look at “next year’s” scenario. The same $1,000,000 house could now cost $1,200,000. Now let’s assume mortgage rates go down and they land at 5.5%. Your monthly payment goes up to about $5451 per month and you end up paying $200,000 more for the same house.
So the bottom line is, waiting for rates to drop may not save you money because price increases will negate any savings you may have been expecting.
Here is our latest market report for South Orange:
Here is our latest market report for Maplewood:
Fall can be a great time to buy in a less competitive market. Are you thinking of selling but are not sure where you would go? Or trying to figure out how to sell and coordinate a new purchase? Let’s discuss your lifestyle objectives and run some numbers and find out what makes sense for you. Reach out to hello@njfromatoz.com.
The Allison Ziefert Real Estate Group is a top producing real estate team based at Compass in Short Hills, New Jersey. We are local market experts, specializing in real estate and homes in Maplewood, South Orange, Millburn/Short Hills, Montclair/Glen Ridge, West Orange, Morristown and the surrounding New Jersey towns. We’ve also got you covered coast to coast with the best connections to top agents around the country in any market you are exploring. We are driven by earning great testimonials and referral business from happy clients.
