man and woman holding hands against a white wall surrounded by cardboard boxes and a green plant / ar on the bottom right

The average rates on 30-year fixed-rate loans hit record lows this week. Mortgage News Daily reports that the average rate for a 30-year fixed rate loan is just barely above 3%; for FHA loans, its dropped all the way to 2.75%.

That’s lower than we’ve seen in many, many years.

Why are rates dropping so low?

Of course, we know the COVID-19 pandemic is involved. But according to Fed chairman Jerome Powell, this has hit the economy in ways that are worse than any typical recession. Powell stated recently: ”The scope and speed of this downturn are without modern precedent and are significantly worse than any recession since World War II.” That’s powerful.

With predictions that our economy may not recover until the end of next year, the…

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Ever since COVID-19 news hit the world, the real estate market met a significant crossroads: many people were questioning if it was a good time to sell, for safety, and what would happen to our still-strong prices. Data now backs up that we did, in fact, see a halt in the market. Especially towards the end of March, there was a drastic drop in newly listed properties - less than half of the amount listed that week last year (keep in mind, before the pandemic hit, 2020 numbers were exceeding 2019 numbers). So yes, the response was strong.

There is still good news in all of this: first off, our data shows that as of May 4, 2020, median sales prices are still higher than 2019, and haven't seen any huge shifts aside from a small dip 2 weeks ago (see…

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