TRANSCRIPT

Susie (00:02):

Hi, Bonnie.

Bonnie (00:03):

Hi, Susie. Welcome to REal Talk.

Susie (00:07):

Where we talk about real estate and life.

Bonnie (00:11):

It’s very exciting stuff. Yes. Both of those things. <Laugh>.

Susie (00:15):

First we’re gonna talk about real estate today. We haven’t actually talked about the market much lately. We talked about Thanksgiving. We talked about holiday ski. You thought it would be a good time to catch up on the market because in December, such as it is, we’re actually having quite a busy month, which is not typical.

Bonnie (00:34):

Has anything been typical Susie for the last, like, I don’t know, two years?

Susie (00:38):

No, Bonnie, no, there really is no typical at this point,

Susie (00:42):

There is no more for typical…

Bonnie (00:43):

Sure. We’re all adjusting to the new normal, which is not really normal yet. So, you know, that’s why it’s good to talk about

Susie (00:50):

I think we did share a chart sometime back. 2021 had been following a more normal trajectory, a more normal trend line. More akin to 2019 than 2020.

Bonnie (01:12):

Yes. As far as like seasonality of real estate.

Susie (01:14):

Right. It’ll be interesting to see where December, November and December end up and I’ll say November was like slower. What you think of as more normal right. For November and December has been hotter. So…

Bonnie (01:33):

For sure, I would say, you know, the main contributing factor to that is the low inventory.

Susie (01:41):

I mean, low inventory has been the case for the entire year. I mean, just in terms of explaining why December is wackier than usual. I think, I think, I mean, at least as far as our buyers are concerned, we’ve been advising them. If at all possible you should certainly be looking now. And we, I guess had, we’ve had far more people reach out us about starting in the spring and we’ve said, Hey, why don’t you start now? Right?

Bonnie (02:11):

Yeah. Well, the ratio is certainly off and we are, we have been surprised lately with the new buyers that are coming in and they’re coming in earlier, they’re coming in hot, they’re coming in hot, but it’s, it’s people who say, say to us, oh, we’re shopping for spring market. Or we wanna get ahead of the game and talk to you before spring market. Or we need to move in, let’s say June. Right. And then they they’re looking now. So I think a lot of people have clients like that are looking now. And then we’re all saying, we’re gonna have a really busy spring. If you find something now go for it.

Susie (02:46):

And they are!

Bonnie (02:46):

And they are going for it.

Susie (02:48):

And they’re surprising us. Yeah.

Bonnie (02:50):

Yeah. So it’s been kinda exciting the last few weeks with the new clients and the, the multiple bids. There’s been several houses that have gotten a lot of offers surprisingly. Right. So all that is making us feel like we’re in for a wild ride this spring.

Susie (03:09):

Yeah. It’s rare for us to get clients under contract in December and we have, so that’s great news for our buyers and great news for others who are looking to move right now. So yeah. So that’s, what’s happening in the market. If you are, as we say all the time, if you are looking to move, call us sooner rather than later, even if you’re really, really not sure if it’s gonna be this year, next year, five years from now, we had a, a client call us and said, could be next spring could be two years from now. And then he found a house and we’re listing the house in March. So February or March. So

Bonnie (03:51):

Boom. Yep. Yep. We wanna talk about the interest rate today’s rate for a 30 year. Fixed is 3.25 yesterday. It was 3.350 no, 3.375. So it is fluctuating slightly and it is up almost a whole point compared to last year at the same time.

Susie (04:13):

Having said that we’ve had a client this week tell us that they were quoted 2.75 on a 30 year conventional loan. And we have pre-approvals that we saw yesterday that were at 3% so you know, it all depends on your credit. All depends on how much down payment, you know, it depends on if it’s jumbo loan or not. So a lot of factors.

Bonnie (04:35):

Yeah. And there are so many variables and it really is important to talk to more than one lender. So it’s good to shop around the lots, really the, sorry, the rates really are low and, and have been staying low for quite a while. So it is a good time to get out there and get a mortgage. Yep. Open houses. We wanted to talk about the, this week. Yeah. There’s one, there’s one house in south orange Maplewood combined on the market this week. That’s new, which is, <laugh> not a lot Indy last week. There were maybe six or seven, I think. Right. We pulled those up this week. There’s one, obviously we are, are getting closer to Christmas and new year and you know, people are busy. So we generally see a, a slow down or a complete shutdown in a way, the week before Christmas, Christmas to new year. And then we’ll start to see more inventory in January. So

Susie (05:39):

For this weekend so far, and it’s only Wednesday, so this could change. But for this weekend for Maplewood, South Orange, West Orange and Millburn, Short Hills, there are only eight open houses listed so far across all of those towns, two in west orange. Let’s see, one, two or three in West Orange. It’s like one in South Orange. Yeah. So, and across a wide spectrum of price ranges from 265,000 for a condo to 2.5 million Short Hills. So not a whole lot…

Bonnie (06:25):

No. So even if you’re not, if you’re not ready to look, but you wanna get your ducks in a row, it’s still a good time. Even though there’s no houses to buy, learn about the process, get your pre-approval just get started on that. So that come January, you’re ready to go.

Susie (06:42):

Absolutely. And you never know what’s gonna happen next week. So better to be prepared.

Bonnie (06:48):

It’s true. Last week, a lot of beautiful homes came on the market and we were really surprised. So, right. You just never know. We wanna talk about our Camp Fair, which is coming up so quickly. I cannot believe it. It’s January 15th, so about a month away. And it’s a great free community event that will be at the Woodland. You can bring your kids it’s open for several hours, come in, talk to different camps. We’ll have sleepaway camps and day camps, local camps, camps, that bus all different kinds of camps. And we were let, we were virtual last year. So we’re excited to be back in the flesh, if you will.

Susie (07:25):

Absolutely. And for those of you who ordered Dogs of SOMA calendar they are in and they are at Pet Wants in South orange and the General Store Cooperative in Maplewood. And we do have some extra copies at each of the stores. If you didn’t get it together to order in advance, tons of adorable local dogs, including ours. So <laugh> and they are $12 each, they make great gifts. And every bit of the proceeds will go to the east orange animal Alliance. So please help support them. And you know, maybe it’s a teacher gift or a nanny or for yourself, everybody needs more dogs.

Bonnie (08:08):

Yep. And if you missed your shot, maybe we’ll do this again next year. <Laugh> Oh, will definitely do. Cause I think there’s just, there’s so many cute dogs and we couldn’t include them all. We had tons of, so there’s always next year and it’s been really fun to see our adorable dogs.

Susie (08:24):

Yes. Yeah, for sure. So, and we, we’re introducing a new feature of REal talk where we’re gonna share a fun fact about ourselves. <Laugh>

Bonnie (08:36):

I forgot about this, Susie!

Susie (08:40):

Might not know about us. Could be fun. May not be at all interesting. But my fun fact is that I tried out for the cheerleading squad in junior high. I didn’t make it because I am super uncoordinated. When it comes to any kinda choreography.

Bonnie (08:58):

I will say, Susie, you are good at pretty much everything. Thank you. Except like catching the ball. <Laugh> o.

Susie (09:06):

Oh, I can’t catch a ball now. Now you’ve taken away my fun fact for another time.

Bonnie (09:12):

I feel like they’re kind of related in a way.

Susie (09:14):

I can’t catch a ball to save my life. I can catch a Frisbee, but I can’t catch a ball. I don’t know what it is. Oh, well what’s a fun fact, Bonnie.

Bonnie (09:25):

Oh gosh. When I was in college, I mean, you probably know this, but I sang in an Irish folk band and I cut off all my hair. I had really short black. I dyed my hair black and I used to sing like bar pub songs at the local Irish pub. And it was like, good crack. As we said, <laugh>

Susie (09:52):

You cannot share that kind of information and not show a picture. So next week you have to show myself with short black hair. Cause I can’t picture it…

Bonnie (10:00):

Yeah. I’ll have to dig it up. But I’ve had, I’ve had a hair, every color of the rainbow black, red blonde.

Susie (10:07):

Really? Really?

Bonnie (10:08):

Oh yeah. I’ve had black. See, I guess it is something you didn’t know about me.

Susie (10:13):

That’s it cause I can’t really go far off. Oh, well

Bonnie (10:18):

I’d like to see you as a platinum blonde Susie. That’d be kind of fun.

Susie (10:23):

Or not

Bonnie (10:24):

<Laugh> okay.

Susie (10:28):

Right there. All right. That’s it.

Bonnie (10:31):

That’s all we got for you today. That’s right. Have a good week, everybody. Okay. Bye.

Susie (10:44):

Hi Bonnie. Hi Susie <laugh>

Bonnie (10:48):

Welcome to REal talk where we talk about real estate <laugh> and like you’re not supposed to laugh when we do that. All right. Take two. Get it out, Bonnie.

Bonnie (11:02):

Okay. Sorry. Sorry. It just made me laugh. Okay.