Welcome to the February edition of Monday Market Minute with Carrie McCormick!

In this episode Carrie discusses how the market slowed last year, but that in 2019 we’re starting to see some increases in activity. With rates being down, Carrie is noticing her buyers are poised to purchase and provides a tip on how to prep them now with a sample contract. I also talk about contacting past clients to discuss the possibility of a refinance.

Carrie can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at 312.961.4612.

Transcript

D.J. Paris 0:15Hello and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real the only podcasts made by Chicago real estate agents for Chicago real estate agents. This is our monthly series called them the Monday market minute with Carrie McCormick. If you are a new listener and haven’t listened to one of our Monday market minutes before Carrie is a top producer without properties for over 20 years has been a top producer. Last year she finished in the top 15 of all realtors in Chicago and that’s out of 40,000 Realtors. So we are so honored, she comes on once a month and tells our listeners what they need to know about what is happening in the Chicago real estate market. And also, before I bring carry on, everyone should follow Carrie on Instagram, just do a search for Carrie McCormack real estate. That’s the thing, you can also find her on Facebook as well Carrie McCormick real estate, and welcome to the show. Carrie,

Carrie McCormick 1:06thank you, thank you Happy 2019

D.J. Paris 1:10Happy 2019.

Carrie McCormick 1:12So just to get started, the one thing that people have been focused on is interest rates. And with the Fed holding off on further interest rate increases, we see that this year is starting off very good. So we’ve seen a lot of activity in the market. All of us that have been in the market for a while we know that q2 was kind of flat. So last year of 2018. Really after, I’m gonna say like July, the rest of the year was just flat. And the reason going back and looking at that, you know, interest rates were increasing, taxes were increasing, there’s a lot of talk about increasing taxes. And you know, the second bill came out and people were worried about that. And actually, the wage growth wasn’t as favorable either. And it just created this affordability issue. And people I think were just hesitant about buying. People were out looking, but they weren’t actually pulling the trigger and buying. So I do still think that housing affordability is going to be an important storyline this year. But we are definitely seeing buyers starting to get out into the market. And they’re getting motivated to buy, which is great. So also, one thing to look at is last year in 2018. Because of the interest rates and taxes, a lot of people have just decided to rent. Right? So now we’re seeing an uptick in the rental rates just because of the whole supply and demand factor. So rental rates are starting to tick up this year, which now those renters are saying like, why would I rent or pay more in rent, now let’s go by, right, because interest rates are going down. So again, looking just at the economics of the market, we’re gonna see a shift this year. But we’re going to be tied to those lease months,...