Real Estate

The West Coast housing market is metaphorically on fire — with rotting shacks selling for millions. Decades of policies to restrict housing in desirable neighborhoods has pushed prices up — and it has also pushed houses out into more rural, forested areas. As a result, West Coast housing is periodically on fire in the literal sense as well.

“Bubble Watch” digs into trends that may indicate economic and/or housing market troubles ahead. Buzz: Housing crash concerns, expressed through online search trends, jumped this spring — back near levels seen in the early days of the pandemic.

Recently, mortgage and refinance rates haven’t made any big moves. “Rates are going to stay more or less fairly close to where they are…through the summer,” predicts Dick Lepre, senior loan advisor at RPM Mortgage. In the coming weeks and months, you should still be able to take advantage of the current mortgage interest rates. But over the course of the year, some experts expect rates to rise in 2021. “The upside risk to rates is, in my opinion, much higher, then the [possibility] of them dropping lower,” says Rich Swerbinksy, president and COO at Mortgage Collaborative.

Residential real estate provides one of the most basic human needs -- shelter. When the world shifted to 'everything from home' due to the pandemic, that place of shelter took on many more identities. The home is now the focal point in many of our lives, representing where people work, shop, school and exercise.

The COVID-19 pandemic and historically low mortgage interest rates have caused a flurry of home buying across the United States. Families are searching for more flexible work or learning spaces, larger homes and spacious yards for cooped up kids.