The Evans Group

🏡 Fannie Mae’s Five Predictions for 2025 📊
According to Fannie Mae’s 2025 forecast, the housing market will continue to face challenges from 2024, including affordability issues and high mortgage rates. The report outlines five key predictions that will shape the market, offering insight into home sales, price trends, and new construction in the coming year:
1️⃣ Mortgage Rates: 📈 Rates will stay above 6%, with inflation and job market stability preventing significant rate cuts.
2️⃣ Economic Growth: 📉 The economy and employment will decelerate modestly. Inflation will ease but remain above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target until 2026.
3️⃣ Existing-Home Sales: 🏘️ Sales will improve slightly to 4.25 million but remain near 30-year lows due to affordability issues and the lock-in effect, where homeowners keep low-rate mortgages.
4️⃣ New-Home Sales: 🏠✨ Limited existing inventory and strong demand will keep new-home sales robust, with the South and Mountain West dominating new-home sales thanks to favorable land availability and zoning.
5️⃣ Home Prices and Rent: 📉🏡 Home price growth will slow to 3.6%, improving affordability. Multifamily rent growth will remain modest at 2%-2.5%, with construction activity tapering off.
🔮 These insights give a glimpse into the housing trends expected in 2025! Thoughts? Agree or not agree?

Total housing starts in the U.S. jumped 10.7% in February to an annual rate of 1.521 million, 5.9% higher than a year ago. Single-family home starts soared 11.6% to an annual rate of 1.129 million. Building permits were up modestly last month.

Borrowed from an incredibly smart Mortgage Broker!

Remember these numbers: 73/7/1.🧐
Looking over the past eighty years. Real estate values have increased 73 years, decreased 7 years, and 1 year was flat.

5 out of the 7 years was b/c of the housing bubble. Too many homes (4 million listed homes) and not enough people/buyers (generation X is smaller generation).

Current situation: not enough inventory (1.08 listed homes), more people/buyers (Gen Y/Millennials almost as big as Baby Boomers).

The first civilized city - look at that!

What a time in our nation's history. Sears Catalog Homes. The Magnolia: This home was one of the largest offered through the Sears catalog. Sears sold more than 70,000 mail-order homes between 1908 and 1940. Some enthusiasts estimate that about 70% of Sears houses are still standing today.

Just another tool as we move forward!

“My buildings will be my legacy…they will speak for me after I’m gone.” Julia Morgan

"Architect Julia Morgan, who was born on this day in 1872, is often remembered as one of the first great American female architects. She was the first woman to be licensed as an architect in California and designed over 700 buildings in 50 years. She was also one of the first women to study civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1897, Morgan became the first woman admitted to Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, a prestigious architecture school. Some of her most notable works are the Hearst Castle, Asilomar YWCA, and the St. John's Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. In 2014, Morgan became the first woman to receive The American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal." -- via the National Women's History Museum

For adult readers interested in learning about her life and legacy, we recommend "Julia Morgan: Architect of Beauty" (https://amzn.to/3KuzBGb) and "Julia Morgan: An Intimate Biography of the Trailblazing Architect" (https://amzn.to/3KsgD2F)

She is also one of 22 trailblazing female architects and builders featured in the excellent “Women of Steel and Stone,” recommended for teens and adults alike, ages 12 and up, at https://www.amightygirl.com/women-of-steel-and-stone

Julia Morgan is also featured in the new book for adults: "The Women Who Changed Architecture" at https://www.amightygirl.com/women-who-changed-architecture

For fun ways to inspire the builders of tomorrow, visit our blog post: “Building Her Dreams: 60 Building and Engineering Toys for Mighty Girls," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=10430

And for several inspiring picture books starring real-life women who love to design and build, we recommend "Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer" (https://www.amightygirl.com/classified-mary-golda-ross), "The Girl Who Could Fix Anything" (https://www.amightygirl.com/girl-fix-anything-beatrice-shilling), and "Secret Engineer: How Emily Roebling Built the Brooklyn Bridge" (https://www.amightygirl.com/secret-engineer), all for ages 5 to 9

Great words to start the week!