Home prices increased 6.8 percent from a year ago to a national median sale price of $293,000 in July. This represented a slight decline of 0.3 percent from June. The median value of off-market homes in July was $249,000, as measured by the Redfin Estimate, up 0.7 percent from June.

Sales in July declined 3.5 percent compared to last year, constrained by a low supply of homes on the market.

“In the first half of the year, the housing market was able to keep its head above water, despite high prices and low inventory, because buyer demand was so strong,” said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. “Multiple months of inventory declines took a toll on sales as buyers took a breather in July to wait for more listings. Despite last month’s sluggishness, the number of homes sold in the first seven months of the year was up 4 percent compared with the same period last year.”

The number of homes for sale fell 11 percent, marking 22 consecutive months of year-over-year declines in inventory. July had a three-month supply of homes–higher than June’s record-low 2.5 months–but still well below the six months that represent a market balanced between buyers and sellers. The inventory shortage is being felt nationwide. With the exception of Newark, N.J., and Miami, Fla., every metro Redfin tracks had less than six months of supply.

The inventory pinch is acute in California and the Pacific Northwest, with less than a two-month supply of homes in San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, San Diego, Seattle, Tacoma and Portland. That strain is also being felt in the Midwest. Omaha and Grand Rapids also faced less than two months of supply.

Inventory increased year over year in just 11 of the 74 metro areas we track. Texas and Louisiana were two bright spots; inventory was up in Austin (14.4%), Houston (8.9%), Baton Rouge (18%) and New Orleans (11.8%).

The typical home that sold in July went under contract in 37 days, tying June’s record-setting pace. In three of the four most recent years, July and June have had the same number of median days on market. Portland and Seattle were the fastest-moving markets, with the typical home in each market finding a buyer in just eight days. More than a quarter (25.7%) of homes sold above their list price.

Forty-six percent of homes listed for sale in July were priced higher than their concurrent Redfin Estimate, a measure of a home’s value and prediction of its eventual sale price, compared to 52 percent in June. The median list price-to-Redfin Estimate ratio was 100.2 percent, which means the typical home for sale last month was priced in line with its estimated value.

Today we introduced new metrics that report on off-market home values, based on data from the Redfin Estimate, Redfin’s automated home-value estimate. This information is helpful for homeowners looking to understand how the value of their home changes over time. The homes that sell in a given month are a small fraction of all homes and are not necessarily a representative sample of the overall housing stock. The median Redfin Estimate tracks the value of the typical home in each metro area over time. *In this report we introduce data on month-over-month changes in Redfin Estimate values and we plan to add year-over-year data once we have enough historical data to do so.

Other July Highlights

Competition

• Portland, OR and Seattle, WA were the fastest markets, with half of all homes pending sale in just 8 days. Denver, CO and Boston, MA were the next fastest markets with 9 median days on market, followed by Tacoma, WA (10).
• The most competitive market in July was San Jose, CA where 74.4% of homes sold above list price, followed by 71.9% in San Francisco, CA, 67.7% in Oakland, CA, 58.0% in Seattle, WA, and 51.8% in Tacoma, WA.

Prices

• Seattle, WA had the nation’s highest price growth, rising 17.8% since last year to $530,000. Las Vegas, NV and Jacksonville, FL had the second highest growth at 13% year-over-year price growth, followed by Milwaukee, WI (12.6%) and Fort Worth, TX (12.5%).
• 4 metros saw price declines in July including Camden, NJ (-7.7%), Newark, NJ (-5.6%), Baltimore, MD (-1.2%), and Hampton Roads, VA (-0.2%).
• Jacksonville, FL had the highest month-over-month increase in the value of off-market homes up 4.5%, as measured by the Redfin Estimate, this mirrored strong price growth for on-market homes, up 13% year over year.

Sales

• Only two out of 74 metros saw sales surge by double digits from last year: Baltimore, MD sales increased 30%, followed by Camden, NJ, up 20%.
• Newark, NJ saw the largest decline in sales since last year, falling 73.4%. Home sales in Buffalo, NY and Tulsa, OK declined by 22.6% and 20.8%, respectively.

Inventory

• San Jose, CA had the largest decrease in overall inventory, falling 43.7% since last July. Rochester, NY (-38.0%), Buffalo, NY (-37.8%), and San Francisco, CA (-29.3%) also saw far fewer homes available on the market than a year ago.
• Salt Lake City, UT had the highest increase in the number of homes for sale, up 27.9% year over year, followed by Tulsa, OK (23.3%) and Baton Rouge, LA (18.0%).

Redfin Estimate

• The median list price-to-Redfin Estimate ratio was 94.9% in San Francisco, the lowest of any market. This indicates the typical home for sale in July was listed at a price 5.1% below its estimated value. Only 10.7% of homes in San Francisco were listed for more than their Redfin Estimate.
• Conversely, the median list price-to-Redfin Estimate ratio was 103% in Miami, FL and 102.8% in Atlanta, which means sellers are listing their homes for more than the estimated value in those metro areas. In Atlanta, 74.5% of homes were listed above their Redfin Estimate, the highest percentage of any metro.

Below are market-by-market breakdowns for prices, inventory, new listings and sales for markets with populations of 750 thousand or more. The median list price-to-Redfin Estimate ratio is also provided for markets with populations of 750 thousand or more where Redfin Estimate is available. Redfin market data is based on the Metropolitan Statistical Area definitions from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For downloadable data on all of the markets Redfin tracks, visit the Redfin Data Center.

Median Sale Price

Homes Sold

New Listings

All Homes for Sale

Median Off-Market Redfin Estimate

When Dave and Jackie began looking for a home in the Washington, D.C. area, they wanted a modern home with lots of natural light and clean lines. Parents to a young daughter and another child on the way, they prioritized neighborhoods with highly-ranked schools. Dave is an attorney who regularly works from home. Jackie is a pianist, who teaches students and occasionally hosts recitals and performances in their home. They envisioned an open home with space to live, work and entertain friends and family.

The dream house proved elusive. After touring several properties they realized a fixer-upper might be the way to get everything they wanted. When a mid-century home on a serene, private lot in a highly-rated school district hit the market, they decided to take a look.

Not updated since the 60s, stepping through the front door felt like walking into a time warp. Built in the Usonian style, the 2,200 square foot home had the modern bones they wanted with large windows and loads of potential. Another great feature was the small guest house on the property.

The home had been on the market for a month and just had a price drop. They came in with a fair offer, which was accepted. Their Redfin agent Mike Alderfer was able to negotiate seller credits after some issues turned up in the home inspection.

Dave admits that he initially anticipated a smaller renovation. A handy person with some home repair experience, he planned to tackle many aspects of the renovation himself. However, the project snowballed into a complete gut, with a general contractor managing the lion’s share of the renovations.

They ended up replacing the roof, HVAC system and electrical, reworking plumbing, moving walls, gutting the bathrooms and replacing every window and door throughout the house.

“Honestly, it would have been easier to tear the home down and build new,” said Dave, “but we were drawn to the mid-century features of the home and wanted to retain some of that original character, while also bringing everything up to modern standards.”

Dave, Jackie and their baby daughter lived in the guest house for several months while the main home was renovated. After the stress of the renovation and months in cramped quarters, they were thrilled to finally move into their fresh, new space.

The couple chose natural materials like wood and marble in a clean and simple color palate. “We wanted everything to be neutral and natural,” said Dave.

The bright white walls bounce natural light throughout the space, showcasing their art collection and drawing the eye to the park-like grounds outside.

The couple expanded the entryway into what was formerly an exterior courtyard space. The main living space is more open with plenty of room to host guests for piano recitals.

When updating the HVAC system, they opted to leave the ductwork exposed, which draws the eye to the high ceilings and introduced an industrial element to the space. With new systems, windows and insulation, the home is now highly energy-efficient.

The galley kitchen features streamlined wood cabinets and offers ample prep space on white quartz countertops and an open pantry. They moved the washer and dryer from the kitchen to a laundry closet on the other side of the home, closer to the bedrooms.

The bathrooms went from dingy to zen with custom wood vanities and marble tiles.  “We repeated certain elements from space to space for cohesion, such as using the same wood flooring from the guest house to build our custom headboard.”

The guest house was also completely transformed. It now doubles as a home office for Dave and guest quarters when family visits.

The couple plans to tackle the exterior next. They envision an expansive deck and patio area that will seamlessly connect the indoor and outdoor spaces for gatherings and concerts.

The family loves their home and is thrilled with the results, but they say that a renovation of this scope is not for the faint of heart. 

Dave says hiring contractors that you can trust is crucial. He and Jackie used Labor4orce for demolition, Hyre Expectations for general contracting and Robert Black 5 design for architectural plans, which included plans for a future expansion as their family grows. Congrats Dave and Jackie! We love what you’ve done with the place! 

Nestled among trees in Olalla, WA is a storybook home fit for a Disney princess. The fairy tale cottage, built in the 1970s to resemble the home in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, just hit the market for $895,000! A glance at the quirky exterior, cartoon-like in its asymmetrical design, conjures images of dwarves, forest animals and poisoned apples.

On the inside, you’ll find 2,800 square feet of charming detail, including hand-built doors with beautiful iron work, unique stonework, hand-carved beams, stained-glass windows and more. The nicely sized kitchen features an eye-grabbing tree trunk archway, a large chandelier and more stonework surrounding a built-in oven. If you’re not convinced this is Snow White’s house just yet, take a look at the space above the kitchen sink—five small animated birds are painted there on the wall.

The home includes four bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths, making it a great purchase for a bed and breakfast, Airbnb or VRBO rental opportunity or wedding event space.

Lush green trees and bushes surround the property, giving it a secluded, forested feel with plenty of privacy. Go ahead, bake a pie and leave it on your open windowsill to cool; you won’t have to worry about nosy neighbors here! The 7.5-acre property also features a hot tub, fruit trees, garden space, RV parking, a treehouse and sits up against a creek.

Want to take a tour of this fairytale home? Use the form below to reach out to a Redfin agent!

[contact-form-7]

In January, we published our 5th annual Hottest Neighborhoods report, identifying the 10 neighborhoods across the country that, based on Redfin.com user data and insights from local Redfin agents, were likely to see fast growth in home values this year. Now we’re checking in to see how those neighborhoods have performed compared with their surrounding areas, and to identify some more places that are now showing signs of hotness.

To take the temperature of the 10 Hottest Neighborhoods of 2017, we used Redfin Estimate data to compare growth in the median value of each neighborhood’s off-market homes to that of off-market homes throughout its metro area from February through July 2017. If a neighborhood outperformed its metro area in off-market home-value growth, it was deemed “hot.” A neighborhood was labeled “warm” if its home-value growth was equal to that of its metro area. Neighborhoods that posted home-value growth below that of the metro area were considered “cool.”

Our top pick for the Hottest Neighborhood of 2017 was Bushrod in Oakland, and it delivered. The median off-market home value determined by the Redfin Estimate grew 8.9 percent from February to July in Bushrod, while Oakland’s metro-area values grew by 4.9 percent. About three out of four homes that sold in Bushrod during this period sold for more than their asking price, with the average home selling for 20.4 percent above list price.

“Bushrod is nestled between Berkeley and Oakland and the saying we keep hearing from locals is, ‘Bushrod is closer to San Francisco than San Francisco is,’” said Redfin San Francisco agent Tom Hendershot. “Location reigns supreme in real estate, and it’s easy to hop onto Interstate 80 to get to downtown San Francisco in 20 minutes without traffic. Bushrod is 10 minutes from the heart of Berkeley, as well. Because of this convenience, it’s not uncommon for bidding wars to push offers $100,000 over the listing price.”

Other hoods that lived up to their predicted hotness were Eliot in Portland, Colonial Village in D.C. and Sacramento’s Hollywood Park.

Woodridge in Seattle, Edgeworth in Boston and Greenfield in Denver, all came out cool, with home values growing slower than their metro areas. Two hoods saw dips in their off-market home values over the last six months; Serra in Sunnyvale (-1.0 percent) and Treme in New Orleans (-4.6 percent) posted declines in off-market home values over the last six months while their metro areas grew by 5.3 and 3.6 percent, respectively.

Still, Serra was hot by other measures, with more than four out of five homes that sold in July going for more than their asking price and the average home selling at 10.1 percent above asking.

“Drastic change in home values is not that common in areas like Serra where the median sale price is just shy of $2 million,” said Redfin Silicon Valley real estate agent Kalena Masching. “Competition has remained fierce in Serra’s more affordable price range because the area has maintained its status as one of Sunnyvale’s most desirable neighborhoods. We have been in bidding wars with all-cash offers, sold homes for $50,000 over the list price and waived contingencies to win in the area over the past six months.”

Treme in New Orleans, however, was cool by most measures over the past six months. Only 15.9 percent of homes in Treme sold above the list price and there was an average sale to list ratio of 93.6 percent.

“Treme attracts a lot of interest from homebuyers because it has remained affordable and it’s located right on the border of the French Quarter,” said Redfin New Orleans real estate agent Caren Morgan. “What has kept it from being hot this year is many of the homes are considered stale inventory – meaning they’ve been on the market for 90 days or more. Buyers are initially drawn in by the relatively low price point, but ultimately move their search to another area where homes have the modern finishes they’re really looking for and less need for repairs. Very few homes that have hit the market in Treme this year have been updated to meet most buyers’ move-in ready criteria.”

Ten Hot Neighborhoods from the First Half of the Year

While we were analyzing Redfin Estimate off-market home value data from February through July of this year, we decided to rank the neighborhoods that had the largest percentage point increase in off-market home value compared to that of its metro area.

Leading the pack of neighborhoods was East Lake Terrace, which has become one of the most popular destinations for Millennial homebuyers in metro Atlanta. Off-market home values there increased 24.4 percent, while values in metro Atlanta area grew 4.6 percent from February to July 2017.

“East Lake Terrace is hot because it’s one of the few neighborhoods near Decatur that has remained affordable, so people are flocking there to buy homes before prices increase,” said Redfin Atlanta real estate agent Sonia Walker. “Locals enjoy relaxing and grilling with friends at Buena Vista Lake, and East Lake Terrace has a beautiful community garden where people can rent plots. The neighborhood is also a short commute to downtown Decatur where there are lots of shops, restaurants and fun bars.”  

Another hotspot was Gert Town in New Orleans, which saw 22.8 percent growth in off-market home values over the past six months compared to 3.6 percent in metro New Orleans.

“Gert Town is near Xavier University of Louisiana and it has become an investor’s paradise as people build new homes or buy and renovate with plans to rent the properties on sites like Airbnb and VRBO,” said Redfin New Orleans agent Caren Morgan. “The neighborhood is within walking distance to downtown and the French Quarter, with easy access to several nearby parks. The area is also really close to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, so it’s easy to root for the Saints in person on gameday!”

Redfin Predicts 10 Hottest Neighborhoods to Close out the Year

Redfin’s Hottest Neighborhoods is a prediction based on the most recent growth we’ve seen in home-listing page views and favorites on Redfin.com. We checked in with local Redfin agents to see what has been driving these trends and what makes these areas desirable. Here are 10 places we predict to be hot to close out the year:

1. First Hill, Seattle, WA:

Median Sale Price: $425,000
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 105.4%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 73.0%

“First Hill is sandwiched between the ever-popular Capitol Hill and the Yesler Terrace redevelopment, with easy access to downtown,” said Seattle Redfin agent Jessie Culbert. “With Whole Foods opening in 2018 at the Danforth apartment building, the area is becoming even more desirable. Buyers tend to like the more quiet, tree-lined streets in this neighborhood and historic mansions that hearken back to Seattle’s heritage. All we need is more inventory; resales at Luma condos, which sold out in 2016, have been brisk, signaling high demand for new construction.”

2. Golden Gate Heights, San Francisco, CA:

Median Sale Price: $1,595,500
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 120.3%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 86.7%

“Golden Gate Heights borders the very popular Inner Sunset neighborhood,” said San Francisco Redfin agent Miriam Westberg. “It may be a slightly longer walk to area restaurants and shops, but homes are often more affordable and can boast great views of the Marin Headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge. The neighborhood has easy access to public transportation, Golden Gate Park, Irving Street and the West Portal commercial core.”

3. Bucknall, San Jose, CA:

Median Sale Price: $1,350,000
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 115.1%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 90.9%

“Bucknall has been on the rise for quite some time, and we don’t see that changing anytime soon,” said Redfin San Jose agent Jennifer Tollenaar. “Bucknall has a highly ranked school system and is in close proximity to downtown San Jose. There is plenty of shopping and dining nearby, and it’s easy to jump on the interstate for weekend getaways.”

4. Glenview, Oakland, CA:

Median Sale Price: $947,500
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 125.7%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 82.1%

“The Glenview neighborhood is a popular choice for Oakland homebuyers given its proximity to public commuter buses into San Francisco, a popular commercial district, the highly-ranked local elementary school and charming mix of craftsman bungalows,” said Redfin Oakland agent Neal Conatser. “Once touted by San Francisco Magazine as a neighborhood for ‘finding a deal,’ its desirability is no longer a secret and, like many surrounding neighborhoods, competition and price points are expected to rise appreciably.”

5. Bodger Park-El Camino Village, Los Angeles, CA:

Median Sale Price: $531,500
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 102.6%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 61.9%

“The Bodger Park-El Camino Village neighborhood has become a hot spot of the South Bay and is one of the few remaining affordable pockets for first-time homebuyers as Silicon Beach’s tech boom spreads south,” said Redfin Los Angeles agent Debbie Martin. “Its proximity to freeways, LAX, the beach and shopping, as well as and the Raytheon, Northrup Grumman and SpaceX offices, are attracting a wave of first-time homebuyers to the area. Because of the highly rated schools in the area, many people choose to renovate the 1950s three-bedroom homes that dominate this area.”

6. Mission Bay, San Diego, CA:

Median Sale Price: $835,000
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 96.5%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 10.6%

“Mission Bay has gorgeous beach-front homes near to the bay, beach, boardwalk as well as many shops and restaurants,” said Redfin San Diego agent Rebecca Roman. “Outdoor activities nearby such as beach volleyball, surfing, kayaking, sailing and stand-up paddleboarding make it a major tourist destination and a true So-Cal beach town. The location also makes properties in Mission Bay ideal for those looking for some extra income from AirBnB or VRBO.”

7. Deanwood, Washington, D.C.:

Median Sale Price: $315,000
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 99.1%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 31.4%

“Deanwood is becoming more popular for a number of reasons,” said Redfin Washington, D.C. agent Steve Centrella. “First, the neighborhood has access to two metro stations, providing quick commutes to Capitol Hill and downtown. Second, there are a large number of single family homes that are more affordable than similarly-sized homes in other parts of the city. You can get more home for your money, while staying within the city borders.”

8. West Minnehaha, Vancouver (Portland, OR),WA:

Median Sale Price: $312,900
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 100.2%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 43.6%

“Between hot new restaurants opening and higher end new homes being built, plus highly ranked schools, West Minnehaha is increasingly popular among buyers,” said Redfin Vancouver agent Stephen Mecham. “Not only is West Minnehaha a quick drive to downtown Vancouver; it also has lots of parks, trails and other outdoor recreational amenities. Vancouver is on the Oregon and Washington border, so it’s easy to enjoy tax-free shopping in Portland, while having no state income taxes as a Washington resident.”

9. Country Lakes, Naperville (Chicago), IL:

Median Sale Price: $272,500
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 99.2%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 23.8%

“Powered by a lot of fast-selling new construction, Country Lakes has drawn quite a bit of attention from buyers recently, and we expect that to continue throughout the year,” said Redfin Chicago agent Michael Rothe. “Homes in Country Lakes are within a mile from the train, and there are a lot of walking paths to make the trek peaceful. Homes in Country Lakes are near highly ranked schools, and the neighborhood is only a half mile from I-88 so getting to all major highways is a breeze.”

10. Lawrence Estates, Medford (Boston), MA:

Median Sale Price: $656,450
Average Sale-to-List Price Ratio: 105.3%
Percent of Homes that Sold Above List Price: 78.9%

“Proximity to transportation, an easy commute to Boston and overall affordability are the major factors driving homebuyers to Lawrence Estates,” said Redfin Medford agent Stephen Cafferky. “Many homes have large yards and are minutes away from route 93, and the commuter train that can take you to North Station and Medford Square. The neighborhood is laid back, close to everything and a great place for people who are looking to escape city life but still have the itch to get downtown quickly.”

Looking for more Redfin Hottest Neighborhoods? We examined 46 metropolitan areas and provided the top three hottest neighborhoods in each area. Click here to download the full list.

* Period of time examined was February through July 2017
** Values from July 2017

Note: Median sale price, average sale-to-list price ratio and percent of homes that sold above list price for the hottest neighborhoods to close out the year were from July 2017.

In an email sent to employees over the weekend, Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman addressed diversity and Redfin’s culture:

Hi Redfinnians,

For a long time now, I’ve been wanting to discuss diversity, workplace politics and our culture of dissent.

Our Values: Everyone is Respected

At last Tuesday’s company meeting, we denounced the Nazis who marched in Charlottesville. Those folks have wounded our country, and sought to terrify Jews at temple, and African-Americans who stand up for their basic rights.

Of course we all need to denounce Nazis. They’re hateful and dangerous. But James Damore, the Google engineer fired after publishing an anti-diversity manifesto, is a more complicated case that we also need to discuss.

Being Against Diversity Programs is Fine, Sexism or Racism Isn’t

Redfin would not have fired Mr. Damore for arguing against a corporate diversity program, as reasonable people can disagree on how best to pursue a diversity program, or even whether to pursue one at all. But we would’ve fired Mr. Damore for basing his opposition on the argument that women on average are less well-suited to software development due to supposedly higher levels of neuroticism and other imputed traits.

That is a sexist, false argument. In America in 2017, we shouldn’t have to debate whether people who tout racial- or gender-based differences in average intellectual ability are sexist or racist. They are. And it makes no difference that the people who make these arguments believe they are stating scientific facts; most every racist or sexist, including the Charlottesville Nazis, believes his or her opinions are fact-based.

Not Just Wrong, But Damagingly So

The problem Mr. Damore’s argument would have created for us as an employer was not that it was merely wrong, but also that it would have damaged our project to create a culture where everyone can be at his or her best.

Anyone who has tried to build a company from a disparate group of males and females, of black and white people, knows that someone who broadcasts racist or sexist statements has made it much harder for us all to work together. That’s why one of Redfin’s values is that everyone is respected.

Redfin Does Not Have an Ideology

That also means we must respect political differences. For the same reason we want to avoid sowing divisions between men and women or black and white people, we want liberal and conservative employees to be able to work together. In our annual survey of Redfin employees, some conservative folks reported feeling silenced by what has sometimes felt like a Redfin ideology on diversity. If you feel that way, I’d like start the dialog by hearing from you; I promise to listen respectfully.

We should all remember that Redfin does not and should not have an ideology beyond the basic respect for everyone shared by people of all political stripes. This is first because the company does not exist to advance a political agenda, and second because, as a data-driven, innovative company, we’re opposed to ideology on principle. The whole reason people start companies is to overturn an ideology of one kind or another.

Our Culture of Dissent

Our culture of dissent works best with a modest, inquisitive approach to the ways the world can surprise you when you hear both sides of a debate, when you focus on what works rather than what confirms your world view. You can believe what you want to believe in your personal life but we can’t afford to do that in business, when our competitiveness depends on recruiting the best talent.

Fairness to a Group, Fairness to an Individual

It’s fair to argue that diversity programs aren’t aggressive enough, or shouldn’t exist, or take the wrong approach. It isn’t sexist or racist to make those arguments. Using diversity programs to address a long history of unfairness toward a group of people will always create the risk that we’re not being fair now to an individual. Since it’s important to recruit diverse talent and important to be fair, this tension will vex our society, and our company, for decades to come. We can’t and shouldn’t eliminate this tension. So we just have to explore it in a reasonable, empathetic way.

One Redfin

Unfortunately, we live in a world where the same folks who are trying to be provocative or divisive are also eager to be offended or outraged. I’ve heard liberal and conservative folks emphasize differences and grievances based on identity that are exaggerated, reductive and ultimately counter to our project as Redfin’s leaders — and we are all Redfin’s leaders — to unite the company behind a mission to help people buy and sell homes.

How to Speak: Humbly, Curiously

The worst thing that has happened to our country recently may be that we’ve lost the ability to communicate with one another about our differences. That can’t happen at our company. If you have something controversial or unpopular to say, say it, but please say it humbly and curiously, to find out what others think, to determine what works about your idea and what doesn’t, to see if it advances our efforts to be diverse and fair.

How to Listen: Humbly, Curiously

We also want to be careful about how we listen. When someone is brave enough to take a contrarian point of view, we should encourage him or her, rather than waiting to pounce on a poor choice of words. The only speech on this issue that won’t be tolerated is speech that argues different groups of people are biologically different in our ability to think. We’ll make decisions about whom to hire and promote that are sometimes right and occasionally, tragically, unavoidably wrong, then try to decide where we screwed up and how to do better next time.

Finishing the Work We Are In

Our country has been far, far more divided than it is now. In the space of a few years during the Civil War, 620,000 of our own people died over these divisions. And the reason we have healed is because, as President Lincoln once said, we have proceeded with humility and determination:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.

Those ideas still hold true, for a country and a company.

Sincerely,
Glenn

In real estate markets where homes are in short supply and competition is fierce, being the first to know about a new listing can mean the difference between getting the house and missing out. According to a new independent study by award-winning social science and market research firm SSRS, Redfin customers who subscribe to email notifications have the advantage when it comes to speed.

The study, published by Redfin, shows that Redfin notifies its subscribers about newly listed homes hours faster than other leading real estate websites. The study compared property notification speeds in 20 markets nationwide and considered 184,206 individual properties for which both Redfin and one or more of the other websites sent out email notifications during the period of the study.

Based on the overall median difference in notification speed, Redfin alerted subscribers 3 hours faster than Zillow and Realtor, and over 18 hours faster than Trulia.

The speed advantage is expressed as the median difference in notification speed between two websites. For example, if Redfin delivered an email notification for a new listing at 1 pm, and Realtor delivered a notification about the same listing at 4 pm the same day, Redfin was three hours faster. Redfin sends notifications instantly when a new listing appears on the site, while other websites may send bulk notifications once per day. This could account for some of the difference in speed between websites.

The Redfin speed advantage was greatest in San Diego and Seattle, where the median difference was at least 19 hours and 11.6 hours, respectively.

Redfin was faster to notify subscribers in almost all cases, with 94% of notifications delivered faster than Zillow, and 99% of notifications delivered faster than Trulia and Realtor.com.

“Evidence from recent data for 20 major metropolitan areas nationwide shows that Redfin is significantly and uniformly faster to notify its subscribers about newly listed properties than other leading websites such as Zillow.com, Trulia.com, and Realtor.com.” said Dr. Aniruddha Banerjee, Senior Vice President of Advanced Analytics at SSRS. “We used a standard and rigorous statistical methodology to arrive at this conclusion.”

Redfin commissioned SSRS to conduct the study. Click here to download the full study.

To get instant notifications about new listings that match your criteria, click the Save Search button in the upper right corner of the map when you search for homes on Redfin.com.

Study Methodology

Prior to March 23, 2017, SSRS registered for email notifications from four real estate websites, Redfin, Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com, across the 20 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the U.S. From March 23 to April 5, 2017, SSRS collected email notifications for new properties. Once collection was complete, SSRS used email parsing and reporting structures to create a database of 184,206 individual properties for which both Redfin and one or more of the other websites sent out email notifications during the period of the study. SSRS then used notification timestamps for the properties in the database to measure the relative speed performance of the notifications that matched. The difference between any two timestamps then provided the difference in notification speed. SSRS computed various summary statistics (medians, robust means, and their associated 95% confidence intervals) and distributions of the speed differences to determine relative speed performance in head-to-head matchups between Redfin and each of the other three.

College football season is upon us; that means it’s time for fans to dust off their grills and coolers and slap on their favorite team’s car decal. Football Saturday and Sundays have become a social phenomenon and, as we covered the best NFL Stadiums to pregame last year, we’ve turned our attention to college football tailgating this year. After all, nothing beats an autumn Saturday hanging out with friends and family while enjoying some drinks, food and games in anticipation of kickoff.  

So many schools take pride in having a unique gameday experience that’s full of fun and history, which makes it difficult to rank the very best. University of Mississippi has ‘The Grove,’ University of South Carolina has ‘The Cockaboose Railroad,’ University of Washington has ‘Husky Harbor’ and University of California at Berkeley has ‘Charter Hill,’ to name a few.

Since there’s copious amounts of fun to be had at pretty much every school, we decided to rank the factors that make a school’s tailgating experience more consistent year in and year out. For this ranking, we stuck to Power 5 conferences and weighed the following criteria that makes college football gameday better:

• Football program revenue – A great way to weigh fan support is to see how much money fans pour into their beloved team through ticket sales, merchandise and concessions. It’s also a good indicator of how much money schools can put back into their stadium and facilities to enhance gameday.
• Stadium capacity – The more the merrier; we don’t want to leave anybody out when celebrating our alma mater or favorite team!
• Team win percentage over the past seven years – Let’s face it, everybody loves a winner and it’s more fun to root for a team that consistently wins at home.
• Walk Score – Having bars, restaurants and other amenities near the stadium is a huge draw for those without a parking pass. It’s also a better gameday experience when fans don’t have to walk, Uber or Lyft or drive long distances to get to the stadium.
• Median Home Sale Price – It helps to live in a city that is more affordable, it also clears more financial room to help support the home team!

Redfin real estate agents played safety, weighing in on their local college’s tailgating experiences to ensure the list was accurate.

As far as the results, Big 10 and SEC schools dominated the list, taking nine of 10 spots with the only holdout being Oklahoma, which represents the Big 12. Traditional powerhouses Ohio State, Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma and Michigan filled out the top five, with huge stadiums and lots of athletic department revenue feeding their high ranks. Another differentiator is each school in the top 10 has a stadium located on campus. Here’s the full list:

1. Ohio State Buckeyes

2016 Football Revenue: $86.6 million (9)
Stadium Capacity: Ohio Stadium (The Shoe) – 104,944 (3)
Win Percentage: 82.7% (2)
Walk Score: 41 (34)
Median Sale Price: $175,000 (10)

2. Alabama Crimson Tide

2016 Football Revenue: $103.9 million (3)
Stadium Capacity: Bryant Denny Stadium – 101,821 (7)
Win Percentage: 88.7% (1)
Walk Score: 33 (50)
Median Sale Price: $593,000 (59)

3. LSU Tigers

2016 Football Revenue: $85.7 million (10)
Stadium Capacity: Tiger Stadium – 102,321 (6)
Win Percentage: 76.7% (8)
Walk Score: 41 (35)
Median Sale Price: $199,000 (19)

4. Oklahoma Sooners

2016 Football Revenue: $94.1 million (6)
Stadium Capacity: Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium (Owen Field) – 82,112 (16)
Win Percentage: 79.3% (5)
Walk Score: 30 (57)
Median Sale Price: $212,000 (20)

5. Michigan Wolverines

2016 Football Revenue: $97.1 million (5)
Stadium Capacity: Michigan Stadium (The Big House)  – 107,601 (1)
Win Percentage: 64.4% (23)
Walk Score: 51 (20)
Median Sale Price: 234,000 (24)

6. Texas A&M Aggies

2016 Football Revenue: $73.7 million (13)
Stadium Capacity: Kyle Field – 102,733 (4)
Win Percentage: 65.9% (18)
Walk Score: 33 (49)
Median Sale Price: 278,000 (33)

7. Georgia Bulldogs

2016 Football Revenue: $87.6 million (8)
Stadium Capacity: Sanford Stadium – 92,746 (10)
Win Percentage: 67.9% (15)
Walk Score: 71 (5)
Median Sale Price: $468,000 (53)

8. Wisconsin Badgers

Athletic Department Revenue: $71.2 million (14)
Stadium Capacity: Camp Randall – 80,321 (18)
Win Percentage: 74.7% (9)
Walk Score: 49 (26)
Median Sale Price: 195,000 (18)

9. Auburn Tigers

Athletic Department Revenue: $92.5 million (7)
Stadium Capacity: 87,451 (13)
Win Percentage: 65.2% (21)
Walk Score: 27 (61)
Median Sale Price: $240,000 (26)

10. Penn State Nittany Lions

2016 Football Revenue: $75.5 million (12)
Stadium Capacity: Beaver Stadium – 106,572 (2)
Win Percentage: 62.2% (26)
Walk Score: 24 (62)
Median Sale Price: 279,000 (34)

Methodology: Redfin analyzed the 65 college football teams that make up the power five conference which includes the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC.  Five metrics were used to calculate the ranking. Walk scores were provided by WalkScore.com. Metro median home sale price was gathered using Redfin data. Football program revenue was sourced from the U.S. Department of Education, Equity in Athletics Data Analysis website. Win percentages came from a database compiled by Stassen Statistics. Stadium capacity was taken from Wikipedia.

The final ranking was determined by ranking the 65 teams by each metric and then adding the totals to create a final ranking. Median home sale price was given a fourth of the weight of the other metrics.

This month Redfin released five new search filters to help homebuyers zero in on the homes for sale that best meet their needs. Now, with a few clicks from the search page, homebuyers can filter for homes in these five new categories:

• Single Story Only
• Accessible Homes Only
• Green Homes Only
• Must Have Pool
• Must Have Basement

At Redfin, we’re always thinking about ways to make the home-buying and selling experience faster, easier and better. Speed matters in today’s record-fast housing market. Allowing searchers to instantly narrow their results to only the homes that meet their criteria saves time and effort, so buyers can act fast and book a tour when a promising home hits the market.

Not only do the filters improve the search experience, they support our mission to build inclusive products and serve a diverse population. The aging population and people with limited mobility can more easily find accessible homes without sifting through irrelevant listings.

“Over the next decade, eight out of 10 new households will be headed by an adult age 65 or older*,” said Nela Richardson, Redfin chief economist. “Baby boomers today are looking for homes where they can comfortably age in place, so there is an increasing desire for single-story living.”

The Redfin Data Advantage

Because Redfin is a real estate brokerage with complete, direct access to multiple listing services (MLSs), the databases real estate agents use to list properties, we can offer more information about every home for sale than many other real estate websites.

Not only does Redfin have the most thorough data, a recent study found that Redfin notifies its subscribers hours faster than other leading real estate websites when a newly listed home hits the market.

How to Use the New Search Filters

All of these new filters are available on Redfin.com and our mobile apps. So go ahead, set up a search using our new filters.

From the homepage, enter the city, neighborhood or zip code where you’re searching and click the search button. Then click ‘More Filters’ in the upper right corner of the results page. From this filter menu, you can narrow your search by price, number of bedrooms and baths, HOA fees and other criteria. Our newest filters can be found in the Home Amenities section.

To get instant notifications about new listings that match your criteria, click the Save Search button in the upper right corner of the map.

We Love Your Feedback!

We built these new filters at the request of Redfin customers and agents. Got an idea for a new feature that would improve your experience on Redfin or feedback about something we could do better? We would love to hear from you. Drop us a line at https://support.redfin.com/.

*The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/sites/jchs.harvard.edu/files/household_growth_projections2016_jchs.pdf

Single women build less home equity overtime than single men, according to a new Redfin analysis of 79,517 homes in purchased in 18 of the largest metros by single women in 2012. On those home purchases, women earned a median $171,313 of home equity over five years compared to $186,403 of equity earned by men—a difference of $15,090 or 8.1 percent. If we look at it the same way we look at the pay gap in the workplace, single women earned 92 cents of home equity for every $1 of equity earned by single men.

To calculate home equity, Redfin added the initial equity from the down payment and the principal paid on the mortgage to the appreciation of the home since purchase date. Appreciation was determined by subtracting the original purchase price of the home from the current Redfin Estimate.

The Best Places for Single Female Home Equity

New Orleans, LA was the best metro on our list for single women homeowners; women there actually earned $8,784 or 8 percent more than men in home equity over the five-year period. Omaha, NE was the next best with women earning 0.5 percent less equity than men. Portland, OR (0.8% less); Denver, CO (2.0% less) and Oakland, CA (2.0% less) rounded out the top five best places for single female home equity.

Where the Gender Equity Gap was Largest

Of all the metros Redfin looked at, the percent difference in equity was greatest in Seattle, WA, where women earned 6.3 percent or $20,983 less equity over the five-year period. Columbus, OH (6.2% less); Baltimore, MD (6.2% less); San Francisco (6.0% less) and San Diego (5.8% less) topped the list of metros where single women fare worst compared to single men.

So what causes this disparity in home equity between men and women? Understanding the reasons may help women approach homeownership differently.

Men Spend More on Homes

The first major cause behind the home equity accumulation gap is income. Women’s median income has flattened since 1979, according to a recent report by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Coupled with a continuing gender pay gap in the workplace, women are typically unable to save and therefore spend as much as men on housing. Our analysis revealed that women spent around $25,000 less on homes than their male counterparts. The median price of a home purchased by a single woman in 2012 was $195,000, compared to $220,000 for a single man. In several cities, men spent much more; $52,250 more in San Francisco, $50,900 more in Boston and $35,350 more in Seattle. We can assume that these more expensive homes purchased by men were larger or better located, and more likely to appreciate faster.

Women Start Out with Less Equity

Another factor that plays into home equity is the initial down payment on a home, and our study shows women are investing less up front. While the median down payment for both men and women was 20 percent, the distribution graph shows a spike at 3.5 percent down for single female buyers and 20 percent down for single male buyers.

Debt and Other Expenses

Women are now more likely to go to college than men and currently hold nearly 65 percent of the United States’ $1.3 trillion of student debt. A study by the American Association of University Women showed it took women two years longer on average to pay off that debt, in part due to the gender pay gap. Not only does this debt affect how much home women can afford, it directly affects their access to credit, and thus loan application approval and mortgage rates. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data from 2015 shows that a single woman’s likelihood of mortgage denial due to debt-to-income ratio was slightly higher than a single man’s: 30.3 percent compared to 28.1 percent. Overall, women originated fewer loans in 2015; 61.2 percent of single women who applied originated loans, compared to 61.8 percent of single men.

Another expense likely affecting some single women’s spending power is children. According to a 2016 Census report on child support, 82.5 percent of single parents with custody were women; one of every six custodial parents (17.5 percent) was a man. We were not able to identify how many, if any, of the women in this study were single parents.

Tips to Help Single Women Build More Equity

Homeownership is one of the most common ways to build wealth and more and more single women are entering the market to claim their share. Here are a few things single women can do to build more home equity.

• Start planning early. Speak with a lender or financial planner as soon as you start thinking about homeownership, so you can understand the costs and determine how much you can realistically borrow.
• Save or borrow for a bigger down payment. By making a larger down payment at the outset, you’ll automatically have more equity in your home and may qualify for a lower interest rate to boot.
• Don’t stretch your budget. As a single homeowner, it’s important that you plan ahead for the unexpected. Save room in your housing budget for maintenance costs and home improvement.
• Pay a little extra toward your mortgage each month. If you’re able to make larger payments each month, you’ll start paying toward the principal instead of just paying interest. This will allow you to pay your mortgage off faster and gain equity more quickly.
• Shop aggressively for financing. Check rates at several mortgage lenders to make sure you’re getting the best deal.

“Despite differences in equity appreciation, purchasing a home can help level the playing field between men and women,” said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. “Homeownership remains the single biggest engine for middle-class workers to create wealth over the long-term. In addition to setting labor standards that encourage pay equity, more can and should be done at the federal and local levels to support female homeownership through affordable housing policies like down payment assistance.”

Methodology

For this analysis Redfin looked at county sale records for homes purchased at anytime during 2012 that have not sold since 2012. Using the first name of the buyer when only one name was present on the sale record, we identified whether they were male or female (for example, the most common male name was Christopher and the most common female name was Maria). Home appreciation was measured using the Redfin Estimate in the last week of July minus the original purchase price of the home. We assumed a 30-year fixed mortgage at 4 percent interest, which allowed us to infer that 10 percent of the principal will have been paid by 2017, for non all-cash buyers. Current housing equity was then calculated using the initial equity from the down payment or purchase of the property plus the principal paid on the mortgage in addition to the appreciation of the home since the purchase date.  

Curious about the hottest houses on the market lately? Here’s a roundup of the ten homes listed between August 21 and 27 that received the most favorites by Redfin users. What is a favorite? Homebuyers searching on the Redfin.com site or mobile app can “favorite” a home by clicking the heart on the listing. This feature lets homebuyers keep track of the homes they are interested in and easily share those homes with their spouse, partner or cobuyer.

Looking at the most favorited homes each week is an unscientific reflection of the neighborhoods, home styles and home prices that are trending now. Plus, it’s a fun excuse for real estate obsessives like me to ogle new properties on the market.

All of the top ten homes last week were located in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, where the real estate market is red hot.

The number one home racked up more than 400 “hearts” within its first six days of being on the market. The home looks cute-as-a-button from the front with a happy, red front door. I’m loving the arched windows, original woodwork and inlaid floors in #3 and check out the breathtaking views on #9!

Redfin agent Michael Syltebo is selling #8. They are accepting offers until Wednesday at noon, so submit your offer soon if you’re one of the hundreds of people who favorited this move-in-ready home.

Have a look:

The Redfin Housing Demand Index fell 5.0 percent from its all-time high of 130 in June to 124 in July. Still, the Demand Index was up 29.7 percent year over year. The Demand Index is adjusted for Redfin’s market share growth.

The Demand Index is based on thousands of Redfin customers requesting home tours and writing offers. A level of 100 represents the historical average for the three-year period from January 2013 to December 2015. The underlying methodology to the Redfin Housing Demand Index was revised in August 2017 to improve the way it accounts for the company’s market share.

Across the 15 metros covered by the Demand Index, there were 13.9 percent fewer homes for sale in July than there were a year prior, and there was a 5.9 percent decline in new listings. July marked the 26th consecutive month of year-over-year inventory declines.

“Buyer demand has been stronger so far in 2017 than last year, but the combination of low inventory and rising home prices is taking its toll heading into the fall,” said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. “Sellers are still in control of the market, but their advantage is narrowing as buyers are becoming less willing or able to chase escalating prices.”

The seasonally adjusted number of buyers requesting home tours fell 3.3 percent from June to July, while the number of those who wrote offers dropped 11.0 percent. Compared to last year, 35.3 percent more buyers requested tours in July and 21.0 percent more wrote offers.

Metro-Level Demand Highlights

Below, we provide a slideshow of local charts for each of the metros tracked by the Redfin Housing Demand Index and highlight noteworthy trends from select markets. If you’d like to learn more about a particular market, please email press@redfin.com.

Baltimore had the largest increase in its Demand Index, up 26.5 percent month over month in July. Inventory there was down 18.6 percent year over year, but the number of homes newly listed in July was up 5.1 percent.

Boston saw the largest decrease in homebuyer activity in July, with its Demand Index down 35.2 percent from June. Inventory there was down 20.1 percent and new listings fell by 2.1 percent year over year.  

For more detail on the Redfin Demand Index methodology, click here.

Two weeks after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, Redfin data analysts and real estate agents have already seen homebuyer and seller activity rebound, showing a remarkable resilience and optimism.

“In between delivering clothes and meals and ripping out neighbors’ drywall, Redfin agents have been touring homes, writing offers, keeping deals on track, and advising clients as they decide how to move forward,” said Tara Waggoner, Redfin’s Houston market manager.

Damage is widespread, but varies block to block, home to home

While the situation is in flux, an initial tally from Redfin agents as of September 6 found seven of the 41 Redfin listings that were on the market when Harvey hit sustained damage. These homes were taken off the market and will be relisted once repairs are completed.

“Harvey did not discriminate. He hit million-dollar homes and $50,000 homes alike in neighborhoods across the metro area,” said Waggoner. “Some homes are unfit for habitation, while homes around the corner are completely fine.”

The real estate market rebounded quickly

Redfin tour requests dropped steeply in the days immediately following the storm, but had rebounded somewhat by Labor Day weekend. Tours on Friday September 1 were down 34.4 percent from two weeks earlier. Nationally, tours were down 22.3 percent over this period, reflecting a typical seasonal slowdown.

“There are some buyers who are questioning whether they still want to purchase a home in Houston at all. About one in six Redfin contracts have been cancelled,” said Waggoner. “But the majority of Redfin clients are forging ahead with their plans. In fact, our team closed two home sales the week of the storm.”

People see opportunity

Interestingly, in some cases Redfin is seeing a surge in buyer interest post-storm. Even in neighborhoods with a lot of damage, the homes that didn’t flood are in high demand. Irma Jalifi, a Redfin agent in central Houston, wrote three offers for undamaged properties right after Labor Day. All were accepted.

“All three were aggressive, full-price offers for homes that did not have competing bids. It is unusual in this market, where we were beginning to see homes staying on the market longer, for buyers to make a full-price offer unless another buyer is competing for the property, but it reflects how serious my buyers were to get these homes under contract given the circumstances,” said Jalifi.

Even those with flooded homes probably will not have a problem selling, as many people are already speculating on the market recovery. Waggoner estimates that the volume of calls Redfin is receiving from cash investors looking for homes to buy at a discount has quadrupled since the storm.

Sales will slow, but not enough to impact national sales figures

About 4,190 Houston-area homes went under contract in August, the seventh highest number of August pending sales in the markets Redfin tracks. In normal circumstances, we would expect those sales to close within the next 30 to 45 days. Many of these pending sales will fall through or be pushed later in the year or into 2018 as buyers and sellers reconcile with the storm damage.

“Houston represents 2 percent of national home sales,” said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. “Worst case scenario, if Houston had no more home sales this year, we estimate that Harvey would shave just 1.5 percentage points off of national sales growth in the last four months of 2017. However, since we already know that homes are continuing to sell in Houston and the surrounding areas, we believe the actual effect on national home sales will be much smaller.”

Once a bright spot in the Houston housing market, inventory dropped over night

Inventory is already down 9.2 percent since the beginning of August in the Houston metro, compared to 2016’s seasonal drop of 1.1 percent. The number of homes newly listed for sale between August 14, 2017 and September 3, 2017 is down 30.4 percent in the Houston metro from to the same period in 2016.

“Until Harvey, Houston was the rare big-growth city with an affordable housing market. While most metro areas in the U.S. have faced an inventory crunch this year, Houston’s housing supply has been increasing, driven in large part largely by new construction,” said Richardson.

Much of the inventory growth in Houston was due to new construction. Harris County alone holds 11 percent of all residential building permits in Texas. Over 10,000 single family units were permitted between January and July of 2017, up 14 percent from a year earlier. Looking ahead, as much as 45 percent of all Texas building permits for new single-family housing could be affected by Hurricane Harvey. The resulting drop in supply will likely result in price increases right away in many parts of the city.

Some buyers will pause their home search or relocate

As of September 6, eight of the 45 Redfin buyers who were under contract before Harvey hit had decided not to move forward with the purchases. Some canceled the purchase due to damage, while the others were feeling unsettled and are rethinking their plans to buy or considering relocating to other areas.

“We have already heard from some Redfin clients who had been home searching in Houston that they are planning to move to Dallas instead,” reported Jason Aleem, a Redfin District Manager who oversees Redfin operations across Texas. “We are preparing for more demand from buyers relocating from the Houston and Corpus Christi areas.”

In the second quarter of this year, 23 percent of Redfin.com users looking for homes in Houston were searching from other metro areas, with the largest share coming from Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, D.C. We will monitor for any shifts in the volume of external searchers looking for Houston homes as well as Redfin.com users in Houston searching for homes in other metro areas.

Lee Rusk, a Redfin agent in Houston, helped a couple relocating San Francisco for a job opportunity close on their new home in Manvel, Texas on Sept. 8.

“They were understandably very concerned watching the news unfold from California. Although their new home wasn’t damaged, they still debated backing out. Ultimately, they took comfort in the fact that the home did not flood under such extreme circumstances.”

Lessons from other natural disasters

Richardson said the widespread nature of this flood makes it difficult to draw parallels between other natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy and Hurricane Katrina.  

“With Katrina, entire neighborhoods were washed away and have yet to fully recover, while other neighborhoods were relatively unscathed and saw home prices rise. Yes, some flood-prone Houston neighborhoods were hit hard across the board, but in others, the damage was more hit-or-miss. Homes on one street had a few feet of water inside, while a block away the homes stayed dry.”

Hurricane Harvey will have a lasting impact on Houston’s real estate market, both in terms of home sales and prices, but also in shaping how Houstonians think about building, zoning and infrastructure, and where they choose to live in the months and years to come.  

“While the situation is heartbreaking, the Houston community is rallying and moving forward together,” said Waggoner. “Nothing keeps Houston down for long.”

We never thought it could happen to us. When Boeing announced in 2009 the opening of a new plant in South Carolina instead of Seattle, manufacturing was heading out of Seattle, but technology companies were flooding in: Google opened its first engineering office in 2004, followed by Facebook in 2010, Apple and Dropbox in 2014, Uber in 2015, and Airbnb in 2016.

In the past twelve months alone, Facebook announced plans to double the size of its Seattle presence, Google broke ground on a massive new Seattle campus in Amazon’s South Lake Union neighborhood, and Apple expanded its Seattle office as a hub for artificial intelligence. But now Amazon has decided to open a second headquarters, hiring 50,000 people outside of Seattle.

It’s the Cost of Living, Stupid

Amazon’s departure isn’t, as some have speculated, about Seattle’s taxes. We don’t really have any. And other tech giants’ plans to expand in Seattle in lieu of San Francisco is really part of the same trend. All of these companies are expanding into new cities for a variety of reasons, but a big one has been to follow the talent to a lower cost of living. This began with folks leaving San Francisco for Seattle years ago, and now some in Seattle are leaving for places like Portland, Denver and Nashville.

It should come as no surprise that the real estate markets that are growing the fastest are the ones where people can afford to buy a home. There are three Seattle-area listings for $500,000, each a steal by San Francisco standards, each likely to sell within days of their debut.

Here is one example:

Here is a $500,000 listing in Nashville:

Both homes are lovely, and the one in Seattle is in a great location and amazingly affordable for the area, but there are, on a per-capita basis, twice as many homes for sale under $500,000 in Nashville as in Seattle. When more people can afford to live in Nashville, more people will over time live in Nashville.

Why Even Amazon Can’t Afford Seattle Anymore

An obscure shift in how technology companies account for profits will accelerate this migration to the center of the country. It sounds small, but it will change the face of a dozen American cities. In May 2016, Amazon and Facebook announced that stock-based compensation would be fully accounted for in all their reports on profits, for all of their businesses. Google followed suit this January. A month ago, Redfin was one of the first technology IPO in memory to take this approach from the start.

An Obscure Accounting Rule Changes Everything

For years, investors looked the other way when tech companies paid an engineer a few hundred thousand dollars in salary, and a few million dollars in stock. Companies would still report their earnings in the time-honored way, including the cost of the stock paid to employees, but would focus investors on a metric of their own invention, “adjusted EBITDA,” which didn’t count the stock. That, everyone agreed, was the real measure of a company’s profits.

Except it wasn’t. If you’re thinking that it makes no sense that a software engineer would immediately recognize the value of getting a million dollars in stock when a Wall Street investor didn’t, you’re right. It never made any sense. But that is exactly what happened.

Every Bubble is Fueled by Funny Money

And of course, this stock was the only way most employees could afford to live in a town like San Francisco or, increasingly, Seattle. Funny money has always been the reason housing prices have risen too fast. First, it was liar loans and negative-amortizing mortgages, where the total amount you owed increased rather than decreased every month.

We all know how that ended, with the global financial crisis of 2008. And now, with the unicorn bubble slowly deflating, investors have begun to insist that even the highest-flying tech companies keep track of all their expenses, including the stock paid to employees.

At Every Tech Company, Two Conversations at the Same Time

The result has been dramatic, even panicky. Every high-growth technology company is now having two conversations at the same time: marathon meetings of a board’s compensation committees about how to rein in stock-based compensation. And a rush to find the next Pittsburgh or Austin for hiring employees at lower wages. The first stop in this journey is often Quicken Loans, which is now hosting four daily group tours for Silicon Valley executives to see a vast empire of Detroit-based software engineers.

The Wrath of Grapes

Most of the tech CEOs I know used to think that moving to the Midwest or the South was beneath us, a good tactic for the Boeings of the world who don’t need the kind of rare skills we depend on, who have to grub for profits when we reach for growth. But if Amazon can’t afford to keep growing in Seattle, who can? Silicon Valley will finally replicate itself, not haltingly or hesitantly, but headlong, with the same fervor that once brought the Okies out west. As the mayor of Oklahoma City recently said, “It’s like the Wrath of Grapes.”

The Depolarization of America

The result will be, I hope, the depolarization of America. What employing thousands of people in the middle of the country has taught me is how good and hard-working Americans in all cities are, and how much most of the country resents our wealthiest cities’ sense of entitlement and condescension. In an age of freeways and airplanes, of cloud-computing, virtual meetings and Github, it was impossible that such differences in wealth and politics could remain so stark over such small distances for so long.

Amazon will turn a red state a bit blue, and that state will turn Amazon a bit red. The riches of Seattle will come to a new town, bringing with it a few problems, but many more wonders. Nothing could be better for America.

In honor of Day of the Programmer, we’re highlighting some of the unique places that famous programmers call home. After all, data engineers, data scientists and data analysts are some of the most lucrative and well-compensated jobs of this era, so they definitely can afford some enviable digs. Programming lends itself to many industries, some of which have been around a long time and others that are just getting started. Here are how some programmers live in different stages of their careers.

Markus Persson of Minecraft/Mojang

Markus Persson made a splash when he shelled out $70 million for this Beverly Hills bachelor pad. He also put programmers on the map as legitimate celebrities and joining the long list of actors, musicians and athletes that call Beverly Hills home. There’s so much to like about this home, and our personal favorite feature is the infinity pool with a sweeping panoramic view of downtown L.A. and the shores of Malibu Beach. The home raised the bar of architecture and design in L.A., and if he is ever looking to sell I know many Redfin real estate agents would be chomping at the bit to represent Mr. Persson.

Bill Gates of Microsoft, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

While Markus Persson is relatively new to stardom, Bill Gates is the OG of celebrity programmers.

Photo credit: Jeff Wilcox and Success Story

Bill Gates has done wonders in the business world and now is one of the most generous philanthropists through his work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His home took seven years to construct and sits on Lake Washington with a picturesque view of the Olympic mountains. The home originally cost around $63 million and was more than 60,000 square feet when built in 1997, but there have been several updates and the layout looks more like a series of bunkers within a hillside now. The interior of the home is lodgelike and has kept design traditions commonly found within the PNW. The complex itself has tennis and basketball courts, beautiful gardens and boat launches – the only downside of the home appears to be the high frequency of Seattle-area boat tours that showcase the property.

The Crypto Castle

While Bill Gates has had a long-tenured career, programmers that are just getting started head to the ‘Crypto Castle’ to launch their careers.

Photo credit: Business Insider

What looks like model of Elrich Bachman’s Silicon Valley home, the Crypto Castle in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill houses the elite of the cryptosphere and was started by Bitcoin’s Jeremy Gardner and Viviane Ford. The home has a continuous influx of programmers that call the confines home from time-to-time, including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Bittorrent founder Bram Cohen, who is looking to start his own new cryptocurrency in the near future. The enterprise value of the home far surpasses what the living space ever will, because the interior resembles more of a frat house than luxury abode. In lieu of a home designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson or Frank Lloyd Wright, the ‘Crypto Castle’ is pretty standard and has bunk beds, moving boxes instead of bookshelves and your run-of-the-mill couches that are commonly found abandoned on the side of the street.

Bobby Murphy of Snapchat

Moving on from the start-up stage to a programmer whose company just went public, Snapchat’s co-founder Bobby Murphy has purchased three homes in Venice, CA recently.

Bobby Murphy purchased his main residence in Venice in 2013, and it’s 2,250 square feet and a block away from Venice beach, making it really easy to get in a morning surf before heading to the office (which is a block away). He purchased the home for $2.1 million and it has a modern interior with lots of natural light, open floor plans and plenty of balconies. The outside of the home resembles what looks like a six pack of beer on a cinder block from the side, and it’s an elevated structure with a full-access roof.

The second home he purchased right after Snapchat’s IPO in Venice is 1,611 square feet and was built in 1952. The residence has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a modern interior. The home could be an investment property, since the home values have been growing in the area and it is located in one of the hottest neighborhoods in Venice. The home itself is nothing to scoff at; there are wood floors, a garden walkway leading to the front door and the home has a calming, charming feel to it.

Photo credit: Halton Pardee + Partners

Bobby Murphy’s third home purchase, which was also right after Snapchat’s IPO, resembles more of a cottage than lux property. The home is 784 square feet, and it has a large, identifying tree situated in the middle of the lot. He paid a cool $5 million for a 1922 structure that has just two bedrooms and one bathroom – that’s more than $6,000 per square foot of space, for those paying attention. The home has a wooden deck camouflaged with tree branches overlooking the backyard and the interior has a calming presence to help Bobby deal with the stress that comes from leading a publicly traded company. 

If you’re keeping tabs, Bobby Murphy spent more than $9 million on his three new homes in Venice. Not exactly chump change, but also not too constraining for someone who has a net worth of $4.5 billion.

Do you you have a favorite programmer home? Send us a tweet with a Redfin link and the hashtag #DayoftheProgrammer.

Our thoughts go out to the people who have been impacted by Hurricane Irma. We are working to support our customers in the affected areas, many of whom are still facing power outages and storm damage, and some who are just now returning to their homes.

Home-buying and selling activity has all but halted since the days leading up to Irma’s landfall, but the local Redfin agents we have spoken to report they are starting to hear from customers again. In the short term, we’ll likely see the biggest impacts in inventory, which is already down by double digits in several of the affected metro areas. Impacts to sales and prices, if any, are more likely be seen in the coming months. Future inventory is also vulnerable, as Florida, along with Texas, is home to some of the country’s most active markets for new home construction.

Initial reports from Redfin agents in Miami and Palm Beach indicate that most of the damage to homes in those areas was relatively minor, such as fallen trees, wind damage and blown-over fences. Streets flooded, but most homes were not flooded.

“Most of the agents here are working to get closings rescheduled. The biggest hurdle at this point has been needing to get homes re-inspected by appraisers and getting the closing attorneys to reschedule, since many evacuated and are still not back in town,” said Redfin Palm Beach market manager Tammy Trenholm.

Aaron Drucker, Redfin market manager in Miami said that Miami’s condo dwellers fared better than owners of single family homes. Power in many downtown condo buildings never went out. The worst damage to condo buildings he is aware of is some flooding in buildings’ first floor lobby areas. Meanwhile, single-family homeowners face prolonged power outages, cleaning up debris, repairing wind damage and dealing with insurance claims.

We are awaiting updates from our colleagues in Charleston, Jacksonville, and Florida’s West Coast and will update this post with new information as we learn more. Redfin does not serve the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, or the other Caribbean islands that took the brunt of Irma’s destruction.

Slowly Returning to Normalcy

The number of tour requests submitted by Redfin customers in Florida has slowed from more than 60 on Sunday Sept. 3 to fewer than five per day since Thursday Sept. 7, when Redfin offices throughout the state closed, along with most businesses and schools. “Most of the area is still without power, but we are focused on getting back to some semblance of normalcy,” said Drucker on Wednesday.

“Tours have started back up again, but it is slow,” said Trenholm. Trenholm and Drucker do not believe September sales in Palm Beach and Miami will be affected as most of the homes expected to close in September went under contract in August. Irma will more likely lead to fewer sales in October and possibly November, as the storm kept buyers from touring and writing offers and new listings from going on the market.

New Listings

As of Sept. 10, the number of homes being listed in affected markets had fallen substantially. It comes as no surprise that sellers are not concerned with putting their homes on the market when they are prepping for a massive storm. Miami posted the largest decline in new listings, down 30.7 percent over just the last two weeks, followed by Orlando (-24.7%) and Tampa (-20.4%). We’ll continue to track new listing activity for the region in the coming weeks.

Inventory

The number of homes for sale in the Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville metros is down over 10 percent over the last five weeks through Sept. 10. We expect to see this number decline further as we get more data. Miami did not see as large of a decline, falling 8.8 percent over this period.

Lessons from Sandy and Katrina

Data from major past hurricanes indicates sales are likely to decline sharply in the immediate month following the storm. This trend is already apparent in Houston, where August home sales declined 29.1 percent compared to a year earlier.

New Construction and Building Permits

We know that several tower cranes were toppled in Miami due to high winds, but have little information so far about how homes under construction fared. Of all home building permits issued so far this year in the country, 9.8 percent are in the state of Florida. The largest share of permits are in the Tampa and Miami metro areas.

Tampa, Fla. (Hillsborough County), leads the region in permits year-to-date at around 7,000 housing units. About two-thirds of those were single-family properties. Miami-Dade County was close behind at 6,800 units this year in the pipeline— with only one in five units single-family properties. New condo buildings that aren’t yet closed off from the elements may face minor delays as they repair storm damage.

Taylor Marr provided the data analysis for this report.

Home prices in August surged 7.7 percent, the largest year-over-year price gain since May 2015. The national median sale price was $293,000, flat from July. None of the metro areas Redfin tracks saw prices decline in August. The median value of off-market homes in August was $251,000, as measured by the Redfin Estimate, up 0.7 percent from July.

Sales in August fell 5.5 percent compared to last year, the largest decline posted since July 2016. This follows the 5 percent decline posted in July by the Redfin Housing Demand Index.

The number of homes for sale plunged 12.4 percent, the largest year-over-year decline in a 23-month streak of declining inventory. The number of new listings in August was down 1 percent from a year ago, leaving just 2.8 months of supply. Less than six months of supply signals the market is tilted in favor of sellers.

In the San Jose, Calif. metro area, inventory plummeted 50 percent in August compared to a year ago, leaving less than a one-month supply, the lowest of all markets Redfin tracks.

Nearly a quarter (24.9%) of homes sold above their list price. The average sale-to-list ratio was 98.5 percent. The typical home that sold in August went under contract in 39 days, two days longer than July’s record-setting pace, typical of a seasonal slowdown.

“The real estate market still favors sellers, with strong demand and rising prices, but perhaps less so now than earlier in the year,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. “Newly listed homes are selling faster in 2017 than in 2016, but whereas in April the market was nine days faster than the 2016 market, in August it was five; the gap between 2016 and 2017 is narrowing slightly. Normally such differences wouldn’t be worth mentioning, but Redfin managers of coastal markets where demand has been strongest are now reporting that some buyers are stepping back from higher prices.”

Forty-three percent of homes listed for sale in July were priced higher than their concurrent Redfin Estimate, a measure of a home’s value and prediction of its eventual sale price, compared to 46 percent in July. The median list price-to-Redfin Estimate ratio was 100.2 percent, which means the typical home for sale last month was priced in line with its estimated value.

Harvey Hits the Houston Housing Market, But Inventory Still High by Comparison

Hurricane Harvey slammed Houston in the last week of August, when many of the month’s pending home sales were scheduled to close. While most real estate activity halted for a few days immediately following the storm, Redfin agents reported rebounding buyer interest, tours and offers in the final days of the month.

Houston sales fell 29 percent year over year, as buyers backed out of purchasing homes due to flood damage. Lenders also required homes to be reinspected before allowing homes closings to move forward, causing some home settlements to be delayed. Flood damage is limiting the number of homes being listed for sale. New listings declined 12.2 percent compared to last August. Despite the decline in new listings, inventory was still up 5.7 percent compared to last year.

Prices grew 4 percent from last August and Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson predicts homes prices will rise at a faster pace due to the storm.

“Houston has been one of the few big-growth cities gaining inventory this year, but the flooding abruptly wiped out a sizable chunk of the housing stock” said Richardson. “As seen from other weather events, the lack of supply will cause both rents and home prices to rise in the near term.”

“Looking ahead to Irma’s impact in the Southeast, we are just now starting to gather information as power is being restored to parts of the region. Based on Redfin home tour request data, we know that touring has all but halted in Florida in the past week,” said Richardson.

Other August Highlights

Competition

• Seattle, WA was the fastest market, with nearly half of all homes pending sale in just 8 days, down from 10 days from a year earlier. Portland, OR and Denver, CO were the next fastest markets with 11 and 12 median days on market, followed by Boston, MA (13) and Tacoma, WA (13).
• The most competitive market in August was San Jose, CA where 73.8% of homes sold above list price, followed by 72.3% in San Francisco, CA, 67.3% in Oakland, CA, 51.3% in Seattle, WA, and 48.1% in Tacoma, WA.

Prices

• Seattle, WA had the nation’s highest price growth, rising 16% since last year to $522,000. Fort Lauderdale, FL had the second highest growth at 15.6% year-over-year price growth, followed by Cincinnati, OH (14.5%), Las Vegas, NV (14%), and San Jose, CA (13.4%).
• No metros saw a price decline in August.
• Detroit, MI had the highest month-over-month increase in the value of off-market homes up 3%, as measured by the Redfin Estimate, this mirrored price growth for on-market homes, up 5.3% year over year.

Sales

• Columbia, SC saw the largest decline in sales since last year, falling 93.2%. Home sales in Newark, NJ and Houston, TX declined by 75.3% and 29.1%, respectively.
• 4 out of 75 metros saw sales surge by double digits from last year. Camden, NJ led the nation in year-over-year sales growth, up 22%, followed by Baton Rouge, LA, up 21%. Baltimore, MD rounded out the top three with sales up 19% from a year ago.

Inventory

• San Jose, CA had the largest decrease in overall inventory, falling 49.9% since last August. Oakland, CA (-31.8%), San Francisco, CA (-30.9%), and Tampa, FL (-26.8%) also saw far fewer homes available on the market than a year ago.
• Austin, TX had the highest increase in the number of homes for sale, up 13.9% year over year, followed by New Orleans, LA (8.3%) and Houston, TX (5.7%).

Redfin Estimate

• The median list price-to-Redfin Estimate ratio was 94.1% in San Francisco, the lowest of any market. This indicates the typical home for sale in August was listed at a price 5.9% below its estimated value. Only 8.9% of homes in San Francisco were listed for more than their Redfin Estimate.
• Conversely, the median list price-to-Redfin Estimate ratio was 103% in Miami, FL and 102.6% in West Palm Beach, which means sellers are listing their homes for more than the estimated value in those metro areas. In Miami, 64.6% of homes were listed above their Redfin Estimate.

Below are market-by-market breakdowns for prices, inventory, new listings and sales for markets with populations of 750 thousand or more. For downloadable data on all of the markets Redfin tracks, visit the Redfin Data Center.

Median Sale Price

Homes Sold

New Listings

All Homes for Sale

Median Off-Market Redfin Estimate

Which homes are making buyers’ hearts go pitter-patter? Here’s a roundup of the ten homes listed between Sept. 11 and 17 that received the most favorites by Redfin users. What is a favorite? Homebuyers searching on the Redfin.com site or mobile app can “favorite” a home by clicking the heart on the listing. This feature lets homebuyers keep track of the homes they are interested in and easily share those homes with their spouse, partner or cobuyer.

Looking at the most favorited homes each week is an unscientific reflection of the neighborhoods, home styles and home prices that are trending now. Plus, it’s a fun excuse for the real estate obsessed (like me) to ogle new properties on the market.

Yet again, nearly all of the top ten homes last week were located in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, with one Los Angeles home added for good measure.

The most popular home is a sweet and unassuming Seattle cottage. It’s Green Lake location likely boosted its popularity, gaining it more than 600 “hearts” within its first five days on the market. Cute bungalows and craftsman-style homes abound on the list. See #1, #5, #7, #10.

Outdoor entertaining spaces also helped homes rack up favorites. Both #7 and #8 boast outdoor kitchens.

A few homes that made the list could use updating. #2 is a Midcentury in Campbell, CA that’s a bit dated, but has plenty of space and potential for new owners to make it their own. At just under $1 million, is it crazy to call it a good value for that area? The Silicon Valley market is certainly not for the faint of heart. #9 is another promising home. If you can see beyond the Pepto-pink living room, this home has a great deck and cute little yard.

Which home would you pick?

Coming into Redfin’s public offering, I’d concluded that we live in a post-truth society. Our society has sometimes relegated science to opinion, and unwelcome news as fake. When different people have access to different information, democracy operates like an inefficient market, with policy mistakes taking longer to correct. It may be that a few people on the right or left prefer it this way but most don’t.

And it turns out that, the truth is still something our society is capable of producing, agreeing on, and avidly consuming. In the stock markets if not in the broader world, even the most ideological of hedge-fund kings insist on the most rigorous form of the truth: in a prospectus, in financial statements, in all the materials used to decide whether to buy a stock. Investments are the only realm where data can change people’s opinions in the time it takes to make a put or call. It’s just too clear-cut when you’re wrong to be any other way, and too expensive.

The rigor involved in ensuring that a company tells the exact truth to investors is why the diligence of a public offering is often depicted as a grind. Entrepreneurs are supposed to roll our eyes at the lawyers who insist on corroborating every marketing claim, at the accountants who track down every penny.

But what I felt in preparing for Redfin’s public offering was a slight sense of awe, at the rectitude and persnicketiness of Alan Smith’s and Jamie Evans’s Fenwick team, of Alan Hambelton’s Cooley team, of Don Heisler’s Deloitte team — and in some weird way, awe at the durability of civil society in America. No one ever said, “close enough,” or, “who’ll notice that.” The drive to get it right was as much an issue of professional pride as of legal liability.

It should be hard to go public. You should pause a moment before signing financial statements. You should feel the weight of having to tell the whole truth. Redfin is very grateful for our friends at Fenwick & West, Deloitte and Cooley for having helped us to do that.

A college education has become more and more unaffordable over the years, with tuition increasing 9 percent between 2011 and 2016. But it’s not just skyrocketing tuition that’s hitting students hard; there are the additional expenses of books, meal plans and the big one—housing. Dorm rooms in the U.S. range in cost from $232 to $1,817 per month, with a median monthly price of $705. It’s a hefty price tag for a college student and it led us to wonder, are there cities where students are better off buying real estate?

It may not make sense in cities like San Francisco where the price for a dorm ($926 per month) is minuscule compared to the high cost of rentals and real estate; the average mortgage on a SF condo is $5,279 per month. But can relief from soaring college costs can be found in more affordable cities?

To find out, we compared the monthly dorm rate at 195 U.S. public colleges with the median monthly mortgage on a condo in each of those cities. We found that at 47 colleges it’s actually more cost effective for students (or their parents, more realistically) to buy a condo instead of rent a room on campus.

We ranked the colleges by enrollment to narrow down the list to the 15 most popular colleges. Because these schools have more students and thus a larger pool of new students looking for housing each year, we determined they would be the best places for investment opportunities.

Misty Hurley, a Redfin real estate agent in Tucson, wasn’t surprised to see The University of Arizona at the top of the list.

“I’ve had lots of parents contact me after comparing the cost of renting versus buying a home for their college student,” she said. “They’re often coming from places like Washington D.C., Los Angeles or Seattle, where home prices are much higher. The median sale price in Tucson is $195,000, so well below the national median sale price of $293,000 that Redfin reported in August.”

The downside, she says, is inventory is getting tighter in the city and college students (and their parents) are likely to face multiple offer situations, especially for homes under $200,000.

Rounding out the top five list were Georgia State University, the University of South Carolina, Kent State University and Louisiana State University, all of which are in cities with median home prices below the national average.

In addition to saving on monthly housing costs in these cities, there are other perks to purchasing real estate.

“Homeownership can be a great way to build wealth,” said Hurley. “Students will build equity that they can one day use as a down payment on a move-up home or to pay off student loans. If they choose not to sell right away, they’ll have a piece of property that’s ripe for renting, as there are always new college students looking for rentals.”

Owning a property can also be a great way for college students to get involved with the community and feel like they’re really a part of the city, she says.

There are certain considerations students and their families should keep in mind when deciding to purchase real estate–such as the initial down payment, which was not accounted for in this analysis, and the maintenance required to keep up a home.

Methodology

On-campus housing cost data was pulled from the National Center for Education Statistics. We looked only at U.S. public institutions that grant Bachelor’s degrees and that have full-time, first-time undergraduates. We then compared that list to cities where we have condo price data, which left us with 196 public institutions. To calculate the average monthly mortgage, we assumed 20% down, a four percent interest rate on a 30 year fixed mortgage, 1.125 percent annual property taxes plus $70 for homeowner’s insurance.