I recently went to the 10th Annual Big Green EGGFest hosted by the Bronsboro Hardware & Paint and talked with some of the attendees about not only what their food creations, but also their charities. Before I get to all that though, I wanted to give you an update on the market in Louisville.
Last month there were 4.9% fewer homes sold as well as fewer homes going under contract with a 9.3% change. The number of active listings in the Louisville area is also down 6.9%. However, the number of new listings coming on the market in July 2018 is up 3.2%.
On a national level, The Wall Street Journal reported that “The economic expansion that began in mid-2009, and already ranks as the second longest in American history, will most likely end in 2020 as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to cool off an overheating economy.” It continues by saying that “Recessions are notoriously difficult to predict. Forecasters saw the chances of a recession rise back in 2011 and in 2016; both turned out to be false alarms.”
Joe Mellman, a spokesman at TransUnion, has some good news, meanwhile, explaining that people have more equity than before because they are staying in their homes longer. Also, people are not borrowing from their home equity as much as they did previously.
Founding partner of Great Waters Financial, Skip Johnson, also talks about home equity and how people used to use their homes like an ATM to take out money for vacation and new cars. However, when their home values dropped, they were left with less equity.
Finally, the economy is in much better shape than what we saw in previous years as can be seen by WalletHub’s report about Americans paying off credit card debt. In the first quarter of 2018, we saw the second largest quarterly payoff ever with $40.3 billion paid off.
Where are home prices headed, then? According to CoreLogic, instead of seeing an increase of 6.9% like we saw over the last 12 months, the next 12 months may only see an increase of 5.3%. This levelling off should happen both locally and nationally.
Even a small increase in interest rates can have a small impact on home sales. If you were to buy a home for $250,000 at an interest rate of 4.57%, your monthly payment would go up $152.19 for the same house with ian interest rate of 5.10%. This equates to an annual difference of over $1,800 or $54,788 for the life of the loan.
For buyers, the most important part of this is that mortgage rates are going to continue to go up. And, the predictions by those in the know are that interest rates will be at, or just under, 5% at the start of 2019 and by the second quarter, they will be just over 5%.
Now, more about Brownsboro Hardware & Paint’s Big Green EGGFest. For only $20, which all goes to charity, you can enjoy food cooked by locals in Big Green EGGs. According to my friend Maurice, an attendant at the Big Green EGGFest, you can use a Big Green EGG to bake, roast, grill, and smoke. He has even made tandoori chicken on skewers in his.
The festival has events outside of tasting food as well such as cooking lessons where you can learn how to use your Big Green EGG that you can purchase at Brownsboro Hardware & Paint.
To make the event even better, proceeds go to charities such as Dawne Gee’s “A Recipe to End Hunger.” Dawne tells us you can buy her cookbook, “A Recipe to End Hunger” from Amazon, here, to help feed children in need. The cookbook even features recipes from people such as actress Jennifer Lawrence, singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, and retired NBA player Darrell Griffith. If you have any questions about the charity for Dawne or would live to get involved, you can reach her at dgee@wave3.com.
This really is a great event because it offers not only a great selection of food to try and tips on how to cook it, but also does a great job of giving back to our community through charity. In fact, according to Jim Lehrer, the owner of Brownsboro Hardware & Paint, they raised over $30,000 last year alone.
Jim also told me that 10 years ago when the event started it was much smaller with only eight EGGS going in the parking lot. The event this year, meanwhile, had 100 EGGS going with people sharing their delicious creations.
If you missed this year’s Big Green EGGFest, make sure you mark your calendars for the first weekend in August for next years. It is sure to be a great one. If you want to talk to me about anything real estate related, though, you don’t have to wait until next year. Give me a call now. I would be happy to help you in any way that I can.
