Newark Daily Brief: The Same 69 Homes, Three Days Running

Mortgage rates start the week where Friday left them. Mortgage News Daily had the 30 year at 7.20% and the 15 year at 6.83% as of Friday, with Monday's reading due this afternoon. The 10 year Treasury is trading just under 5% this morning after closing Friday at 5.01%.

Three days, no movement

Newark's buyable list of houses and townhomes has now held at 69 for three straight days, and it is the same 69 homes each time. Nothing joined, nothing left, and no price changed. The under contract count held at 29. The only change anywhere on the sheet was one home aging out of its newly listed label after a week on the market, which is why newly listed went from 8 to 7 and active from 51 to 52.

When the list does not move, the median days on market has to climb, and it did, from 24 to 25. Twelve of the 69 have been available 60 days or longer. A quiet stretch over a weekend is normal. Three days of it into a Monday is worth noticing.

What it takes to carry the median

At Newark's median asking price of $1,299,000, a buyer putting 10% down borrows $1,169,100, still under Alameda County's $1,249,125 high balance conforming limit. At 7.20%, principal and interest alone come to about $7,936 a month. Keeping that to 30% of gross pay takes a household income of about $317,000 a year, and that is before property tax, insurance and mortgage insurance.

Townhomes are the lower rung. The 11 on the list carry a median of $1,100,000 against $1,395,000 for the 58 houses, and 8 homes in all are asking under a million.

If you are thinking about selling in Newark, a list this still cuts both ways. No new competition arrived, but the buyers who are looking have already seen every home on it, so the next listing to land gets their full attention. Harv and Liliana can walk you through where your home would sit in this group and how to price it to be the one they call about.