The first six months of 2024 have been “definitely better than last year” and “a very good start”, according to Kristi Hardy (pictured top), executive vice president, area manager and senior loan officer at Atlantic Coast Mortgage in Virginia.
She told Mortgage Professional America that lack of inventory remained the single biggest issue in the DC metro’s housing market, with multiple offers on properties a regular occurrence as a result.
Still, there’s been some reason for optimism with a recent uptick in supply – even though many homeowners are choosing to remain in place and not make a move because of the so-called “lock-in” effect, preferring to keep the low rates they secured during the COVID-19 pandemic than move and take out a new mortgage at a higher rate.
“That’s the reason for the inventory shortage,” Hardy said. “But we do have a lot of demand. There’s a lot of first-time homebuyers out there who really want to get houses, but it’s very challenging. They’re getting outbid by cash. There’s definitely a lot of cash offers.”
Hardy said her team has been able to help borrowers compete with cash bids by pre-underwriting files and analyzing documents before writing an approval letter – allowing them to offer eight-day closings.
