We have a huge announcement!!

Today’s the day! For the last year, we have been working on our first-ever real estate course, and now we are making it available to you! Our course, The 1% Blueprint, How You Can Master The Art Of Selling Luxury Real Estate, teaches you everything you need to know about how to dominate the luxury market. We wish we had a course like this when we were starting out!

We have an exclusive offer that, right now, we are only revealing to you, our Blueprint readers at a significant discount.

If you are one of the first 250 people to purchase the course, you will become a member of our Founders Club, where you will receive unparalleled access to us. You’ll get these exclusive benefits:

  • Live monthly AMAs with us (we’re here to help you succeed)

  • A private peer-to-peer community to network and share insights

  • Invitation to a private members-only open house in LA hosted by us

We recommend jumping on this offer before we run out of spaces and share this more publicly.

We look forward to sharing our knowledge with you, and helping you break through to the next stage of your career.

– James and David

Zillow raises its projection for home value growth

Zillow’s latest forecast shows home values will appreciate by 5.8% by the end of 2023, up from the 5.5% projection it made last month. Here’s what else Zillow reports:

  • Just over half as many homes were listed for sale in July compared to the same month in 2019

  • 29% fewer new listings entered the market in July than compared to this time of year prior to the pandemic

  • Zillow expects 4.2 million home sales in 2023, a 17% decline from 2022

Our take

What a dramatic turn this forecast has taken! No one was even thinking that prices would rise by this much, not even Zillow, which is typically on the more optimistic end of the prediction spectrum. But don’t let that good news distract you from the not-so-good news. That decline in sales volume is quite steep. Prepare for a slowdown in deals, even as prices rise.

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New-home size hits 13-year low

Source: Unsplash

Builders are constructing smaller homes in response to the housing affordability crunch. The median square footage of a home under construction was 2,191 sq. ft. in Q2, the lowest since 2010, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau. These are other key takeaways:

  • The size of US homes is down 3% compared to Q1 2023, and down 6% compared to the end of 2021

  • Home size rose from 2009 to 2015 as entry-level new construction lost market share during the Great Recession, an declined between 2016 and 2020 as more starter homes were developed

  • Homes being built do vary in size based on their regions:

    • Northeast: 2,410 sq. ft.

    • South: 2,248 sq. ft.

    • West: 2,135 sq. ft.

    • Midwest: 1,979 sq. ft.

Our take

It makes a lot of sense that homes are shrinking. During the pandemic, when mortgage rates were ridiculously low, people could afford to build bigger homes. They also wanted homes with offices, since remote work looked like it was here to stay. But as rates went back up and builders needed to cut costs, home sizes started to dwindle. If those rates keep going up, we expect that home size will continue to shrink.

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Where the most new-homes are being built

Nearly one-third (31.4%) of homes for sale are new construction, up from the 30.3% they accounted for last year and almost double the 17% from Q2 2019. According to Redfin, that’s the highest share of any second quarter on record, with new construction keeping the housing market afloat amid the severe shortage of existing homes for sale.

Markets with the most new construction

  1. El Paso, TX (52%)

  2. Omaha, NE (46%)

  3. Raleigh, NC (42%)

  4. Oklahoma City, OK (39%)

  5. Boise, ID (38%)

Markets with the least new construction

  1. Honolulu, HI (2.8%)

  2. San Diego, CA (3.3%)

  3. Pittsburg, PA (3.3%)

  4. Oxnard, CA (3.7%)

  5. Detroit, MI (3.8%)

Our take

Without a doubt, homebuilders are the ones who have kept the housing market afloat. Expect them to make up the lion’s share of inventory throughout the rest of this year and next. Right now, homeowners are sitting on such incredibly low rates that they aren’t going to be selling anytime soon… not until mortgage rates drop, along with yields on the 10-year treasury. Unfortunately, there is no telling when that will happen. Thankfully, builders are making up the slack by still offering sweetheart deals for buyers.

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Schematics

The news that just missed the cut

Foundation Plans

Advice from James and David to win the day

As we mentioned up top, after a year in the making, we’d like to welcome you to our newest course on mastering the art of selling luxury real estate. If you are already selling real estate and want to climb to the top 1% of your market, this course is made for you. Here’s a brief overview of what we cover:

Every aspect of luxury real estate – We will share our tips and advice on every single aspect of mastering luxury real estate sales, from door knocking to marketing to strategy to organization to having a winning mindset.

Leads, Branding, and Negotiating – We’ll give you tips for generating leads, defining your brand, and mastering the art and skill of negotiating deals.

Tools and Mentorship – We are going to give you all the tools and unparalleled mentorship you’ll need to take your business to the next level to enable you to achieve your financial goals.

This course is specifically designed for realtors looking to find an edge in their respective markets and rise above the ranks to become the top 1%.

Just in Case

Keep the latest industry data in your back pocket with today’s mortgage rates:

Source: Rocket Mortgage

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.” – Mark Twain

Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you Friday!

We ha