Chuck Barberini Real Estate

  Check Out This Weeks Newsletter!  Realtor.com ® reports inventory up 142.1% since 2022, rates peaked at 7.79%, yet median list prices remain 8.1% higher as delistings surge. Higher mortgage rates have reshaped the housing market.  That’s the headline from a new Realtor.com report looking back at four years of higher borrowing costs.  Since January 2022, active inventory has climbed 142.1%. At the same time, the median list price is still 8.1% higher and price per square foot has risen 11.4%. Rates peaked at 7.79% and now sit near 6.10%.  Buyers pulled back. Listings came back in many markets. Prices didn’t collapse. More than 50% of homeowners are still locked into mortgage rates below 4%, which helps explain why so many sellers can afford to wait. Homes are sitting longer. And delistings have more than doubled as a share of active listings.  The housing “reset” a lot of folks were waiting for never showed up. What we’r...

Let’s be clear: selling your house is absolutely possible right now. According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), roughly 11k homes sell every day in this country. And the sellers who are making their moves happen all have one thing in common: they’ve adjusted their strategy to match today’s market. They’re realizing inventory has grown. Homebuyers are more selective. And buyer expectations are higher. The sellers who struggle are usually approaching today’s market with yesterday’s expectations. Here are the three biggest mistakes they're making – and how to avoid them. 1. Pricing Based on What Their Neighbor Got a Few Years Back Setting your price is the most important decision you make when you sell – and the one that’s most often mishandled. Realtor.com data shows almost 1 out of 5 sellers in 2025 had to drop their price. Here’s what those sellers went wrong. Buyers have more choice and more negotiating power now that inventory has grown. And house hunters will a...

Renting can feel like the easier choice right now. There’s no big down payment. No dealing with surprise repairs. And no long-term commitment. But then your rent goes up again. And again. And suddenly the thing that seemed flexible starts looking… expensive, especially considering you’re not building any equity. And once that happens, it’s easy to feel a little trapped in the cycle. That’s because there’s so much chatter today about how buying a home isn’t affordable. But the truth is, the math may work out better than you'd expect based on what’s changed recently. Buying Is More Affordable Than Renting in Many Areas  In a lot of places today, owning a home actually costs less each month than renting a 3-bedroom home. And recent data from ATTOM shows that’s true in nearly 58% of counties across the U.S. ( see chart below ). And that's after you factor in things like insurance and typical maintenance costs.  In other words, even though it may feel like a bit of a shock, the nu...

For a lot of parents or grandparents, watching a family member struggle to buy their first home right now is hard. That's because you saw firsthand how homeownership gave your life more stability and helped grow your net worth – and you want your loved ones to have those same opportunities. But with all the affordability challenges in recent years, that can feel like an uphill battle – even though it’s slowly improving lately. Here’s what you may not realize. You may be in a unique position to help (thanks to the equity in your current house). The Equity Advantage You May Not Be Thinking About You’ve likely owned your home for years, maybe even decades. And during that time, two things happened: Home values rose Your mortgage balance shrank (or you paid it off entirely) That combination has created substantial equity for many homeowners like you. And while you may think of that equity as something you want to have in your pocket for retirement, it can also serve another purpose: he...

“Just Thinking" The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. Despite its popularity, there is no evidence Mark Twain ever uttered that line. Twain lived in San Francisco during the mid‑1860s, writing for newspapers like the Morning Call and Golden Era. The city’s chaos, diversity, and Gold Rush eccentricity shaped his early literary voice. It was also a period when Twain transformed from Samuel Clemens into Mark Twain. His time in San Francisco may have something to do with that quote being attributed to him. The quote about San Francisco’s climate pops in my head several times throughout the year, but especially when we get a little taste of winter. With this week’s rain and cold snap, I think temperatures even dipped into the low 40s. It feels a bit silly to complain when you look at the weather that the folks in other parts of the country. After years of playing and coaching baseball, I’ve simply come to accept that the moment practice begins, so do the rain a...

Check Out This Weeks Newsletter We live in a screenshot economy. A chart (or headline) pops up on your feed, racks up thousands of likes and shares, and in the eyes of consumers, it turns into proof. Proof that housing is doomed. Proof that affordability has never been worse. Proof that the next bubble is already here.  No one loves a moment like this more than housing doomers. They’ve been calling for the next crash for years, and posts like the one below—currently making the rounds on X—fit into that narrative.    Charts travel fast. Context doesn’t.  Real estate professionals know that affordability encompasses numerous factors, including home prices, mortgage rates, wages, inventory, and more.  If the chart above were the whole story, the outlook would be bleak. And yes, affordability issues are a hurdle right now. But several data points are showing gradual improvement in the housing market. It’s the kind you won’t see in doomer posts.  Let’s...