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By KGW Staff

The letters could reveal personal information about the buyers that could lead to discrimination, or even the perception of it.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Home buyers in Oregon will no longer be able to submit "buyer love letters" with their offers in an attempt to sway sellers to accept their offer over others. Gov. Kate Brown signed House Bill 2550 in June, which directs seller's agents to reject direct communications from buyer to seller, outside the scope of a traditional offer. 

Buyers will often include personal, heartfelt letters to sellers with their offers, telling them how much they love a home, how they can envision their family growing there, or that they see themselves hosting holiday dinners in the kitchen. The problem lies in that those letters could reveal personal information about the buyers that could lead to potential discrimination. Sellers aren't allowed to discriminate based on protected status, such as race, gender, religion or family makeup, and a letter could open the door to discrimination, or even just the perception of it. 

"The National Association of Realtors has actually advised against them, mainly because it rides a line of being perceived as violating fair housing rules or regulations," said Paul Knighton, CEO of More Realty.

Last year, the National Association of Realtors put out guidance discouraging agents from accepting love letters from buyers, but the practice remains popular nationwide.

"An example—when a letter comes in, if it describes the family situation or circumstances, whatever that may be, or indicates or gives a clue to a religious or any other protected class, there's always the risk that a seller could be accused of making a decision based upon inappropriate factors," Knighton said.  

Oregon is the first state to make it illegal. The bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Mark Meek (D-Clackamas), is a real estate agent. 

The sale should come down solely to the terms and conditions of your offer, Knighton said. He acknowledged it's a tough market for buyers right now, but said love letters rarely tip the scales. 

"You really have to put your best foot forward, make it a clean offer as possible," he said. "The truth is, this is a incredibly strong seller's market. There's 0.7 months of inventory on the market. The more months of inventory, the closer you get to a buyer's market, but right now it's such a strong sellers market that all the buyers can do is work hard and do their best to put their best foot forward in the offer."

By Clare Trepasso

With home prices at a new record high and homes flying off the market in hours in some cases, it’s no wonder that Google searches for “when is the housing market going to crash” have spiked dramatically in recent weeks. After all, the mania seems reminiscent of the run-up to the housing bubble in the mid-2000s—and we’ve all been told that what goes up must eventually come down.

However, housing is likely to keep defying common sense. Experts say there’s no reason to prepare for a crash landing like we experienced in 2008 and 2009. This time around, the reason for the out-of-control prices is simply that there are many more buyers than there are properties for sale. Another simple rule: Prices rise when there is more demand than supply. Crazy, it seems, is the new normal.

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By Clare Trapasso | June 11, 2020

Anyone who's planning to buy a home, or thinking about refinancing the loan on their current abode, has probably been giving mortgage interest rates a lot of attention—and getting frustrated as they fluctuate up and down.

The average interest rate for the most common type of loan hit a new all-time low of 2.94% on Thursday, according to Mortgage News Daily. That's for a fixed-rate 30-year loan. While that's great news for borrowers, who can potentially save hundreds of dollars a month as a result, rates may not stay below 3% for long.

Mortgage rates have been all over the place, falling after the coronavirus pandemic threw the nation's economy into turmoil, then rising temporarily as lenders were deluged by a tsunami of refinance applications. Last week, they were on the upswing again, climbing to 3.24% on Friday, after May's unemployment report showed the economy was recovering.The most recent plunge comes thanks to the U.S. Federal Reserve making an announcement on Wednesday that drove investors back into mortgage bonds, which drove rates back down.

"Rates have changed rapidly over the past [few] days," says Matthew Graham, chief operating officer of Mortgage News Daily. "For the first time ever, the average best-case-scenario rate on a conventional, 30-year fixed-rate [loan] is under 3%. Most lenders are able to quote 2.875%."

But he cautions that these ultralow rates are reserved for borrowers with "flawless credit, more than 20% equity, and no other additional risk factors."

Folks don't quite need a finance degree to understand what's going on—but it sure wouldn't hurt.

Lenders typically don't like to hold on to the mortgages they make, as it ties up cash that could be used to make new loans. So they sell the loans, which are bundled into a collection of mortgage-backed securities (aka mortgage bonds), in the secondary mortgage market. These securities are similar to U.S. Treasury bonds—they're viewed as safer, yet less lucrative, investments than the stock market.

When the economy is strong, investors often prefer to sink their money into stocks, where they hope to get better returns, and when it's weaker, they'll often turn to bonds. When the unemployment numbers came out, investors were encouraged by the better-than-expected unemployment rate. Many moved money out of Treasury and mortgage bonds and into the stock market.

Since mortgage rates move in the opposite direction of bond prices, when bond prices fall, mortgage rates go up—and vice versa. That's what happened on Friday.

However, on Monday the National Bureau of Economic Research declared the U.S. had officially entered a recession in February. That spooked investors, who suddenly rediscovered the appeal of boring but stable bonds.

Then the Fed announced it would continue to purchase mortgage bonds in the secondary market. The move was designed to keep the market strong—and brought investors back to mortgage bonds. When demand rises, so do bond prices. Hence, mortgage rates fell.

Whether mortgage rates will stay below 3% is anyone's guess. It will likely depend on the strength of the economy, how quickly a coronavirus vaccine becomes available, and a whole host of still unknown factors.

“Mortgage rates move up and down all the time," says realtor.com Senior Economist George Ratiu. "I expect for the rest of the year that they’ll bounce around the 3% to 3.5% range.”