{"id":9866,"date":"2012-12-04T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redfindevelop.wpengine.com\/blog\/?p=9866"},"modified":"2025-07-01T05:52:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T12:52:20","slug":"heres_whats_coming_december_2012_newsletter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redfin.com\/news\/heres_whats_coming_december_2012_newsletter\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Housing Market Has to Be Thankful for in 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is Redfin\u2019s monthly email newsletter, with a little about Redfin and a lot about what\u2019s happening in the real estate market.<\/em>
\nHappy holidays!
\nWe have a lot to be thankful for don\u2019t we?
\nAfter everyone gave up hope, the housing market emerged from the basement for the first time in six years, and is now the life of the party, guzzling Rockstars and kissing old men.
\nAs we predicted in The Atlantic last October, this is a big reason the economy will get better too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Recovery Is Becoming a Rally<\/h2>\n

Pending home sales just hit a five-year high<\/a>. The number of underwater homeowners refinancing their loans will double this year<\/a>. Housing starts in October were up 42% over last year<\/a>.
\nThe bottom in prices that we first predicted in February<\/a> is safely behind us, with the numbers rising every month this year. By October, prices had increased 8.4% over 2011<\/a>.
\n\"Case-Shiller<\/a><\/p>\n

Homes Are Still Cheap<\/h2>\n

But homes are still cheap, hovering between 1999 and 2000 prices<\/a>. In the last six years, the typical American home-buyer’s mortgage payment has dropped $358 to $889<\/a>: enough to go out to dinner every night.<\/p>\n

Redfin on the Rampage<\/h2>\n

And Redfin is growing very fast. Redfin agents just hit a big milestone, with $100 million in fees refunded to our customers<\/a>, based on $8 billion in home sales, with 97% customer satisfaction.
\nThe number of people who sold a home through a Redfin agent doubled this year, mostly because we began promoting our listings through our website and our top-rated mobile tools<\/a>. A Redfin listing gets double the traffic on Redfin.com<\/a> that other listings do.
\nAnd our traffic set new records too. National TV and newspaper stories published the results of a Redfin study showing we have 20% more agent-listed properties than national portals like Trulia or Zillow<\/a>, and that we get listings a week sooner.<\/p>\n

2013 Predictions<\/h2>\n

This is why we’re hiring another 200 agents over the next few months<\/a>, so our service should get much more local. It’s a big bet but we also see plenty of signs in the overall market that change is coming:<\/p>\n