How H.R. 1 Will Change the Real Estate Market
Last week, President Trump signed H.R. 1, nicknamed the Big Beautiful Bill, into law. Here are some provisions of the bill that may affect your clients, from first-time buyers to investors.
- Homeowners can now permanently deduct mortgage insurance premiums (PMI, FHA MIP, VA funding fees, and USDA guarantee fees). Be sure to inform your first-time buyers of this new provision. The deduction is not available for incomes above $175,000 for single tax filers and joint filers making over $250,000. HR 1 also included a permanent $750,000 cap on mortgage interest deductions.
- No new federal down payment or homebuyer assistance/grants are included. This means your buyers will continue to rely on state housing finance agencies (HFAs), local grants, and employer-assisted programs. Ask me for details about assistance for our state.
- HR 1 raised the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap to $40,000 per household from 2025-2029, with a phase-down starting for incomes over $500,000. This makes home ownership more attractive for upper-middle-income buyers.
- If your clients include investors with rental properties, be sure they're aware that the 20% deduction for Qualified Business Income has been made permanent.1
Pending Sales Fall, Buyer Interest Rises
New listings fell 1% year over year during the four weeks ending June 29, which was the first decline in nearly six months. It's also worth noting that the weekly average mortgage rate fell to its lowest level since early April.
While the market may appear flat, more prospective buyers are viewing homes. Their numbers rose by 32% from the start of 2025, which is higher than 2024's 21% viewers for January-June. Online home searches are picking up as well. As of July 2, 2025, Google searches peaked for the year.
Median sale prices rose in some markets, while falling in others. Detroit came in first place with a 10.1% increase, followed by Newark, NJ, Cleveland OH and Nassau County, NY. Prices in two California metro markets - Oakland and San Diego - both fell by over 3%. So did metro areas West Palm Beach, FL and Atlanta, GA.2
Too Busy to Create Social Media Content?
If you're a full-time agent, chances are you struggle to fit in quality time with loved ones and personal time for yourself. This could prevent you from posting new social media content as often as you should.
Here are some methods you can use to create crowd-pleasing posts without being a stranger to friends and family.
Think about what's happening in your market now. What questions are prospects asking? Are more buyers insisting on properties with a certain feature? Which listing sold much more quickly than you expected it to? These and similar questions can help you create posts about current trends.
You can even use these to kick off interactions between you and your followers. For example, you can mention that more buyers want exterior lighting these days. Follow this by asking followers to weigh in on what makes this type of lighting so popular.
Don't overthink your initial ideas. You can record a voice memo to your phone, email ideas to yourself, or use Post-It notes. They'll keep until you have spare time to expand them.
Don't push yourself to complete a new post in one sitting. Some days will be busier than others, which means you need to use the time you have when you have it. Learn new social media creation habits, such as drafting outlines during a coffee break or asking an AI tool to help you brainstorm ideas.3
Homeowners Insurance Costs Keep Rising
The January wildfires that destroyed billions in California real estate made heartbreaking headlines, with over 16,000 homes destroyed. The fires also contributed to a 21% increase for California homeowners insurance premiums...and it's not the highest one.
Louisiana, which is prone to hurricanes, is expecting premiums to go up by 28%. Even non-coastal states like Iowa and Minnesota are looking at double-digit increases. (The state with the lowest pricing: Vermont, with an average $1,248 annual premium.)
While it's easy to assume that states with more risk to properties will have the most expensive premiums, pricing is based on other factors as well. Since insurance is regulated by its state, an insurer can't use a disaster in one state to justify a rate increase in another state. However, many companies try to balance their risk by aggressively seeking premium increases in some states, and by not renewing policies in others.
In conclusion, profitability predictions drive insurance premiums in addition to weather predictions.4
Negotiation Tips from Top Producers
With this in mind, here are some tips for improving your negotiating skills:
Ryan Serhant: We follow the 3 Ps: push, pull, and persist. We push information, data, proactive help, understanding and listening. We persist, relentless in our pursuit of getting to yes. And we will pull a deal away if needed, as the one with the power is the one who will walk away.
Josh Altman: Keep your emotions in check. Showing anger or frustration is a weakness, and if you can't present a poker face, negotiating bigger deals will be difficult. Not everyone in our business is as respectful as they should be. Remember this and keep your cool.
Bruce Ailion: My price strategy is to calculate the value of a property, and to use this as my starting point for negotiation instead of the asking price. Also, I advise my buyers to never make lowball offers as the seller may walk away. They'll do better offering a seller just below the stated price, as it's a positive beginning to negotiations.
Trevor James: If your seller has multiple offers, arrange a time to sit down with them so you can review each offer in person. If meeting face-to-face isn't possible, arrange a video meeting. Share your screen and walk your seller through the offers. It's much less confusing than emailing each offer to your client as it arrives, as reviewing them will be difficult and frustrating.5
Sources: 1nationalmortgageprofessional.com, 2redfin.com, 3buffer.com, 4cnbc.com, 5theclose.com
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