The average purchase loan amount has reached a new record high: $402,200, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The higher-priced segment of the housing market continues to perform strongly, the MBA says.

Mortgage amounts have been climbing to new record highs since April 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mortgage applications for home purchases were up 17% last week over last year, the MBA reports.

Home buyers are borrowing more as home prices rise by double-digit percentages over the past year. Also, mortgage interest rates have been hovering near record lows. “Since interest rates are lower, monthly payments are lower—even with higher loan balances,” says The Ascent, a Motley Fool financial publication. “This makes it easier for would-be borrowers to get approved for bigger loans.”

Mortgage credit availability is increasing, although still down significantly compared to historical levels, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. “The growth in credit availability in January coincides with a housing market that is poised for a strong start to the year,” says Joel Kan, the MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “Improvements were driven by the conventional segment of the mortgage market, as lenders added ARM loans with lower credit score and higher LTV requirements. Despite ARM loans accounting for a very small share of loan applications in recent months, lenders are likely looking ahead to a strong homebuying season by expanding their product offerings.”

While credit availability has improved over three of the past four months, Kan still warns that credit supply is at its tightest level since 2014.

More buyers are eyeing a vacation home during the pandemic. Mortgage applications for second homes jumped 84% year over year in January. In September 2020, they surged by an even greater amount: 118% year over year.

“Although demand is down slightly from the fall peak, the fact that nearly twice as many second-home buyers submitted applications in January as the year before means the popularity of vacation towns is not a fad,” says Taylor Marr, an economist for real estate brokerage Redfin. “Many Americans have realized remote work is here to stay, allowing some fortunate people to work from a lakefront cabin or ski condo indefinitely.”

The annual rise in second-home applications is more than double the increase in applications for primary homes, according to an analysis of nationwide mortgage applications conducted by Redfin. In response, home prices in vacation hotspots are rising, with many seeing double-digit yearly growth. But inventory remains tight.

“There’s just as much desire for vacation homes as ever, but inventory is so low that fewer people are actually able to submit offers and apply for mortgages,” says Jaime Moore, a Redfin real estate pro in Las Vegas. “The market is still highly competitive, and almost all the buyers are people from the San Francisco area purchasing their second home. The only time I see a buyer looking to purchase a primary residence is when they already live here in a rental, and they’re looking for something more permanent.”

The home office has become an important space to stage, but certain memorabilia displayed could turn off some buyers who view the property in-person or online.

“For more buyers to see themselves in that office space, you’ll do well to take a lot of ‘you’ out of it first,” Chris Haro, a real estate professional in Hilton Head, S.C., told Apartment Therapy.

For example, real estate pros and stagers say college degrees and other homeowner achievements on display should be removed prior to listing the house on the market. This includes any regalia from your alma mater.

“Whether [buyers are] impressed or depressed or somewhere in between, these feelings will take a buyer’s focus away from the property or worse, turn them off of the property,” Haro told Apartment Therapy. “Maybe their son or daughter applied to that school but was rejected. Maybe they got accepted but didn’t graduate. Maybe they got accepted and still carry debt. Maybe they absolutely love your school or your course of study more than anything. It’s all a distraction from what we want them to be thinking about: Themselves in this property.”

Also, be sure to remove any political signs or religious items to avoid giving the house a feeling like your “domain” and not theirs, Amani McGregor, a real estate professional in Los Angeles, told Apartment Therapy.

Put away any work swag, too, like your company’s logo or any other confidential information that could be linked back to you.

Real estate pros also say it’s important to stage a home office for modern use, even if the seller doesn’t work from home. As remote work grows, more buyers are placing a home office high on their wish lists. For example, even the 2021 New American Home on display at this week’s virtual International Builders’ Show has a home office in what was slated as a spare bedroom due to the rise in demand.

Even if the seller’s home has no space for a home office, you can try staging the latest trend: The ‘Cloffice’: Is That a Closet or an Office?

As home prices rise by double-digit margins year over year, homeowners are increasingly viewing selling favorably. Consumers reported a significantly more positive view of homeselling conditions month over month in January, jumping 16 percentage points on net, according to Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index, based on a survey of 1,000 consumers.

“Overall, the index’s monthly increase was driven largely by a substantial jump in the share of consumers reporting that it’s a good time to sell a home, with many citing favorable mortgage rates, high home prices, and low housing inventory as their primary rationale,” says Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist. “Among owners and higher-income groups, however, the other five components of the index remained relatively flat or slightly negative, suggesting to us that some consumers are waiting to gauge the effectiveness of any new fiscal policies and vaccination distribution programs on both housing and the larger economy.”

Duncan notes that lower-income and renter groups were more optimistic in January across nearly all of the index’s components. “We will pay close attention to see if this newfound optimism develops into a trend, which could indicate either that some demographics who have been negatively impacted by the pandemic may be starting to feel the economic recovery or that this is a response to the additional stimulus enacted in December,” Duncan says.

More highlights from the January index reading:

• 52% of consumers say it’s a good time to buy a home, mostly unchanged from December 2020.
• 57% of consumers say it is a good time to sell a home, increasing from 50% the month prior.
• 41% of consumers believe home prices will go up over the next 12 months.
• 75% of consumers say they are not concerned about losing their job in the next 12 months, unchanged from December 2020.
• 21% of consumers say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago, while the percentage who say their household income is significantly lower decreased to 14%. Sixty-four percent of consumers say their household income is about the same.

Many brokerages are considering reopening workplaces to workers, clients, and the public as the COVID-19 vaccine brings hope against the pandemic. But with more than 1,500 workplace safety lawsuits related to coronavirus exposure since the start of the pandemic, a COVID-19 reentry plan is necessary to keep your workplace safe and reduce your brokerage’s risk of liability.

A new Window to the Law video, posted at nar.realtor, offers tips on creating an office reentry and vaccination plan.

Some states have enacted laws that grant businesses immunity from certain COVID-19-related workplace claims, such as in Kansas and North Carolina. But in those states, and even in states without an immunity law, a business should be sure to have a reentry plan that complies with federal, state, and local guidance and orders to help demonstrate that a business acted reasonably in reopening the office.

• Cleaning protocols in compliance with CDC guidance;
• Standards for social distancing by restricting the number of people allowed in the office, modifying workspaces, and limiting access to common areas;
• A requirement that all individuals entering the office wear a mask and submit to temperature checks;
• Workplace policies that incorporate COVID-19 safety protocols, including how to address reports of COVID-19 symptoms, diagnoses, and exposure in the workplace;
• Confirmation that COVID-19 policies and reentry plan comply with federal, state, and local laws and regulations and CDC guidance.

“Also, to avoid worker classification issues, be sure that a mandatory policy is consistently applied based on exposure risk rather than employment relationship,” Katie Garrity, associate counsel at NAR, says in the latest Window to the Law video. “You may want to consider other factors, such as employee hesitation regarding the vaccine, effect on employee morale, and how your business is prepared to respond when an employee refuses to receive the vaccination in determining whether the vaccination will be mandatory or strongly encouraged. Whether mandatory or voluntary, remember to clearly communicate the policy terms to the necessary individuals.”

Credit union membership and lending is growing as borrowers increasingly turn to them for mortgages. Between the end of 2019 and September 2020, credit union membership increased by 3.37 million, or 2.8%. Credit union membership now totals 125.11 million, CNBC reports. Further, loan portfolios at credit unions grew 6.6% over the last year, and these banks saw a nearly 5% boost in loans.

Affinity, a New Jersey-based credit union with 20 branches, reported record-high growth in mortgage originations in the last year. Low interest rates and a surge in home buying drove the uptick. But “we saw growth on the lending side and on the deposits side, which is counterintuitive amid the crisis and hardship,” Jacquelyn Kearns, chief brand officer at Affinity, told CNBC.

Credit unions are not-for-profit entities that tend to return earnings to members through lower loan rates than commercial banks. Borrowers also may seek more of a personal relationship with their lender, which credit unions promote.

Under times of economic uncertainty, credit unions tend to grow more popular. “During periods of risk and uncertainty, banks tend to pull back a lot more on lending and just get a lot more conservative,” Jordan van Rijn, senior economist for the Credit Union National Association, told CNBC. “But credit unions, as part of their mission, continue to serve the members.”

Despite the pandemic, credit union asset quality improved over the past year. The delinquency rate dropped to 0.54% in September, according to the Credit Union National Association.

Former urban dwellers who have fled to quieter, smaller towns during the pandemic may find resistance to their big-city lifestyles among their new neighbors. An estimated 5% of New York’s population—or more than 300,000 people—moved to the suburbs over the last year, according to U.S. Postal Service data.

Olga Avdaev, a resident of New York suburb Rockaway, N.J., told the New York Post about her new neighbors arriving from the Big Apple: “They seem to have a different life understanding: That living in New Jersey is just like living in the city—the constant noise, hosting friends until the wee hours of night. I used to live in the city. I know the mentality. But after living so long in the suburbs, you become neighborly. They are not there yet.”

Similar complaints are growing. Many new suburbanites may not be in tune with the slower, more neighborly vibe of suburban life, taking on noisy remodeling projects that irk their neighbors, letting their dogs relieve themselves on neighbors’ lawns, and hosting loud late-night parties—despite the health risks of doing so. Noise violations are becoming more common in suburban communities, and real estate pros are caught in the middle, having to set expectations that buyers from urban areas may not be used to.

“Whether it be construction early in the morning or late-night music—it’s just unacceptable,” Alison Bernstein, founder and president of The Suburban Jungle, a real estate advisory and tech firm, told the Post. “Understanding your family’s personality and planning accordingly will give you a greater shot at having successful relations with your neighbors. If you’re a family of six who likes to stay up late with two barking dogs, you may want to think about living where there is space and separation.”

But suburban residents can’t be too irritated with incoming ex-urbanites: They’re helping drive suburban home prices to new highs, which is good for current homeowners who may sell in the future. Suburban home prices in some locales in New Jersey and New York alone have jumped between 35% and 45% as a result of urban flight during the pandemic, according to realtor.com® data.