Jan 08 2008
Interesting Aspects of the 2008 Real Estate Market
As it turns out there is hope behind all the gray clouds created by the national media!Every now and again you have to wonder why a down market is considered bad. I talked with a friend who had the opportunity to pick the brain of a successful real estate investor. My friend told me the one gem that he gleaned from his conversation with the successful investor was that you always want ot have dry powder.
I’m not the avid hunter so forgive me if I expound on this here, but that is basically reinforcing the old adage, “buy low, sell high”. But a lot of investors tap out their funds when the market is hot and they see dollar signs. The successful investor has dry powder ready to pull the trigger when the market is down so that they are flush when the market returns. And the market always returns.
So if you’re thinking about investing, now is the time.
Check out the info below.
Excerpts: Positive Signs for the Real Estate Market
Buyers Waiting on the Sidelines Should Get in the Game
- Buyers wanting to hold properties for a long time could be well served
by starting to look at purchasing the property now. Over the long
term, home appreciation out paces savings from lower prices.- Despite the recent declines in some markets,
national home prices are up 80.5%
over the first quarter of 2001.- One reason potential buyers may want to act
quickly: Historically, when home prices fall, they don’t fall for long.- “If we go back to early 90’s when real estate prices were falling,
the reverse came extremely quickly and very unexpectedly.” There is
some indication that the down market period will be shorter than it was
in the 1990s.
The job market is actually still very healthy today and the unemployment
rate is low, contrasting with the rising jobless rate in the early 1990s.
When
the market reverses you may well end up missing the bargain you were holding
out for and wind up paying more than you would have if you had acted during
the down market.Excerpt from David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P Index Committee, “Good
Time to Look for a Second Home?” by Sheree R. Curry, TheStreet.com,
November 30, 2007.
- “A combination of lower prices, a large inventory and mortgage rates
well below 7 percent offer buyers a terrific opportunity to find the home
that they want AND make a good investment. Real estate should be considered
a a long-term investment.”- It really doesn’t matter if we’re
at the bottom of the market cycle yet. What matters is, can you find
what you want? If you wait till it’s a good
market and everyone’s buying, you won’t have as much choice or you’ll wind
up paying a lot more to get what you want since there will be others out
there going after the same properies.Excerpt from Jeffrey Otteau, a real estate appraiser from East Brunswick,
N.J., “Welcome
to the Buyers’ Waiting Game,” by Kathleen Lynn, The Record (N.J.), Dec.
2, 2007.
- “From the consumers’ standpoint, it’s the old adage: whatever you
are buying, buy low and sell high. The marketplace right now is saying
that prices are low, in some places, very low, so why would you not be buying?”- The thing
that keeps me awake is I believe that there is tremendous opportunity in
the current real estate marketplace… that I would just hate to have the
average individual miss an opportunity like this. I don’t think we’ll ever
see the
hot market
we saw a few years ago, but we’ll definitely see it bounce back, maybe even
shoot up, and people will see some appreciation on their properties.- Agents are looking
to entice people from as far away as New Zealand, Russian, and China into
buying homes in the United States. Europeans have a 45 percent discount
on U.S.
goods due to the strength of the euro against the dollar. Big exchange
rate premiums
that Canadians long paid just across the border were completely reversed
this year and the Canadian Dollar is equal or slightly more valuable than
the US Dollar. .- Century 21 in Orange County, Calif. had a recent referral
from China. A Texas agent is working with two different
clients from
the United Kingdom who want primary residences in a hot market in Texas. “The
strength of their home currency against the U.S. dollar is most likely making
their decision a little easier.”Excerpt from Tom Kunz, president and CEO, Century 21 Real Estate LLC, “Century
21 Seeks Overseas Buyers of U.S. Homes,” by Lynn Adler, Reuters,
Dec. 12, 2007.NAR says that the housing market is improving
- Job growth and the replacement of subprime lenders to borrowers with weak
credit with government-backed loans were cited as reasons for the improved
outlook. “Despite over-exaggerated negative coverage on the housing
conditions, many local markets are actually seeing price increases. Mortgage
availability is improving.”– Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors®, “Housing
Market is Stabilizing, Optimistic Realtors Say,” by Alan Zibel, USA Today,
Dec. 10, 2007.




