EVERMAY ESTATE IN GEORGETOWN

3/03/2010

Several hopeful signs…and other interesting housing developments.

One of the first questions I am always asked when talking with people about real estate is, "Have we hit bottom?". I wish I knew the answer, but as I have said before, we won't know until we have left the bottom behind (no pun intended). But here are what some sources have to say about the current state of our market.

1. Investors are competing with first-time home buyers for entry level properties. This is one of the reasons the number of sales is holding steady or going up, while prices have not gone up. Many agents in our Georgetown office have experienced this first-hand when working with first-time buyers. The competition for these properties has been fierce with three and four competing offers on a given property. There is an interesting article at RealEstateEconomyWatch.com, Steve Cook, (2/26/10); and another at NAR.org.

2. Warren Buffett thinks the housing market will recover by 2011. Good article at Bloomberg.com, Andrew Frye, (03/01/10)

3. The Obama administration is apparently working on an idea which would prohibit lenders from foreclosing on a home under certain circumstances. See an article at DSNews.com, Carrie Bay, (02/26/2010)

4. The Lender Processing Services (LPS) organization doesn’t think the “recovery” has begun. By that I think they mean that we haven’t hit the bottom of the market. Another way to look at things is that working through the inventory of foreclosures and short sales is the first part of the recovery. The fact that there is a concerted, successful effort at solving the housing problems is a positive sign, especially when the opposite possibility would be throwing up our arms and letting everything go to the dogs. Read the article at DSNews.com, Carrie Bay, (02/25/2010)

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