Some positive news for Realtors  and home buyes  in -08

 

 In spite of all the bad news reports as of late regarding the nations housing, there is plenty of good news, the most recent of which comes from NAR, the National Association Of Realtors.

 

 Laurence Yun, the chief economist for NAR, has plenty of good news for realtors. At last month’s conference. Yun attributed much of today’s sub prime mortgage problems to greed. Wall Street wanted the 10-12 percent return that traditional mortgage products yielded as opposed to the smaller returns from more traditional mortgage products. His take on the Wall Street types were that they gamble and lost.

 

 Yun’s outlook for 2008 sees a shift from greedy speculators to serious homeowners. 2008 will be a year of opportunity where there will be serious healthy business.. Furthermore, Yun predicted that the market returns to normal by 2009.

 

 Here are some key pieces of the report from Yun,

 

  1. New Housing stats: Even though these are dropping, there was too much building in recent years. The Market is simply adjusting to normal supply-and demand pressures.
  2. Foreclosures: According to Yin, the 41 percent increase in foreclosures has resulted primarily from investor-heavy real estate purchase in California, Florida and Nevada. The majority of these individuals are flippers whose investment did not payoff. More importantly, the number of foreclosures in Utah, New Mexico, North Carolina and South Carolina is actually declining.
  3. 3. Under-priced markets and superstar cities:  Although the coastal markets are still overpriced. Middle America is under priced
  4. The recovery has started: Other than the three  states hit heavily by job losses in the auto industry, (Indiana, Michigan and Ohio) the states that first experienced a downturn in the northeast are now in recovery, Specifically Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island were the fist to feel the slump and are now well into recovery. Furthermore , there appears to be a pent-up demand for first time buyer properties due to a large number of Gen  Y’s (born 1977 to 1994) that are now buying there first homes. Falling interest     rates will motivate many of these buyers to step into the market now.

 

  1. New Jobs and corporate profits are still strong: Corporate profits are still strong with companies as diverse as Microsoft and Jack Daniels reporting close to record profits. Furthermore, the economy has generated 4 million net new jobs and wages are rising.
  2. A weak dollar may harbinger more foreign investment s in U.S. real estate: Although the decline of the U.S. Dollar will end up costing us more when we go overseas or purchase imports, it has resulted in more manufacturing jobs returning to the U.S. It also may mean more foreign investment in the U.S. properties as well. Just a few years ago, the Canadian dollar was only worth 70 cents in U.S.  Currency. Today, the Canadian dollar has been hovering at about $1.05 to $1.10 U.S”.  What this means is that we can expect more Canadians and Europeans to be purchasing U.S. property, because our prices are approximately 50% cheaper that they were just three years ago.
  3. Real Estate: Still the best shelter: For those agents who represent reluctant first time buyers, Yun points to some interesting research from the Federal Reserve. Between 1995 and 2004, the average renter accumulated $4,000 in wealth. In contrast the average homeowner accumulated $184,000, Furthermore, the typical homeowner holds there property for 6 years. Within this period of time, NAR’s research shows that approximately 97 percent of the homeowners will have a positive equity   position after that period of time.

 

Bottom line is that 2008 represents the best window that buyers will have to find  excellent deals with excellent financing.

 

Good Luck

 

James Loftis P.A.,Realtor,Broker Associate,CRS,GRI,EPro

http://www.RealEstate911.com