I don’t pay a lot of attention to the news anymore. Seems like when I do it is filled with one negative story after another with things I personally do not have any control over and if I really thought about them would keep me awake at night. This headline caught my eye though: The 10 Worst Real Estate Markets for 2009. I expect there is a lot of this type of news out there – it makes for good headlines but also makes consumers nervous or at least gives some buyers second thoughts. Sacramento was named 5th worst market in the country. In fact 8 out of the 10 markets were in California.
I know things are not bright for the housing market, especially for sellers who are trying to sell homes in markets flooded with short sales and foreclosed properties, but I really doubt that all of these are the 10 absolute worst housing markets in the country. I am not familiar with many of the housing markets in rest of the article but I can comfortably state that while prices have gone down in Sacramento housing market, there are still buyers out there – homes are selling. For many people the decline in housing prices have created an opportunity that they had lost out on when housing prices were increasing in the double digits range.
California has always been a land of opportunity – there is still job growth and more and more pressure to limit growth and sprawl, when the market turns again we will likely be looking at a pretty severe housing shortage. Is now the right time to buy? That is a question each buyer has to answer as inviduals but the fundamentals of the ecoconmy and housing market are relatively strong – if you are looking to buy a home to live in, the time may be right. The economists say you can not see the bottom of the market for six months after it has passed. Have we hit bottom? Maybe, maybe not – there are many factors that will play out as the new year begins but instead of thinking doom and gloom this can be a time of opportunity for buyers to get into a market that in some cases is down nearly 50% from the height in 2005.
My opinion of a bad market is when nothing sells – until we get to that point I just see opportunities.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Are you selling homes? That is all that matters. Keep your head up and move some folks. You will do fine.
I think we all need a different perspective. If you are a buyer, this is one of the best real estate markets in some time. Many of the buyers with cash have been waiting for opportunity. Just as the media helped drive much of the “irrational real estate exuberance” that caused prices to go way to high and way too much to be built, they will overhype it in the other direction now. I have always said if Time Magazine has a bull on the cover you better be short and if the bear is on the cover it is time to buy. I have no crystal ball, but this observation has held true in many different kinds of markets in the past.