Some Positive Real Estate News

March 24, 2009
Matt Isleib

 

It has certainly been a rare event to say that there is positive news in the Real Estate world but yesterday was that day. The National Association of Realtors released the February existing home sales figures and bucking the steady downward trend that we have been in we saw an increase of 5.1 percent in February.

 

The news is something to pause and reflect on. I would not get overly exuberant on the report. It is a good sign that finally we are seeing buyers coming into the market. Home prices are cheap. I think the movement in sales figures has a lot to do with the fact that interest rates are low, as are home prices and you are getting a lot of buyers that for the past year have been on the fence. At my mortgage company Eversley Capital Mortgage LLC Norwalk, Ct I have seen a stream of first time buyers entering the market and looking to get pre-approved for their mortgage. The $8,000 tax credit, low rates and good deals out there are bringing out first time buyers.

 

While the existing sales figures are a good sign we still have hurdles to jump. The key to a somewhat stable housing market is jobs. The job market is the key, I have said it repeatedly. We still have a large foreclosure inventory of homes to work through. The current figure in the report of unsold homes suggests an almost 10 month supply of inventory and the job market is still retracting which in my opinion will not lead to a huge follow through in future months existing sale figures. I would anticipate that if the job market can stabilize somewhat by midsummer we could see a steady increase in existing sales figures to round out the year. Time will tell but in the meantime I will take some positive news.

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