Reflections of Days Gone By

I read an interesting comment by Jay Papasan, co-author of the book "Your First Home," who said "People can get a lot of what they need and almost all of what they want today" in their first purchase. I thought to myself that statement was clearly true of the San Mateo (CA) home re-sale market 6 months ago, but based upon recent spike in the number of multiple offers and overbids for homes listed for sale, the bottom of the market is a historical data point on the trend line. With the number of newly initiated single family home sales, also known as pending sales by the industry, exceeding the number of new listings for the past 2 months, the early indication of a market turn-about is clear.

Certainly in towns, such as, San Carlos, Belmont, Redwood City and San Mateo, California we had more well priced, highly desirable homes on the market 6 months ago than we do today. Oh yes, many homes are still well priced but the number of well priced, well maintained homes in superior locations and well performing school districts is declining. There is only one winner in a multiple offer scenario, the losers usually move on to buy another home. Funny how that works.

When you factor in author David Bach's that "the average homeowner is worth 35 times more than the average renter," isn't it about time to get off the side lines? No one can predict the low point in the market cycle until it passes. Waiting to buy may mean you'll get less home for more money as the months roll by.

We stand by our prediction that there will be many people in 2013 who lament that they didn't buy a home in 2009. We heard people in 1978 say they should have bought in 1974...we heard people in 1988 say they should have bought in 1982...we heard people say in 1999 say they should have bought in 1994...Oh well, you heard it before.

The United States, not withstanding all of our problems, is poised to grow and create wealth. We have more to unite us than divide us, and people are driven to have better, richer, fuller lives than their parents. Owning a home remains the number one financial goal of the general public.