Real Estate Market Conditions Are Cloudy With Patches of Clearing !

Real Estate Market Conditions Are Cloudy With Patches of Clearing !

Consumers ask " How's the real estate market"? and we run to our crystal balls only to find them mostly cloudy with slight patches of clearing. Sounds more like a weather report doesn't it? But it does show one thing in common with the weather. It's guaranteed to change but not necessarily be better than the day before.

The Case Schiller Index report came out a couple days ago for May. The index tracks 20 metropolitan areas around the country and the current report looks a lot like previous reports with some modest changes month over month but the year over year seems to trending along about the same, slightly down.

Working in the San Diego market, I usually check out San Diego's index but first having many ActiveRain friends in all the other areas, I also like to see how the their markets are doing.

San Diego's Index 154.75 ( ranked 4th out of the 20 markets ) showed May up 0.2% over April but down 5.1% Year Over Year.

These reports are usually looking at the market 45 to 60 days back but their consistent tracking does give a clear picture of what the real trend is. And while that report is really important we know that the current climate in our hyper local markets may be acting a bit differently.

In San Diego, for the first time in 2 years, our local economic index fell .02 % in June. Consumers ( both Buyers and Sellers) don't seem to be as enthusiastic about real estate. Buyers still want to buy homes although many don't know when to take the plunge with all the uncertainly in the overall economy. Sellers feel somewhat the same way. A few of my clients feel that it is best to make their change in residence now thinking the immediate future may be still uncertain and many others are holding back believing that the market will be better for them next year.

The good economic trends that San Diego has enjoyed over the last few years has hit a small bump in the road. Is it is a trend? Not yet, the experts contend. It takes several months to determine the trend but this recent bump seems to have caused a number of real estate consumers to want to pull over and wait it out.

So when a consumer ask's " How's the real estate market ?", it might be a good time to pause and turn the question back to them. "How do you perceive the current real estate market to be? "