Moving On

Many people have heard that the real estate market is "bad" and so they are sitting on the sidelines and waiting for it to get "better" or to "recover." The real estate market is not inherently good or bad right now, it is different. The dynamics of the market have changed and savvy buyers and sellers are not sitting on the sidelines. They are using readily available information to anticipate where prices are going and they are planning their buying and selling decisions accordingly.

If you want to move to a different place that will better meet your needs (bigger, smaller, new location, etc. ) you may regret waiting until things are "better." First of all it could be several years before prices are anywhere near the prices we saw just a few years ago. Do you really want to put off moving on with your life and being where you want to be? Some people think prices are going to go back to "normal" in a few months or maybe a year. I am afraid that is not going to be the case. In fact I believe that prices will continue to decline as we proceed further onto 2010. And the facts are clear - prices are still going down. Better to sell now than wait until prices go down more.

I have personal experience with this and I know first hand that getting on with your life is much more important than the money. We lived in the far western suburbs of Chicago for a while and came to the decision that we wanted to move back home to the North Shore (this was before I became a Realtor). We just weren't happy where we lived and our employment circumstances had changed so we had no real reason to stay there. While the entire economy wasn't in turmoil at that time, the local real estate market where we lived had excess supply of new homes on the market. Our home was only 5 years old and in terrific shape, but we couldn't compete with all of the new construction in the area. It took us a long time to finally agree with our real estate agent to lower our price, but I am so glad that we did! We lost money on the sale, we bought a smaller house on a smaller lot, but with the benefits of being closer to family and friends, better schools, and a community with a better fit for us made it all worthwhile. My only regret is that we didn't do it sooner. One key difference between my personal story and the current market is that if you sell in this market you also get to take advantage of great prices and low interest rates, no matter where you go. But beware, experts are predicting that interest rates ate going to begin going up. (in fact that is one of the reasons that prices are expected to continue to decline). Thanks for reading!

To find any properties for sale in the Chicago area go to: www.KarpRealEstate.com www.ForeclosuresOnTheNorthShore.com www.teardowns.com