Have we reached bottom?

I attended the quarterly meeting of the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors in Harrisburg this week. One of the sessions was given by Lawrence Yun the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors and it was very interesting. Admittedly the situation right now is VERY fluid as each week seems to bring some news of another challenge to the economy and with the election ahead none of us truly know what lies ahead.

But Alan greenspan has said he believes that the bottom of the market will happen in early 2009, eight hundred economists have said they believe that the housing market will stabilise in mid-2009. Now recent events may push those forecasts back a little but how does that affect you in your market?

What came through very strongly is that all real estate is not just local, BUT very local. Just as the market can be different in Scranton to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, it is different between Devon and Media or Exton and Downingtown. It can even be different between developments in a township. So the market is very local and depends on a whole host of factors.

What are some of these factors? Well determing the market is a matter of looking at regional statistics and then narrowing them down. As you may know, an appraiser wants to use stats from the same development where possible and only if these are not available will they look outside to support a price. So we may look at township, then local area and then development to see what prices are doing to truly know what the market is for your home.

Another point to come out is that whilst Pennsylvania has weathered the real estate storm fairly well with stable prices, stable employment and even employment growth, it has not remained unaffected. We have seen this over the last few months with prices dropping, sales taking longer and buyers being affected in their ability to obtain mortgages. Now it still has not affected us as drastically as Nevada, Florida or California where prices had shot up dramtically in previous years so the rebound may not be as dramatic either. It is all about postioning your self and your property correctly to take advantage of the current situation.

So it is ot easy to answer the question without knowing some details about your location. For more information about your home and market feel free to contact us.