Nancy Deichman, CDPE

We all know where we are today in terms of equity losses and real estate values being in the tank. Each state has it's own issues and every county is a micro economy with its own economic situation. As the saying goes, its a local business.

Although we will all recover eventually, some are recovering and growing now. Others, due to natural and other resources will recover quicker and some will lag behind for quite some time. We will recover as a nation, and hopefully we will emerge stronger and with a cleaner environment for our children. Below are a couple of really BIG reasons we will recover.

1. POPULATION INCREASE The US Census Bureau predicts that the population increases about 10% every 10 years. So if we have a little over 300.000,000 million now, we will have a little over 330.000.000 in 10 years. Add in immigration and we will have more. Those people will need homes. Isn't life expectancy also increasing? So won't people be living longer, healthier and more active lives? Won't they want to continue to live on their own, probably in Adult communities where they play like children again?

2. CLEAN ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY MANUFACTURING There is so much happening here it hard to keep up, but as an example, two clean energy manufacturers are spending over 1 billion dollars each now to build manufacturing plants in Tennessee for creating solar products to employ 4000 people each. Hello, job creation that we didn't have before. Maybe one reason that solar has been expensive in the past will now change due to the supply of polycrystalline silicon, a much needed product for solar energy. Congrats to Tennessee! They attracted the German manufacturer with low utilities from the Tennessee Valley Authority, and maybe their Southern Hospitality too. If other states want to attract this type of manufacturing, they need to go back to the drawing board. It's out there and they are going to go somewhere in the US. We have a great natural resource for this energy all across the southern US.

3. HEALTH CARE and I do mean Health Care, not sickness care. Our generation has the potential to become healthier than any other generation before us, and that will create jobs. The need will be fed from our population increase, and from better products.

4. HOME GROWN NUTRITION Many are now buying only locally grown or at least US grown foods, especially with all the knowledge of products from other countries not being regulated. Organic ia even better, but still expensive. Hopefully this will change with larger availability and demand. As a nation, we spend less on our food than other nations, and while it is affordable, we are now seeing that more affordable is not cheaper in the long run. More on this topic at another time. But jobs here.

5. Construction will be needed again. Construction of new homes. Otherwise, the hedge fund investors wouldn't be buying developed lots now at bargain prices. Yes, they are now buying. They are also already making deals with large builders to sell them to for future building, at least the ones that stashed some cash. The new construction will need new building materials and the cycle will begin again. This time it will happen with better materials, and a new type of home product will be created. A more sustainable home, probably a bit smaller, but with great technology. Many of the older homes will be retrofitted with clean energy products, manufacturing in the United States.

In conclusion, we will probably not have the rapid appreciation that we saw due to the insanity of the complex and bad sense mortgage products that were fueling the speculative building market that occured in the first decade of our new century, but we will see housing stabilize and eventually we will see the unemployed go back to work. And this writer thinks we will have a better world along with it. I don't think we should settle for less.

The latest sales activity shows that although the Ocala real estate activity has increased substantially since the same time in 2008, the prices of homes selling is down and not surprisingly, the number of foreclosures selling has drastically increased.

In through October of 2008, the number of homes sold is 2279. The number of homes sold through October of 2009 is 2739, an increase of 460 homes sold. However, last year only 661 of the homes sold in the Ocala/Marion County MLS system were under $100,000. This year, the number of homes sold under $100,000 increased to 1313 homes. That's an increase of almost 100% in the number of homes sold below $100,000.

The first time buyer activity and the $8000 first time buyer home credit is partially responsible, but another reason is the increase in the number of foreclosures sold this year vs. last year.

Last year, only 239 of the homes sold through the first 10 months were either bank owned or corporate owned, slightly over 10% of the overall number. This year, the foreclosure or bank owned homes sold number increased to 678 homes sold and closed so far this year in Ocala/Marion County. The statistics show that the number of foreclosures sold has increased to almost 25% of the sold activity.

These statistics do not show the other distressed properties sold known as short sales, or pre foreclosures. The number of distressed properties selling is definitely increasing in the Ocala real estate market, which is a surprise to almost no one who lives here. We all watched the Ocala real estate boom take place with all the new homes getting built on scattered lots all over Marion County.

We just didn't know that it would end so abruptly. We do still have many homes selling that are not short sales and foreclosures, they just have the competition in pricing to contend with on the bank owned homes in order to get their properties sold.

If you would like to receive a list of the new foreclosures each morning by email, just contact me at www.findocalahomes.com and I will be happy to put you on our automatic email list.

If you would like to find out what your home is worth in today's market, just call me at 352-351-5429 or on my cell at 352-427-5704.

If you need help with getting your home sold and you think you owe more than it worth in today's real estate market, just contact me or go to www.stopocalaforeclosures.com There is a wealth of information there to help you decide which road to take and a glossary of terms and definitions to assist you in understanding your options.

We are here to help.

Do you think we're finally going to make it now?

Or should we be continuing to follow the dow?

Are the housing prices going to still be low?

Or can we start making some real dough?

Who's going to be telling us what to do?

Is it still going to be like living in a zoo?

Or will we be living in more of a jungle?

Will our short sales begin to no longer bungle?

Will our new careers be selling cars?

Or will we be investing in those little gold bars?

Will we let the economy keep us in really bad moods?

Or will we begin to improve our attitudes?

What are Timothy, Ben and Hank going to play with next year?

Will they lower the mortgage interest rates, and make us cheer?

Can Barack do anthing about the problems with banks?

Will there be lower numbers in the unemployment ranks?

Will the homebuyer tax credit get increased and extended?

Will that be enough to get the housing market mended?

Would someone in Washington please get it right?

Haven't the Realtors put up enough of a fight?

Could you please not make credit even harder to get?

If you think that will help, would you like to bet?

Could we please all say together that we have had enough?

Do they think we liked seeing our country's wealth go in a puff?

What will they do if we are flat on our backs?

Who do they think pays the income tax?

Do they not know that housing makes the economy drive?

How can we put people back to work and to thrive?

What can we do to make the recovery happen?

Can we get rid of the foreclosures and start our market tapping?

Can we short sale distressed homes and bring sellers some glee?

Would there then be no more foreclosures for the world to see?

Could the builders start building new homes again?

Wouldn't we all call that a real "win win"?

Let's start the suggestion that this can done.

And before you know it the healing will have begun!

It could be possible that things are starting to change for the better in short sales and modifications for distressed homeonwers. Yesterday I received a couple of phone calls that indicated promise on the horizon for borrowers from Bank of America.

The first call was from a past client that lives in California and has an investment property in Ocala, FLorida. He had his home on the market as a short sale, but Bank of America just offered him a modification that cut his payment in half. PERMANTLY. His rental home in Ocala now positve cash flows and it is one less property listed in an oversupplied market. His credit doesn't get dinged and the tenant doesn't have to worry about having to move.

The second call was from a representative from Bank of America stating that they will now be using REOtrans for their short sale processing. They have been familiar to me as a third party company for bank owned properties and now they are going to handle Bank of America short sales. I was not clear if this was all the short sales through Bank of AMerica or just some of them.

It has been tough, if not impossible with Bank of America since they absorbed all the Countrywide loans on getting short sales approved, so maybe this will be the solution we've all been waiting for. They already seem to be more efficient with the strategy that we communicate by email and we can check the progress along with the seller at any tiime by logging in.

As a Short sale Specialist in Ocala, having dealt with Bank Of America before and after the Countrywide absorption, it must have been like a tsunami for the mitigators at that bank. If Reotrans can solve this problem, it's really going to make a huge dent in the real estate market in Ocala, and probably around the country.

Some short sale specialists had already stopped representing sellers that had Bank of America or former Countrywide borrowers because of the lack of response. My suggestion today is if a borrower has been turned down for a modification, reapply today. You may get a diffierent answer from your lender because of improvements in their system.

If you or your Realtor gave up on a short sale, try again. Be sure and use a Realtor with a proven track record on getting short sales approved and closed. Here in Ocala, we still have many misconceptions out floating around. You wouldn't believe the stories I hear from other agents and sellers that were given bad information.

One cliche' that sticks with me in the short sale specialist industry. "The only thing constant is change." ( I hope I said that right.)

Hava a great day and Happy Short Selling!!

The local investors in our area are once again pooling their money with LLC's and buying up homes for cash. I was beginning to think nobody had any money, but I was wrong. Now that the prices have gotten so low that a buyer can get a good cash on cash return for a rental property, we are writing contracts without showings for cash with a 10 day due diligence period. It's a beautiful thing to help clean up the mess.

I think it will still a while before the builders start building again here in Ocala, but I am also seeing lot sales pick up (at discounted prices of course.) It's a lot of fun to have this much action all of a sudden.

If we can get the residential builders back in business, we can turn a very important corner for our local economy.

I had just written a post over the weekend that the owner occupant calls seem to be slowing down. You just can't second guess this crazy business. I guess that's what keeps it interesting. Every day is a new day.

Today I love real estate! Lots of luck and best withes to everyone in the real estate business. I hope you have a record week!