David Russell

After a typically slow winter season, the Rutherford County, NC real estate market looks poised to be a buyer's market for Summer 2008. With inventory of listed properties up 56% over the last 2 years while the number of closed transactions down 18% over the same time, this creates a divergence of supply and demand that will ulitimately manifest into a buyers' market. Although the lowering of interest rates over the last 6 mos. will likely buffer this divergence in possibly bumping the number of new homebuyers into the market, these buyers have a lot more in the way of choices. There simply are not enough buyers to equal the number of sellers. Median home prices have remained steady, at least and even have edged up slightly over the past 2 years. Unlike stocks and commodities, a real estate market tends to lag in manifesting the results of supply vs demand divergence - it's slow moving, but must react as any other market to the basic elements of economics. For every action, there must be a reaction, to put it scientifically. I believe the next 6-12 months we will see that reaction in our marketplace. List prices are most likely to begin softening, with more sellers offering incentives to get their properties sold and stand out to the fewer number of buyers.