Here in the Charlottesville, Virginia area we are starting to see a good response to the market.  More traffic through open houses, more buyers calling for showing, plus more contracts.  Whew....had me worried for a while.

However, a new problem is starting to present itself and I was wondering what the rest of the Active Rain community was seeing. 

Some of our agents are starting to see really low appraisals coming in.  Not close to the selling price, which we can handle, but way out of line $35,000 or more.  Of couse the agents go back to the market information and can't figure out where the appriasers are coming up with their price.  A few have even called and run into a wall.  Comments like "depressed neighborhood" or "depressed community" "to many houses on the market to support the sale price" have been used.

Are you running into this? If you are how are you responding?  How should we or can we use this information to help educate future seller when pricing?

 It looks like Bank of America is taking a different view of the economy.  I hope that more good news is forthcoming and this will brighten your day a little.  If you haven't seen the article I have supplied a link below.  This is good information that we should be sharing with our customers and clients.

 Bank of America Expects to Post Full-Year 2009 Profit (Update2)

 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=us&sid=aDwsP5FZWGXE

I don't know about the rest of Virginia, but the market here in Charlottesville seems to be picking up a little bit of steam.  The number of contracts coming into my office has shown a surprising increase in February and March is showing promise.

Buyers seem to be getting off of the fence with the low interest rates and more sellers pricing their homes properly.  In the Charlottesville, Virginia area now is the time for buyers to stop watching the national news and jump over that fence.  With interest rates in the 4% range they should take the plunge.

It is definitely a buyers market.

 

I just wanted see if anyone else read this article on Barrons.com.  The focal point was stated and I quote "This real-estate rout has been more painful than prior ones, but it may be shorter-lived.  Indeed, there are early signs of recovery."

If you haven't seen this article it might make you feel better if you took at look at the Barrons.com web site.  The entire article is over 6 pages and make a number of good observations.  It is the July 14th edition of their web newsletter.

Here are a few points that caught my attention.  "existing homes are showing tentative signs of increasing".......plunge in prices .....nearing an end" etc.

It also make comments concerning the market that the media has widely ignored.

Take a few minutes and look this article over and let me know what you think.

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