How's The Market? Is It a Seller's or Buyer's Market?

     That question is asked many times a day to Realtors around the country.  Whether the market is good or bad depends on your point of view. For buyers this is a good time because prices have dropped in the last couple of years and mortgage interest rates are at historic lows.   Also, unfortunately, there are more bank owned and short sale properties out there that give a buyer a very good "deal" on a home but they usually need some kind of work.  If you are a seller, it is not that good in your eyes.  The value of your home has dropped and there is quite a bit of competition on the market.  Now depending on your area it could have dropped a lot or or just taken a relatively small drop in value.

     Well sellers, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.  It looks like the market is getting ready for a shift.  Interest rates are starting to rise which may be an indication that the economy is stabilizing again and the real estate market as well.  A recent news release stated that New York's market had double in the first quarter of 2010 over Q1 in 2009.  Could this be an indication of what is to come?  The answer is "YES" as the eastern United States seemed to get hit very hard during the housing crisis.  However, as this is good news for sellers, it is the opposite for buyers and investors.

     Generally speaking, Washington State did pretty well through this whole thing.  Don't get me wrong, we did and do have our share of foreclosures, short sales and other types of distressed property.  But all in all, we didn't have a huge value drop as those in Arizona, Florida, and some other states did.  But of course it is all relative I suppose and people will have differing views on this.

     Well I am here to give some news that I found to be pretty interesting that shows that Washington's housing market is bouncing back.  This article on CNNMoney.com titled "Real Estate 2010" shows the forecast and projections for the largest metro areas in the nation.  They initially break it down to the top 25 price drops and top 25 price gains.  Would you believe that Washington state had only one city on the whole list of cities in Washington that had a drop and that was Longview with a  1.1% drop.

     Washington had 11 cities ranked in this forecast and 8 of those were in the top 25 list of price gains.  YES you read it right 8 in the top 25.   The number one city was Santa Rosa, CA at 6% then Cheyenne, WY at 4.7% and coming in third is Kennewick, WA at 4.6%.

   The rest are Bremerton at #5, Tacoma at #6, Bellingham at #13, Spokane and Yakima at #14,   Olympia tied at #17, and Mount Vernon at #19.  The other two areas were Seattle at 0.6% and Wenatchee at 1.2%.

    Homeowners don't despair, it is turning around.  Buyers, hurry up before the rates go up, the tax credit is gone, and the market swings to a seller's market.