I'm one of those agents that does my 3 open houses no matter what, however even I will admit when it hit 115 degrees outside ,  I was the first Realtor to Head to the beach in California.  My logic was simple if it was so hot outside that you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, who in their right mind would be shopping for a new home?

 Now that its cooled off to a lovely 80 degrees, I realise now that every other Realtor in the Las Valley had the same thinking as me.  However I have also noticed that we are getting a lot more prospective clients walking through the doors today than we were during the entire summer.  But of the people that walk into my open house, most of them seem to have fallen into that black pit of "oh my will I ever get them financed"  It doesn't help that the mortgage companies have tightened their belts I understand it, but my last client with a credit scoreof 680 struggled to financing on her new home priced in the $450,000's and she was a doctor!

So my question is this, Are the mortgage companies to blame for the continuing down turn in the Las Vegas Valley housing market?  After all the FED did lower the rates by 1/2 % last month, however I have heard rumors that the fact that mortgage lenders are still not financing enough new loans that the FED is really having to think whether or not they will lower the rates even further at the next meeting at the end of this month.  The other side of the argument is that right now it's a buyers Market, that there's lots of choice out there, the sellers are giving closing costs and other incentives like no tomorrow, but are still sitting on the market for 152 days on average trying to sell their homes.

 Buyers market?

Some people are going to think I'm nuts when I say this, but I don't think this is a buyers market.  Simply put how can it be a buyers market, when Houses are sitting this long waiting for someone to buy them.  Why are so many potential buyers sitting on the sidelines waiting for the market to bottom out?  Prices, if anything are better than they were when we had the feeding frenzy buying back in 2004 to 2005, interest remains low. I also realise that Las Vegas is lighting the way in the country with the amount of foreclosures, following other a handful of other states such as California and Colorado, but surely distressed properties and foreclosures would be desirable to those savvy buyers and investors wanting to pick up a sweet deal?  Isn't that what a buyers market is?                                       

I've heard every excuse in the book from "oh the market is nervous because of all the foreclosures"....Really why?  If your buyers are paying their mortgage they have nothing to fear about foreclosures  To "the investors have all gone back to California"  hmm with 49 other states in the country did we only do business with the Californian investors??? To me these are just excuses, I do beleive now is a good time to buy the market have settled down from 2004-2005 prices are being set more realistically and sellers are more negotiable than ever.   But still we cannot entice these buyers in a so called buyers market to buy, it makes no sense? 

GLVAR released numbers today indicating overall sales were down in the valley as many Contingent sales could not close due to financing. Is that the only reason or are we scape goating the mortgage brokers because we as agents cannot convince our buyers that buying now still makes sense compared to renting?  So are we really in a buyers market?   No I don't believe we are.  People buy homes for security, a place to raise their families and sometimes for the tax perks, but not because we're in a buyers market! 

Personally I think this whole buyers Market myth makes about as much sense as the buyer who paid ten's of thousands above fair market value for a home back in 2004.  What was so special about 2004 that everyone had to buy them and not now?  I think the whole Buyers Market and Sellers market stuff is a way for the newspapers to sell more copies and get circulation up. So I for one, have made a vow not to utter those two words from my Mouth "buyers Market" has been vanquished from my vocabulary and if I'm asked if now's a good time to buy, my answer goes back to good old fashioned logic.  It's always a good time to buy depending on your circumstances.  After all as a Realtor isn't it your job to advise your client depending on their requirements and circumstances and not on whether or not the media has deemed it a Buyers Market?