Most discretionary home buyers, looking to increase their residential real estate inventory, are trying to catch the bottom of the market. I get asked by buyers every week if I think the market is at the bottom. Before I give them my opinion, I make sure they know that they are talking to a broker who bought his last home at "the top" of the market, and is considerably upside down on it as we speak. That being said, if the buyer is still interested in my opinion, I share this with them.
To know if the market is at "the bottom", we must define what we mean by "the bottom." If the bottom is the low end of a graph of average sales prices plotted over time, we are not at the bottom yet. There will be more foreclosures, REOs and Short Sales, before less, and it is these sales that will continue to bring the averages down.
However, when is the last time you bought an average? You buy a home, not an average. There are homes now for sale that will never sell for a lower price. So, if you define the bottom in this way, get your check book out, for we are at the bottom.
We are seeing multiple-offer scenarios that we haven't seen in several years. Last week we were one of seven such offers on a home that saw the light of day for less than a week. It went for over the list price.
Another sign that the Florida Keys market is at the bottom is the re-emergence of the "professional" flipper. Buy the house, put a coat of paint on it, and sell it in less than six months for a significant gain. These are not occasional investors. These are people who do it for a living. They were the first to get out of the real estate market when they saw signs that many of us missed. They are now among the first to get back into it.
For a full report on the Upper Florida Keys real estate market, including charts and graphs of the "averages," visit The Market at http://www.glennhooverrealestate.com/.
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