I'm blessed with such wonderful clients. One lady always sends me the most interesting real estate headline news, and it's important to keep up with real estate in general. But the national news is such a huge lump, that it rarely accurately reflects what's happening locally here in San Diego.
We were the first in this mess, and we're the first ones out of it. Sales are increasing, prices are rising, and those who sat on the fence waiting waiting waiting for prices to go down are now faced with paying more monthly than they wanted to. The only thing that's saving them now are the lower interest rates--- the lowest in half a century!
But don't use rock bottom interest rates as an excuse for jumping back on the fence. For every 10% a price goes down, if the interest rates rise 1%, then you're right back where you started from in terms of payments.
So when you're doing your real estate research, look for 2 things: the specific neighborhood (every city has dozens of them), and price range. The whole mortgage and real estate meltdown was fueled by the fact that the entry level buyer dropped off the face of the earth. Either they were in financial distress, had lost their job, were self employed, underemployed, or no longer had the credit scores to obtain a loan.
Without entry level buyers, the owners of more affordable homes can't sell, therefore they can't move up to the next price range/larger home. And so the sluggishness creeps up the food chain of real estate. Now we're seeing an increase in foreclosures in the higher price ranges, either due to job loss, strategic defaults, or people abandoning their second/vacation homes.
We're all connected here, and activity (or lack thereof) in any segment of real estate affects the entire industry. So please, pay the most attention to the local real estate news in the area you'd like to live. Call me, and I'll get you updated right away!
First posted at www.barbfischer.com/blog
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