2012 A New Year of Opportunities

2012 A New Year of Opportunites

First and foremost I want to take a moment to tell you all Happy New Year and may it truly be the best year of your life up to this point.  I also want to thank all those who have helped us make 2011 the best year Realty Five of Defiance has had.  We are so thankful for those of you who have supported us and have been our cheerleaders.  Without your enthusiastic support for us we could not have accomplished so much.  Thank you!!!

2011 saw many challenges in real estate.  The real estate market in the Defiance Ohio area did however, seem to make a slight turn from  the path it was taking in 2010 and the first part of 2011.  In 2010 the number of homes sold in the area designated by the Multiple Listing Service as areas Defiance, Ohio was 209 at an average sale price of $106,186.  In 2011, the number of homes sold was 218 at an average sale price of  $91,958.  That's a significant drop in average price but here is what that trend looked like from January 2010 to December 2011.

In January and February of 2010 the average home sale price was $149,000 but by the end of 2010 the average price had dropped to $96,556!  2011 continued the downward spiral as in January the price dropped to $92,666 then in February it hit what seemed like possibly the bottom of that slide as the price dropped to an average of $90,160.  March started a little bit of an upward tick as it reached $$93,477.  This trend continued until we reached a high for the year of $106,661 in July.  The price bounced a little for the rest of the year settling in at $92,847 a little higher than where it began.  The silver lining in this is that we've possibly leveled off our downward spiral in house prices and may have hit our bottom.   There's no guarantee that we have but this may be an indicator of that change.

That's where the opportunities of 2012 now become apparent.  If we have bottomed out on our home prices and if the trend is really a trend, then 2012 or 2012 could be the year(s) that we could begin seeing home prices once again begin to climb.  If that's so, then there would be no greater opportunity to purchase a home than in the next 12-24 months.  With interest rates still around the 4.0% range for a 30 year fixed rate and the prices at the lowest they've been in years, one could expect to potentially purchase a home and have it start to appreciate rather than depreciate in the next few years.  That's a trend that hasn't happened in several years. This change is also good news for current home owners as it potentially signals that their home values may have finally stopped going down.

What we don't know, however, is whether or not the prices will begin to climb or stabilize in the near future.  And, if it does, then how long of a period will that be?   With the looming elections, the ever-present fears of inflation, the global instability, and the stubbornness of our economy the real outcome will not be easy to predict.

What we do know is that 2011 is over, 2012 is upon us and the real estate market appears poised to be better than it was.  I truly hope so and hope that if you are someone who is looking out for the opportunities of 2012 when it comes to real estate that you will choose us to help you seize them.

May God bless you this year!  Thanks again for "choosing to give" by choosing Realty Five of Defiance!

Scott