Despite steady job creation, record stock market gains and faster economic improvement in recent months, new consumer findings from the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) surprisingly reveal that a smaller and smaller share of households think that it's a good time to buy or sell a home - an adjustment from most earlier rebounds. See them here
12 astounding real estate facts
Before we get too bent, let's move away from just data and remind ourselves that we had disasters in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and California. More than 1 million cars were lost. Car sales dipped, but I'm guessing that they will pick up. New construction is struggling as material costs are rising, and labor is harder and harder to replace. I know contractors who had to raise salaries by $8 a hour to keep their crews from being scalped. Ted Jone, national economist for Stewart Title, showed that 6 months after a disaster that home sales peaked 11%. Those homes have to be rebuilt or replaced. That means that labor will travel to disaster areas for the highest income, the greatest need.
Why isn't NAR telling us that? I remember that they sent out a report in 2007 that said that the recession we were experiencing would last 9 months and that we'd be back on track. That was like keeping banks out of real estate.
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