That's a question that everyone is tossing around - trying to hold out buying until we "hit bottom" or not selling until the market turns around and price start to rise again. Who's kidding who?
Nobody can predict when the bottoming out will occur - we may be fairly close as some estimates say or it could be years out. But this is what I know: home values will probably not return to pre-2005 levels for a very long time. The rise was just too steep, too quick and too mismanaged to happen again soon.
For one thing, lending practices have adjusted to the new world order and loans just aren't that easy to get. We have a large inventory that will take more than a year to absorb and new homes keep coming on the market. And buyers are, well, acting like kids in a candy shop. How low will that beautiful colonial go, how low an offer can they put in, how many concessions can they get? According to Forbes.com, homes prices have droped 12.8% since the market peaked in 2005-06. In spite of that, buyers are still waiting, waiting, for more price reductions - and who can blame them.
I'm not a doomsayer - I'm just stating the facts. The phenomenal rise made people rich and helped fuel the economy. And because housing is integral to the US economy, the housing market will rebound and be strong again - just not like in the good old days.
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