I kind of butchered my blog approach here....let's see how about if actually state what is happening in the Spokane Market and what those expectations for 2009 may be...."Gee...DUH!"

Spokane Washington is a micro market and considered to be a mid sized metropolitan area and our industry is fueled by health-care, technology, bio tech, manufacturing, agriculture and tourism and other conservative efforts.

It is really rather interesting as we sit here in Spokane and take a look at what we are hearing about the market nationwide and we realize that we just do not fit into the mold. Albeit we are facing some recession related ramifications and there will always be the nay Sayer's and "Debbie Downers" that will always run around preaching "the sky is falling" but the reality is that in Spokane its not as grim as it appears nationally.

I of course wouldn't be ridiculous and say its perfectly fine and wonderful ......let's hold hands and sing its a "small world" No the Reality is this...we are seeing some blows in Real Estate, we felt it at the gas pump, we are definitely seeing it in the grocery stores, and retail is definitely taking a hit.

However the hit is minimal and its yes weakened our market....but we are still stronger than the national average. We continue to buck the trends and continue to receive such rankings from Forbes, Business Inc, and various other periodical princes that state commentary like "#22 in better economies" "best place to retire for keeping your wealth" "best place for young people" #4 in best place to do business"

Headlines aside, what am I seeing out there as a full time relocation Realtor? Well.... in migration is still happening, but at a slower rate, because we are very close to an air force base we are seeing in migration in that area due to all the base closures in surrounding states. I am seeing housing prices dropping or leveling out. The inventory is higher than usual but in the last couple of months we have still seen many sales. What is happening nationwide and even here is that good old Kharma is slapping us back into reality and saying..."stop the glut"

Back when we were happily enjoying the good times of ARMS and Zero Down Loans didn't we really know that these loans were made specific for a set type of lender and needed to be used wisely and determinately. I say, in our guts as a nation we knew this was not a good thing....yet we went on to keep doing it, now we are seeing the outcome of using our homes to refinance and gain cash...as if the house were an ATM.  All bad things must come to an end....The loans are not BAD it's the choices of the people who used them for all the wrong reasons that are bad. 

With this said, Spokane is healing...or putting itself to rights as the rest of the nation struggles to do. The good news is that we do not have as much "bed rest" as other areas!

There is always going to be a need for people to buy and sell homes, as long as we stick to good common sense and ethics and counsel our clients in the way they need to be counseled we can survive. The good news is...recessions do not last forever, they always end.

If you would like more specific information about the Spokane Economy feel free to email me anytime.

While we in spokane have not felt the full effect of what is going on nationally, we will eventually.  We typically as an outlying province follow national statistics with a 2 year delay.  We can expect to feel the recession's effects much more severely in the coming two years.  Of course these things hit the largest economies first.  California is in near bankruptcy, New York is not faring much better.  It's only a matter of time before it hits here.  There will be no return to the insane inflation we all became accustomed to.  The CRA is in tatters right now.  Lenders will not allow low income loans to go through as in the past.  This in itself will create a huge deflationary affect.  The homes that will go into foreclosure with the continuity in job loss will create short sales that will devalue homes through cma's as it has nationwide.  I honestly believe we will see another 40% loss in the value of homes before stabilization.  At which time I expect that we will go back to the normal inflation rate of about 4% annually.  I don't believe investors will touch real estate for a very long time after this disaster that has transgressed.  If you plan to sell your home sell it now while it is still somewhat valuable.