The Emperor's New Clothes

Many of you may recall the story of the Emperor's New Clothes where two smooth talking taylors sell the emperor a new suit, which is so fine it can only be seen by someone with exquisite taste.  Well I fear that the real estate bubble of 2008 was much like the Poor Emperor.  Real estate is like the weather, it's local.   You may have heard about it snowing in New Orleans, Miami, and Las Vegas all ready this winter, and just as the weather changes frequently so does real estate. 

There's no doubt we have experience a hiccup in our market with about a 10% drop in sales over the last year, but most of that was in this last quarter leading up to the elections and the Christmas season.  We had a 25% drop year to year in this last quarter, which accounts for much of our "bubble burst".  I've noticed since the new year 2009 has begun almost every agent in our office has been writing contracts and getting new listings.  I think what has happened is people know it is a good time to buy, (since we've been saying it for a year now), and investors were waiting for the holidays to finish before they made any purchases.

In this case the taylors could be replaced by much of the news reporting media that likes to have "experts" analyze and pontificate about what is happening in the economy.  Economists are very much like weatherman and accountants, two weatherman will never predict the weather the same and if you use two accountants one will tell say you owe money and the other you are owed.  So ignore the invisible clothing, which is the real estate bubble bursting and if you want to buy, interest rates are about the lowest they can get since the cost of money now for banks is between 0 and .25.  If you are selling, and your house is priced right, your house will likely sell quickly and could see multiple offers.  Which is why I am blogging next to the fax machine, waiting on an offer to come in any minute. 

Comments are appreciated and check back often for updates.