Unless you don't watch the news, read the paper, use the Internet or listen to the radio by now everyone has heard that our Country is in a recession and we have heard for over a year now about the housing crisis.
But wait here in our small city of Auburn New York there is hope. Nationwide homes depreciated in 2008 by 11%. That is huge. What that basically means is that many home owners have higher mortgages than what there home is actually worth. This causes a plethora of problems when it comes to resale. For those that can afford their mortgages they have the luxury of waiting this crisis out and hope that their homes value rises again. But this does pose a problem if you want to borrow against your home. For those that can not afford their mortgage due to adjusted interests rates, loss of jobs etc. its far more pressing. They will have a much harder time selling their home for the amount needed to payoff their mortgage.

Now here in Auburn we have seen some effects of this nationwide housing crisis. Sales in Cayuga county in 2008 were down 30% from 2007. But according to data gathered from First American Core Logic in 2008 Auburn's home appreciation was 6.51% in the positive not the negative!

The 11 cities with the highest home price appreciation in 2008 are:

Cedar Rapids, Iowa: 8.83 percent
Binghamton, N.Y.: 7.78 percent
Amsterdam, N.Y.: 7.89 percent
Malone, N.Y.: 7.60 percent
Bay City, Mich.: 6.87 percent
College Station-Bryan: 6.78 percent
Rocky Mount, N.C.: 6.69 percent
Auburn, N.Y.: 6.51 percent
Lebanon, Pa.: 6.41 percent
Elmira, N.Y.: 6.28 percent
Johnstown, Pa.: 6.20 percent

Binghamton, Amsterdam, Malone and Elmira New York also enjoyed Home Appreciations.

So what does this mean? Basically you can still sell your home and actually make a profit! You also still have Home Equity which means you still have the option to borrow from your home. If you are on the fence about selling your home this year because of the "bad" market jump off of it. We never experienced the huge real estate boom in Central New York BUT we aren't experiencing the huge Real Estate Crash either.
Interest rates for buyer's with good credit, who are able to afford a mortgage a great. Don't be afraid to sell and don't be afraid to buy.