So, here we are... real estate professionals, buyers and sellers and all the people maybe thinking about becoming a potential realtor, buyer or seller, and some of us, at least in my region, are sitting on our hands waiting for something to "happen" in the real estate market.
Now, I know most people are not ready or don't want to sell, buy and move. I am one of them now. But you just know there are people out there that are just waiting for "something" to happen... but what are people waiting for? Well, current sellers are waiting for someone to buy their home and potential sellers are waiting for the buyers to come around until it seems "safe to sell their home." Potential buyers are waiting for I don't know what. It seems like a vicious circle to me. Here is my mystery. I am a statistician by nature...I love looking at numbers and trends and I know that it may not be the only reason, but it seems that mortgage rates have hung us up...but they are still historically very, very low..(I looked at averages from 1963 to present day).
I personally, don't understand it...maybe I am not "seasoned" enough to understand the standstill in this area. As a buyer I don't remember what it is like to pay, what I consider HUGE interest rates of 10-15% for a mortgage like in the early to mid 1980's. But does anyone else remember those interest rates? Or how about the 7-8% in more recent history, in the mid 1990's?
The media...they like to brainwash us with their constant "hot topics" and flavor of the months. I get brainwashed with certain topics too...and it still doesn't stop me from reading the newpapers, or watching the news. "The Bubble Has Burst," "Real Estate taking a Down Turn," On and On and On. It has been a buildup for years on topics like, "Is the real estate bubble going to burst?" and "Will the bubble burst right after you buy?" I especially like what I saw on the internet today,"Real Estate Bubble Crash, The Real Estate Bubble is Bursting. Protect Yourself now while you can."
"Protect yourself now while you can"? It makes me feel like I need to take shelter in the basement, under the stairs, with rations of canned goods and bottled water. Scary stuff! But what the heck is really going to happen? The market is going to spiral downwards, hurting everyone's economy and in part because we didn't take what the media was saying with a grain of salt. There was some truth in what the media was saying, everything has it's ups and downs..but the market goes down, with interest rates at historic lows?
So we read these and of course, think "Oh no, I am not buying now, the Real Estate market is terrible." It's like the big Shark Attack scare in the media a while back, all of a sudden, we were hearing about Shark Attacks all the time...were the really more Shark Attacks?...No. The media just zero'd in on them, we haven't heard about them before much, because there was bigger news to be told. Or how about things such as Train accidents? All of a sudden, we (at least in my area) were hearing all about train accidents for a while....but train accidents have always been around, unfortunately, we just haven't heard about them.
Media Frenzy:Describing the behavior of the media when given a particularly item of news. The information content of the story is usually of secondary importance to the amount of publicity that it can generate, which of course leads to increased sales and profits for the media.
No whining here...after years of working in corporate America, I find that real estate satisfies both my requirements of hard work and enjoying what I do. I am okay with a roller coaster effect and don't expect everything to be roses or on the "high" all the time. I am ready to weather the storm, to do what I enjoy to do. What goes up, must come down...but I would urge buyers to really do some numbers, instead of just listening to the media.
Some people may think that the interest rates are at 10%, because they are not doing the research. I say this as someone who just sold and bought a house this year, not as a real estate professional. This is a good time to buy: there are HUGE, FABULOUS deals right now, with a HUGE inventory to choose from. Interest rates are still marvelous, and they aren't going to go down too much, if at all. Homes are priced a bit lower now, so even if you have to pay a half of percent higher on a mortgage, you are going to at least even out with a great deal. I see it as an all around WIN-WIN situation.
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