Real Estate 101-LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!! You won't find many people that don't know those 3 key words when it comes to Real Estate and values.
So I must ask our National Media why in the world would you give a report covering over 3 million square miles of land???? If you drive across these beautiful United States, you would expect to drive over 3,400 miles. Is the National media saying that home values and sales are the same in San Diego, California as Richmond, Virginia or Detroit, Michigan or Austin, Texas?
Hello? Is the weather the same everyday in these cities as well? NO!!! It's not. I can drive 134 miles on a 110 degree day here in Fresno and be chilled by the cool breeze and 65 degree air of Cayucos on Central Coast.
And guess what else??? The median price of a home in Fresno is currently $163,000 while the median price in Cayucos is $630,000. Hmmmm, should I compare Fresno and Cayucos when talking about Real Estate? I think NOT!!!
I am appalled at the reports I heard this morning on the National Morning news shows. The sky is falling, the sky is falling, prices are falling, everything is bad!!! Well, that mindset is just great. It definitely helps for everyone to be told how awful everything is. It definitely helps increase consumer confidence. It definitely helps me when I am talking to local people and spewing off our facts and data that show our market is stable and has been for quite a while now. They look at me like I'm crazy, because John Doe just did a report on the news this morning and he says things are bleak. Really??? Well, I'm so glad John Doe is our local real estate expert, as well as a newscaster in New York.
Here are just a few facts about our local market:
- We hit our low in regards to median home prices in February of 2009, 19 months ago!!!
- During the worst part of our market we had huge supply of homes for sale, now it's only 3.4 months
- Our median price is up just over 20% percent from the low of $129,650 to $163,000
- Going back to Quarter 2 of 2007 to Quarter 2 of 2010, we are up 83% in number of unit sales.
- Q1 of 2009 had us at 71.5% of our sales being bank owned vs Q2 of 2010 of 39%.
- In the 4th Quarter of 2008 53.4% of new listings were bank owned vs 27.7% in 2nd Quarter of 2010
that's a fact. But guess what? That's old news here. We are recovering. We have hit the bottom and rose up a little from there. Yes, there are many people who are upside down in their homes. There are many people who have lost jobs or taken pay cuts. It is happening.
I have been doing a lot of reading, listening, and watching of how our powerful our mindset is and how positive thinking results in positive results. I am a strong believer in the self-fulfilling prophecy. If the mass public is hearing all of this negativity, they will stay on the sidelines and it will take longer for other areas to recover. Instead, let's turn the tables when we can, when there is a positive factor, get that word out, strengthen our belief in the "American Dream", let the first time home buyer believe it's possible and that when you think about it, it's never been a better time to buy real estate.
I do my research, I know our numbers, I am carefully watching the trends. Real estate is local. Always has been, always will be. Real estate is about location. Always has been, always will be. So, to all the National Media outlets: Stop generalizing about something that can't be generalized. Stop perpetuating the problem. Give people something good to talk about around the water cooler, help us resilient Americans recover from this recession by your positive messages, positive stories of overcoming adversity. We love those stories the most. We are very fortunate, we have a choice in this country.
Let's choose to believe that our present is getting better and that our future is bright!!!
All Real Estate data is derived from the Fresno Association Realtors and is deemed to be reliable, but not guaranteed.
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