Where do you get your real estate news?

I read an article online at http://www.rismedia.com/ titled "Where the Truth about Today's Market Really Lies".  As you look at the title you might read the word "Lies" as where someone can really find the truth of the real estate market. But, as you read further on down in the article you find that the word "Lies" is in reality defined as untruths. This article was insightful to me as a REALTOR to see the impact of the media on the housing market. In this entry I wanted to ask a couple of questions and see just where all of you get your real estate news. I am hoping that I will receive more feedback from all of you and not just comments from my regulars.

My first question is simple. Where do you get your real estate news? I tend to go online to different sources from the national to local media to get me information. I also go to real estate sites to see how the state of California is doing as a whole. In the last couple of months I have seen a change in the news coming out of our local real estate sector. It has been on a more positive note. Pending homes were up in November and home prices were up slightly (.2%) from October to November. I personally have been seeing the hits to my website and calls to my office also increase, even though this is suppose to be the slow time of the year. I am also running across more and more motivated buyers who are looking for and, in turn getting good deals on homes.

Not everything is all rosy there are still a large amount of foreclosed and reposed homes on the market. But, in Riverside out of 134 homes sold in November 15 or 11% of the homes sold were repos. In Moreno Valley out of 78 homes sold 11 or 14.1% were reposed homes. With the changes in some of the legislation being passed we are going to see more home owners who are in trouble being able to short sale their home and have their taxes from that loss forgiven( see my last blog entry). This will dramatically reduce the amount of foreclosed homes.

In the above mentioned article I ran across this quote: "The printed word has a dramatic way of influencing people's perspectives," says Peltier, citing a Nov. 28 report on Bloomberg.com that existing home sales fell "to the lowest level in at least eight years as loan restrictions and the prospect of further price declines deters buyers."

"You keep reading that, if you're an intelligent buyer, that will cause you to sit on the sidelines," Peltier says. "If they said sales were slower than expected but the industry is still on track to the sixth best year ever, that's a way of not glossing over the slowdown but comparing it to the last six or seven years of a tremendously overheated marketplace."

How do you see the market at this time? This is the sixth best year ever. Is that bad news? As an agent I like to see the glass as half full. I am able to see changes in the market before the media reports on them. So my view is really one sided. That is why I would like some feed back from you. Do you believe this is a good market to buy in or not?

Any comments will help, I would love to share your views with all of my subscribers. As always I won't mention your name in my blog. So please respond to one or all of these questions by clicking on the "Contact Me" button and leaving your responses. Thanks for your time.

Sincerely Kevin Williamson local REALTOR http://www.williamsonteam.net/