Last week was a wild week...we had our Allen Tate Spring convention in Charlotte and I had our department head budget presentations for the Town of Kernersville...that didn't leave a tremendous amount of time to blog, however, it did give me lots of material.
I'll start with some of our presentation highlights from convention...great speakers, very helpful and time-appropriate topics. One of our speakers, Steve Harney, spent a great deal of time breaking down the current economic crisis and how it is shouldered on the backs of Realtors everywhere...basically if every Realtor (over 1 million strong) would sell one house tomorrow we would be out of the majority of this mess...the world economy isn't so great and it relies heavily on the United States economy...the US economy relies heavily on real estate and housing...and where my friends, does that end or begin, depending on how you are looking at it---it's the Realtor's responsibility to spread the word that NOW is the best time to buy since 1971 when this data started tracking regularly...Steve showed us numerous slides from various studies to prove his points...some of which are...
1-Even over the past ten years, though the economy has taken some tumbles...every major investment engine was down by double-digits...Dow, NASDAQ, S &P...but housing, was STILL up by over 60% even with the most recent depreciation.
2-Interest rates are low, prices are dropping but even if you are waiting for the "bottom" and no one knows where that is...your differential between payment and pricing (even if prices dropped 40%) would not change your payments by more than a few dollars per month...even if rates did go to 6 or 6.5+...I am waiting to see if I can post his charts so that you can have a visual...
3-North Carolina may just be "last to the party" to quote Harney...meaning that where other areas of the county seem to be straightening out, we are just now feeling some of the effects of job loss nationwide as folks come to NC looking for the jobs that we have been creating and thus pushing our unemployment up even higher...its not that we aren't creating jobs, its just that we have been inundated with new folks that are absorbing these jobs...and as unemployment rises, foreclosure rates usually follow...
This isn't being written to depress you into a further funk, but to help you to understand, especially if you are a seller, that we need to, as Harney said it "catch these prices from the bottom up"...that means that even though we saw tiny amounts of appreciation in the 1st and 2nd quarter of 08, we are now seeing 3-4% depreciation in NC and expected to see 14+% by year end...so the moral of this story is that aggressive pricing now may save you since prices are not expected to return to TODAY'S levels until Fall 2014 according to Case-Shillings....just by not realizing this...you lose close to $400 a week in VALUE (expenses not included) on a $240K house...
On a brighter note...activity with buyers is up...just on Friday during a one hour span I had over 15 showings scheduled for my listings and I showed property to buyers all day Saturday and am showing again this afternoon...That means folks are out there, but you have to be the best in condition, most aggressive in pricing and realistic when it comes to the market...Have a great day! Stay dry!
Brooke
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