I’ve spent the last several months, probably like all of you have, recording all the business news on television, reading everything in print and on the web and have come to a conclusion: No one really knows what it is going to take to get us out of this economic mess. So I have decided to look at what I know best, which is real estate.
While I will not go cold turkey on the national newsfront, I will spend more time researching what drives our local real estate markets to determine where opportunity lies for our clients. There is a lot of press about the lack of consumer confidence but I believe the consumer is pretty smart and where real estate is concerned, they are brilliant! Where pricing and product meet consumer expectations, homes are selling, but it requires some in-depth research and knowledge about what constitues a good deal in today’s uncharted waters.
I spent most of Sunday afternoon researching all the markets where Dickson Realty sells homes and I came up with some interesting statistics. I looked at statistics from December of 2006 through December of 2008 and I realized even our local markets have to be broken down into more micro-market niches in order to determine where opportunities lie. When you really get into the details, it is not hard to determine which neighborhoods are getting close to the bottom and which still have a ways to go. For example, median prices have gone down from 12% to 76%, depending on which areas you are looking at and most neighborhoods have considerably less months of inventory on the market than in December 2006, but not all. I am happy to report there are areas that actually have more properties under contract and even more sold properties than in 2006. That is a fine way to start 2009, in my opinion.
In my next post, I will share with you some of the statistics I have come up with, but my purpose today is to suggest one thing: If you are in a position to purchase a home or even a second home, determine where you want to be and then contact any of the fine Realtors in our company that can give you enough statistics to make your head spin. I believe that is the way to find opportunity in today’s market because research proves we have not seen many of these prices since the late 90s and certainly the interest rate looks favorable. I was reading an article in “Home Improvement and Remodeling Magazine” and the author’s suggestion was to buy low and sell high. I agree 100% but remember, what constitutes buying low is all relative to what is really going on in the marketplace. So stay tuned, think about what you want to do in real estate, and if we can help – please call us.
