Soggy Bottom News Update

Eleven months into what I call the Soggy Bottom there continue to be signs of recovery. Really there have been signs for more than 2 years that the turnaround was coming, but as Anirban Basu suggested last year, it will be a slow recovery looking more like a slow incoming tide than the record breaking rises that usually precipitate a real estate bust. My office manager shared with us today that, "According to Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors, the first half of 2012 is the best half year we have seen in five years. Although credit standards are still too strict, in Yun's opinion, there are plenty of buyers that are swooping in and taking advantage of the prime opportunity to buy while both interest rates and home prices are still low. Yun notes that that there has been an uptick in investor purchases, citing that 53% of Realtors own at least one investment property..... Yun says that the greatest opportunity in the coming months will come from the increased cost of rental housing which will cause more people to consider purchasing. As well, there is a pent up demand for home ownership caused by the three million immigrants that come to the United States each year. In the past few years, the immigration traffic has not created the usual one million household formations which suggests that many coming to this country have taken up residence with family until the housing market improves. Such is the case with many college students who, for the past five years, have elected to move back home rather than seek out their own households." As for me, I have been busier this year than I can remember in the past 10 and I also managed to get away for a week in July during which time I earned another designation from which I learned a little more about how to help sellers sell and buyers buy in the ever changing world of short sales. I still have time for you though, so give me a call or shoot me a text or email. Enjoy the last weeks of summer and best wishes, Linda