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Home Value Fluctuations Are NOT the End of the World! |
When discussing today's real estate market, everybody seems to have a doom and gloom type attitude: home value prices have dropped, interest rates are rising, there's too many houses for sale and not enough buyers, etc. Real estate agents complain that they're not moving inventory and that it's impossible to make sales. Homeowners are upset that they have to lower their home value when listing and it takes forever and a day for the home to sell.
I personally say Boo hoo and deal with it. When did agents and homeowners alike start to think the market would stay the same forever? Now suddenly because there's more work to be done to get a fair home value for your property, many agents and homeowners alike believe the real estate industry is on a slippery slope downhill to a future of even larger inventory and lower home value.
Many veteran agents however, say that is not the case. Rory Wilfong, co-founder of GetMyHomesValue and a former award-winning agent himself says there's no way the market's dead - it's just slowed down. The early part of the 21st century saw a huge boom in the market - home value prices rising, buyers snatching up properties like hot cakes: you barely had to put a For Sale sign up before there was a buyer knocking on the door. THAT era of high home value and fast moving inventory was NOT the norm, but rather the extreme. Now the average home value is leveling out and people are a bit more settled so the market is actually returning to normal.
Some experts may be a bit TOO optimistic about the market - possibly sugar coating things just a bit. The National Association of Realtors' chief economist David Lereah even said, Despite all the doom and gloom stories and dire predictions over the last year, 2006 was the third-strongest year on record for existing home sales. The Marketbeat of The Wall Street Journal is a bit more realistic, finding that the number of home sales actually dropped a little over 8% from 2005 to 2006. The average home value is taking a bit longer to drop as sellers are slow to realize that as home sales drop, they need to be a bit more realistic about pricing their homes, no matter what their fair home value may be.
An issue of Forbes magazine checked out the median home value in the beginning of 2007. They found that the median home value in 2006 rose anywhere from 10-15% in Seattle, WA, El Paso, TX, Portland, OR and Baton Rouge, LA. It would appear that 2006 was the turning point of the boom and things are now leveling out somewhat. In 2007, home sales have dropped and so the average home value is slowly but surely responding accordingly as sellers realize it's a buyer's market.
If they want to sell their home, they better drop that home value, because for now in the market, the buyers hold the power. There's no telling when that may change, so buyers should enjoy their inventory of options and their ability to negotiate a home value they can afford. If ever there was a time to buy a new home, now is definitely it!
About AuthorFind out your own home value and other valuable homeowner information at GetMyHomesValue.com
Ashley Lichty is a webmaster and the resident SEO of Web Xtreme, Inc. She has a background in real estate and marketing with an emphasis in writing.
Source: ArticleTrader.com
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