So, How’s The Real Estate Market You Ask?
Part 1 of a 5 post series
Let’s talk about that.
All of us read and hear about the global financial crisis and every day, the media is filled with what amounts to horror stories about the economy. Conventional wisdom says REALTORS®, Financial Planners and other advisors with a self-interest only preach the positive as though we live in some reality vacuum. Sometimes, I think that’s true. Sometimes it’s not.
I think we need to have a real dialogue about what is going on as people need to make decisions and certainly when it comes to real estate, they are decisions that involve our largest assets, the roofs over our heads and the places that we call home. Not something to be taken lightly. Hence, this is the first post of a five-part series. (I’ve warned you before that I have LOTS to say!)
Although our local Georgian Triangle market held it’s own in September, my sense is that the number of sales and average prices will be WAY down for October. It’s very quiet, few sales are reported and I see a lot of long faces in the real estate offices. This is not however, the least bit of a surprise. There is a GLOBAL financial crisis underway and although we know we are pretty special as Canadians here in South Georgian Bay, we are not immune to the world events around us.
I’ve ridden out several up and down cycles in my twenty year real estate career and in the 32 years that we’ve been home owners ourselves. What goes up must come down and what goes down, always goes up. This is a self-correcting economic system we live with and while it is painful at the time, some balance is not a bad thing. We’ve had a sustained run up in prices that have strained all normal boundaries of affordability and it’s time reality creeps back in. For now, the days of speculative profiteering in real estate are over. But, good or bad, they will be back. Oh yes, they’ll be back.
I have heard lots of people in the last few months talk about the fact that they would like to buy property but, they “think we’ll wait until spring/summer/next year to see what happens.” These people are all still buyers but they are looking for the bottom of the market and rightly so. Who want to buy high? Nobody that I know.
Economists world-wide are predicting recovery in late 2009 or at worst, 2010. If you read the any media slaughter story, these positives are even included somewhere in the last paragraph or two. Kind of like hidden fine print because they don’t sell papers. Did you know that resale sales units in the U.S. went up 5.5% last month – the highest surge since 2003?
There seems to be general agreement that Canada is in one of the strongest positions in the world and while sluggish, is still expecting growth over the next year. And then you know what will happen? At the first hints of a turn-around, people will know they missed the bottom and all that pent-up demand will flood back into the market in short order. Prices will start to climb again and regrettably for some, so will interest rates. And then everyone will start buying higher and paying more. It happens every time.
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When it’s time to buy or sell real estate in the Collingwood, Blue Mountain or Georgian Triangle area, contact Marg, an experienced and competent Broker who’s ready whenever you are!
