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housing market?

When do you think the housing market will pick up or will get better? Is it getting worse and how long do you think it will last?

Public Comments

1. It's going to get worse before it will start to get better. What doesn't help the market also, is the raising gas prices. I think it will be another 5 or 6 years before it starts to turn around.
2. Right now is the time to buy. Take your time, find a deal that works for you, and then hold the property. Real estate generally doubles in value every ten years. We are at a low right now, so you might double your value even sooner than that. If you are buying now, because you want to flip a property and make more later, that is probably a bad idea unless you find a dilapidated property that you can quickly rehab and get a big return. You would have to buy something like this at about 30-40% below the market value of good condition homes in the same market. Good luck!
3. There are a few areas around the country where conditions are not being so adversely affected, but these pockets of more stable housing conditions are rare. Generally, the housing market on a nationwide basis is continuing to suffer. National data suggests the bottom has not yet been reached and there is still some more deterioration ahead, despite more than a year of steadily declining housing market conditions. Thus, at least for now, most data suggests the housing market remains in a downward trend and will likely do so for the remainder of this year. Typical housing market cycles are relatively long and often require 5 years or more. If the bottom is reached later this year or early in 2009, it may easily require two or three years for the market to recover to a more "normal" level. Data shows that the housing market peaked in 2005 and has been falling since, with the really serious decline happening largely during 2007 and still occuring this year. Given the long term required for housing cycles to go from peak to bottom and back to a stable level, the forecast by most knowledgable industry professionals and economists is for an improving market to begin sometime next year in 2009 but full recovery stretching out thereafter over one to three more years. This means conditions may not be "good" again until sometime in the period between 2010 and 2012. However, even in extremely poor markets, housing will be available to buy and sellers will be able to sell, although not as easily nor at the same prices as would occur in a better market. The important thing to realize is that housing markets may decline but they do not stop functioning. If you do not need to either buy or sell during this time, you should consider just "riding it out" and simply enjoy living in your current home. Over a longer period of time, housing has a decent record of appreciation so there may not be any reason to become excessively concerned about short term housing market cycles.
4. It's hard to say, so take everything with a grain of salt, because no one really knows, BUT - the good news is that home sales actually rose by 2.6% last month, the first increase in almost a year. So that's good! Here's a link to the yahoo.com news story where it mentions it ... the story's about Asian markets looking upbeat about a possibly improving American economy .. but it does mention the housing market increase a little more than halfway through.
5. The reason we such peaks and troughs in housing is because they are traded as commodities. They are not. They are places where people live. It is obscene to keep talking prices up when people are living on the streets or cannot afford their first home. They are over-priced by at least 40% now and will continue to fall for at least 5 years to allow wages to catch up. If first time buyers cannot enter the market, the whole chain will dry up and no one will be able to sell. Nothing has a value unless you have a buyer.