National real estate bubble burst, What about locally?

The November consumer sentiment index from the University of Michigan was revised downward to 92.1 from an initial read of 92.3. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com thought it would rise to 93.

Today Michigan revised its consumer confidence number down and the general consensus among analysts is that it has everything to do with the sagging national real estate market. But like every other economic measure being blamed on slower home sales and falling prices, we have to take what they say with a grain of salt. Sometimes what the national pundits predict unfortunately has a self fulfilling prophecy aspect to it.

Locally the housing market is still good. Not as good for sellers as it was a year or two ago, but there are still ample buyers out there. Buyers, however, can afford to stay patient without fear that each subsequent home being sold will set a new high. Homes priced fairly and in good move-in condition are still being snapped up and in timely fashion as well.

A couple of weeks ago I had a client who had sincere interest in a property, unfortunately for her there was something in the disclosures that kept us from making the offer we wanted to, but regardless that townhome sold in two weeks with multiple offers for over asking and it could have been sold in one. They priced it at what a similar unit sold for in the Spring; and the unit was very clean and nicely staged.

So lesson to all sellers is to set a fair price (doesn't have to be low, but does have to be fair from the start) and to reasonably make it as turnkey as possible. And seek the opinion of a real estate professional, we have a better pulse of what's happening locally and take what the talking heads on television say with a grain of salt. This is not the type of market to be assuming to know what's best. There are win-win deals to be had out there for buyers and sellers a like. Best of luck in this Holiday season with your new home!

The Perfect Storm (Politically that is. . .)

This past Tuesday, Americans came out en mass and relayed a message to the government, "We want change!" It seemed as if everything that could have gone wrong for the Republicans did and vice versa for the Democrats. Unfortunately it's not so apparent what kind of change we are about to receive. Most who follow politics, even casually, can identify general differences between Democrats and Republicans, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish between many of today's candidates from either party.

New Democratic Congressmen like Heath Shuler (yes, the former Washington Redskins quarterback and hopefully he'll do better than in his last tenure in Washington) are social and fiscal conservatives, but also believe in a stronger welfare support system. And in the still hotly contested Virginia senate race between Republican incumbent George Allen and Senator Elect Democratic challenger James Webb, Webb actually used to be a Republican and served as the Secretary of Navy under President Reagan.

What does this all mean? It probably means that the doom and gloom theorists that say the business environment will change for the worse with Democrats in office are likely wrong. While the new members of Congress are unlikely to provide as many or any new tax benefits, they are similarly unlikely to roll the ones we have now back, choosing to instead to let them expire, that is if they are still in office. In regards to real estate, we do have to watch for some negative tax treatments, however, those are just as unlikely to be passed.

So what's the big deal about this new transition of power if it doesn't seem like things are going to change much? The big deal is that a vote swing like the one we saw in this Midterm election signifies that we, as citizens saw the country as being in a rut and when we see that, we demand and expect change and that's the way we vote. We punish the party in power and reward the one in the minority. This was done in 1994 with the Republican Contract with America and it happened in reverse this year.

So despite all the debate and conjecture, business is likely to continue as usual for most of us and in real estate, that's no different. Now that the political side show is over, let's get back to the real business at hand, of putting families in houses that they can call their homes.