A Different Week, The Same Story

Reports yesterday stated that existing home sales in June fell for the fourth consecutive month while the median home price increased slightly with all sections of the country showing weakness. Haven't we heard this before?

The rate dropped almost 4% to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.75 million homes annually. The big point that is being made is that it's the lowest in 4 and a half years; but may I remind us all of where we were four and a half years ago and what's transpired in those years? We were in year two or three of the strongest run up in real estate value we've ever witnessed and we set subsequent historic highs for home sales year after year. While we will likely end the year down from last year, we should keep in perspective that we'll still have one of the best years ever historically in terms of number of homes sold and median home price.

Of course I'm not naive enough to believe everything is hunky dory in my industry, but I do know enough to advise to not panic. Leave that to the journalists who are great at reporting the news, but not always so great at understanding or explaning what the news actually means for the rest of us.

Keep in mind that national numbers are just that, they try to explain the entire industry by putting a few numbers that are supposed to span the entire nation. But the reality is that some areas are getting hit much harder than others and I'm not just talking about regionally. Look locally and even if you don't follow this everyday like I do, I'm almost positive you can all identify some cities in your area or even neighborhoods within cities that are doing much better and of course some much worse than others.

Take the reports with a grain of salt and don't rush into anything. Know what your area is doing and make your decisions from there. You've got time, some economists say that the housing industry won't rebound until late 2008, so according to them you've got plenty of time. But you know better than them don't you? They don't live in your area, you do. You know what makes sense and what doesn't. Decide for yourself, don't let them decide for you. Find a local Realtor you feel like you can trust, interview a bunch, once you've established who of those have the necessary skill, go with the one you feel most comfortable with. Trust goes a long way and it will help ease your apprehensions about the entire process, especially in the face of the same story we're being fed every week.