No Surprise Here, Pleasant or Otherwise
Home Sales Plunge 8% (Yahoo! Finance News Article in Adobe .pdf format)
We all know it’s a tough market to sell a home, so this news doesn’t come as a surprise. For sellers, this is the worst market in 16 years… and this article from Yahoo! Finance points this out: “more problems to a housing industry in its worst slump in 16 years.”
While I realize this sells a lot more newspapers than if you tout that this is the best market for buyers in 16 years, I don’t think it’s fair to paint the real estate market as something people should go running away from as fast as possible. That 8% decrease in sales means that people who are currently renting and can afford to purchase a home have more buying power now than they’ve had at any time in the past 16 years.
To further the point, those that can’t afford to purchase and those being foreclosed on and can’t afford to stay in their homes are driving up monthly rent prices in many areas of the country (yet another excellent buying opportunity for real estate investors/landlords - falling prices and increasing rental income).
I guess what it comes down to is this: if your area of the country is anything like the national average or trend of falling prices and increased buying power, anyone that is 34 years old or younger has the best buying opportunity in their lifetime (since turning 18 and becoming legally able to purchase real property).
So this news, while it’s not a surprise and it is not a good sign for sellers, is actually a good thing for buyers. It would be nice to hear the news tout the pleasant news for buyers rather than continue to bad mouth the industry. The media is essentially representing the seller-side in its reporting.
As always, I welcome your comments and feedback…