For the first time in a long time the real estate market is showing us more positive signals than negative. Nominal price drops in 883 core based statistical areas have finally stabilized, showing no declines in the past two months. This is significant because we must see a flattening out in the market before we can see a cyclical turnaround. We’ve also seen prices hit bottom in even the hardest hit markets in California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona. Therefore, prices are not likely to drop much further.
In its latest quarterly report, even the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has seen a similar bottoming out in prices. There are even signs of a turnaround in several key markets. Year over year, homes sales were up in 26% of all states and 35% of all Metropolitan Statistical Areas.
The biggest prices jumps were in Yakima, WA at 8.9%, Binghampton, NY at 8.7%, and Amarillo, TX at 7.2%. However, nationally the median sales price is still down by 7.6% from the second quarter of 2007 at $206,500. And new housing starts fell by 3% last month primarily due to unsold builder inventories.
All this has prompted larger investors to jump in and start buying packages of properties, sometimes 10 or more. So if you’ve been waiting on the sideline for the real estate bottom to arrive then your opportunity to start buying investment property may finally be here.
