Has real estate hit bottom?

This question is asked often. My best answer is I do not know. If I crystal ball I would be retired collecting mailbox money. It appears inventory is declining and and prices are slowing inching up. Is there ghost inventory, more short sales and foreclosures coming down the road. Yes for sure we'll continue to see more distressed properties over the next few years.

But you need to ask yourself this question. Am I buying a home or a home loan? Both would be the correct answer unless you are a cash buyer. So looking at the home loan rates are still at histiorical lows. Let's take a $500k home for example you are waiting for prices to drop say 10% or $50,000. But in the time it takes for the home to drop 10% the interest rates go up 1% This $450K home will actually cost you more than the $500K home with the increase in interest. Or it might just decrease your purchasing power. I had this experience in 2009 when rates bumped 1% in a day and them held there are a couple of months.

When is the best time to buy. NOW When is the best time to sell NOW. Because we have no idea what the future holds. If we did we would not be in the economic mess we are in now.

Real Estate from my view

This past year of 2010 was good for me and my clients. I was involved in 14 transactions. Representing buyers and sellers. I dealt with regular sales and purchases, selling a short sale, purchasing short sales and REO banked owned property. The transactions all had certain difficulties funding issues, logistics, delays, etc. One of the oddest was we closed escrow on a townhome (REO) and I went to get the keys from the lockbox to discover workers removing the sliding glass doors from the unit. After a few phone calls we found out the "asset manager" from the bank had unilaterally decided to have the doors replaced after about three weeks the correct new doors had been installed at no additional cost to my client. And the HOA was happy.

I'm asked a lot about the ability of a buyer to get a home loan. Well my answer to that is, money is available and rates are low. You need to do a little more than fog a mirror as in years past to qualify for a loan. But it's very possible to acquire a purchase money loan. I work with several mortgage brokers that can serve a wide variety of client needs.