There Are Positive Trends In Current Real Estate News

Today’s real estate climate is most definitely a buyer’s market. Distressed homes, foreclosures and lower appraised values are just some of the challenges home owners who are currently selling may face. However, for buyers with the money to invest, homes can be purchased economically, refurbished, and either rented or resold, providing a substantial return on their financial investment.

The number of foreclosures and short sales, in fact, actually continued to drop slightly again in October. Other encouraging real estate news is that, when compared to this time last year, existing home sales have actually risen 13.5%. With this rise in existing home sales, the inventory of homes currently on the market has decreased. Currently at the present market sales pace there is an eight month supply of existing homes on the market, which is down several percentage points from just a few months ago. While house hunters continue to enjoy a buyer’s market, one of the biggest problems currently preventing the recovery of the national housing market is the unavailability of mortgages with which to purchase them.

Housing starts rose by 15% from August to September 2011. These starts are also up from September of last year (2010) by 10.2%. This improvement is stronger than market watchers expected. However, contract failures also rose in October. These failures include mortgage applications that were declined, preventing the sale from closing, as well as property appraisals coming in below the contracts’ agreed upon sales prices.

Sellers today have a lot of money on the line as well as emotional involvement in the marketing of their homes. Some sellers also face additional challenges, such as a distressed home approaching foreclosure or finding themselves upside down on their mortgage as home values have declined. Realtors must not add to their problems by attempting to list a distressed home for sale at an unrealistic price for the property’s condition and the local market’s sales prices and appraised values. This will create false expectations in the seller and only postpone the inevitable if the home cannot sell.

These sellers do not have the luxury of waiting for a better real estate market before listing their properties. Realtors can, however, work to sell the property to a savvy investor who can recycle the home into a clean, quality rental property or resell an improved property for a better price. Such a result is a winning situation for the buyer, seller and even the neighbors, who benefit from such a sale to help the local real estate values stabilize and even recover some.