Andy Predicted the Turnaround…Is it Here?

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I’ve been saying it for months…the market is NOT that bad AND it’s a great time to be buying property, both as investment AND to live in, and now it seems the market may be agreeing with me! 

The thing that was really starting to worry me was that our agents and mortgage professionals had begun to lose faith in our market, and that attitude comes through when they’re talking to clients.  That’s why I have spent so much time on this topic, to get you to change YOUR mindset so your clients can change theirs, so the market can get out of this panic mode and back to where it needs to be!

Well, this month we’ve gotten some good news, and I not only want to share it with you, but I would also like you to share it with YOUR clients, agents, co-workers, neighbors, friends, family, in fact, everyone you come within 5 feet of!  That will get the positive vibe out there and Real Estate will once again become the financial powerhouse that we all know it should be!

First, the Orlando Area MLS stats were just released, and there’s some good news there! Here’s a few things I noticed that I liked:

1. Our inventory has stayed pretty much constant since May of last year, only fluctuating a little bit.  As long as it’s not growing at astronimical rates like it was!

2. Interest rates are almost a whole 1% lower than they were in August of last year.  The lower the rate, the more affordable the homes will be for buyers.

3. Total contracts and New contracts jumped back up to levels we haven’t seen since last summer! (and summer is the hot buying season!) If you actually look at the bar graphs, December was the lowest point, and January and February are trending upwards quite nicely!  Keep it up!  By the way, these contracts translate into CLOSED sales in March and April.  Yayy!

4. Closed sales are back up a notch too!

Second, Tim was talking to an appraiser earlier this week and asked him what he’s seeing out there right now as far as appraisals and values.  His answer was that for the last few weeks, he’s seen the values going up on almost every appraisal that he’s worked on.  Double Yayyy!!!

Third, and I mentioned this one a few weeks back already… 14 Florida cities made the Miliken Institue’s 2007 List of Top Performing Cities.  Florida also boasted 7 cities in the top 30 nationwide, 3 in the top 10, and the #1 city on the list was Ocala!  This rates cities mainly on job, wage and salary, and tech growth.  Where there is job growth, there are housing needs.  We are in the housing business. 
BINGO!

Fourth, real estate is on SALE!  I don’t know about you, but I am a sale shopper.  I love buying the exact same thing as my neighbor but paying less for it.  Don’t you?  Right now, you and your clients can buy property at ridiculous low prices that WILL NOT be around much longer!  Not only that, but in many cases you can buy property right now as investment that actually will cash flow! (I know, do you believe it? We haven’t seen that in Florida for a long, long time!)

I could go on and on about why real estate is an awesome investment vehicle, industry, business, addiction, and much more, but why don’t you just go see for yourself.  Show some faith in your industry…go buy a house today!

See ‘ya next week!

Andy