Hi Al
Your local Rhode Island market ideal location between Boston and the Big Apple and points in between with passenger rail/Air and I-95 will survive rather well and should bounce back rather well.
As in Stamford Connecticut were I am from during, slow downs, remember the savings and loan fiasco and our government bailed out that mess (RTC) commercial mess, as they are NOW about to bail out another one to stabilize the market we are in now, my guess when the mess is cleaned up, we will get back to real basics of residential real estate putting money down! as it was back when....
Nothing will happen for the balance of 2008, we need to get past the elections talking heads and look ahead to Jan 20th to see who is up at the plate and it will be a full plate with real estate lagging behind Oil and other priorities.
The north east is a very redundant market and I think you will see improvement before many other areas of the country... location, location right.
Here is some real estate for you Al.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0kpjyAFoxk
This is a Vancepinion
I agree with Vance.
Being in your "neck of the woods" Al (I love Rhode Island. Long Live Buddy Cianci ;) , the Northeast has proximity to virtually everything. RI's TF Green is taking over as the preferred airport for southern New England (I won't fly out of Logan anymore), and the Southcoast of RI and MA are still desirable to many weekenders and extended vacationers. I focus on that market and it is picking up!
Foreclosures are not as common in the 2nd home market so I don't think we're seeing the adverse impact as more urban areas.
So keep the faith!
I see this market as getting worse not better until all the foreclosures have cleared the pipeline.
With energy prices rising, those that were teetering financially come this winter will be pushed over the edge.
Since I mainly work in Foreclosures Sales now, I'm very busy. The banks are pricing homes correctly IF you as the do your broker price opinion to the bank correctly. Too many agents listing REO properties in my area list way too high, then the properties sit for 6 months to a year and get vandalized. Then they are worth nothing.
Yes, we are in great location. But the market, in my opinion, is still dropping and will get worse.
We work in an area where there is a good mix of vacation homes, retirees and full time, working families. Foreclosures have driven prices WAY down. There are many agents crying over the water cooler these days. I think prices are not done going down but it's not a reason to cry. The good news is that the banks are finally pricing their listing very low so the homes are moving. People who never thought they could realize the dream of home ownership now can. It is going to take some time but I think this time next year, we'll see some move-up buyers as they'll finally get their homes sold. In the mean time, I focus on the first-time buyers and those looking for a retreat. So long as they don't have a home to sell, we're good to go. Pollock Pines is a great place to live and work as well as escape to and with these low prices, people are getting great deals.