Lonn, I'll be late for your party. Start without me. Thanks for the invite.

Lonn, I will jump on your band wagon if you add one more line:

Buyers will be moving to Kansas and using Mary Welch of Preferred Choice Realty to assist them in their next home purchase.

Otherwise, I will have to be yet another poop at your party. lol

Lonn, while I would like to share your hope, statisistics don't reflect it and the trend is not in place for any immediate improvement in the market; if anything, the real estate market will likely deteriorate a bit further before turning up in a year at best.

Can I get an AMEN????????????  

I hope all the CRAZY buyers that want everything for nothing go POOF too!

LOL @ Vicki

I don't foresee doom and gloom for buyers -- I don't even think that is desirable.

I foresee a more stabilized market where the power between seller and buyer is more equalized.

If stocks continue to do well, there will be fewer RE investors in the market.

Home prices will likely fall gradually in over-priced markets and rise gradually in higher demand markets.

The extremes on both ends - selling and buying - will likely be squeezed out of the market.

As always, though, some areas will do really well, some really bad, and most will just rock along with varying degrees of gradual zig-zags with a slight upward trend.

It will make the jobs of many RE agents more demanding, but, paradoxically, less stressful. Both sellers and buyers will still be looking for the best deals from those agents who can deliver, but the market craziness should be eliminated for a while.

Mike, speaking of bubbles, the stock market is surging like crazy and nothing I can see justifies the momentum. To me, it looks like 1987 all over again and I think we're in for a nasty downturn this fall in stocks. I've even seen a chart overlay of the time leading up to the '87 crash and the current market and they track very closely. Lest we forget, history is a great teacher.

As to real estate, you are absolutely correct regarding all markets being local. Charleston and Savannah both did very nicely the past 5 years but neither had the "craziness" of Florida, Vegas, Phoenix, etc. Charleston prices in single family are still slightly up year over year on both an average and median basis, condos and townhomes are taking the hit despite unit sales being off substantially in both and inventory at high levels.

HOWEVER - GUYS n GALS - WE MAKE OUR OWN PARTIES...  

So... Believe what you want - and that is what you'll get!

Or, as Henry Ford said... "Whether you think you can, or think you can't - You're Right!"

Well said Lonn.

I love the make your own party line. So tonight I'm going dancing - lol

Here in Southern Massachusetts, we still haven't hit bottom IMO. Too many foreclosures still coming down the pipeline from all the buyers that bought homes on ARM's and 80/20's to avoid PMI when the market was HOT.

If the ARM's get to their maturing point (past the introductory rate) and the value of the property isn't there, most homeowners don't have the finances to bail themselves out. And if they went the 80/20 route, then they kept refinancing the house out to the point of no return.

Like my mortgage broker says, it all comes down to the monthly payment and being financially sound in any real estate market.

Many of the homebuyers out there now or the last couple of years come from the 'I want it right now' generation. They all need to look at home ownership as a long term investment and learn to manage their finances accordingly.

But as we all know and have seen many times, they just want the end result, the keys to the home, and they don't want to hear about being financially sound.

The market here has way too many listings and atleast 8-9 months of inventory and climbing. Rates are going UP even though statistically they are still very low compared to the 13% rates that were the norm less than 20-25 years ago.

I think we're in this one for a couple of years in my area, IMO.

In Orange County CA I do not think that our Real Estate Market have hit the bottom yet, our sellers are just starting to realize the market trend and some still don't. Reasonably priced homes with willing to negotiate sellers, are still selling, others, are sitting on the market. Believe it or not its a buyer friendly market and it is here to stay for a while.  

Majority of today's buyers who are going to come up with 10-20% down payment and still be able to afford the payment on a median price home here are pretty sophisticated. Funny thing is that many real estate agents being in the market, seeing every thing are not willing to accept the truth, or it is plane old denial. How are they going to update their unreasonable seller about the change in the market? It is psychology, its affordability. One have to be upfront and honest about the market trend, of course, without having a crystal ball.

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