Housing Market's Silver Lining

[Aug 9, 2008.]

 

Generally speaking, the current financial situation is easily one of the worst to have ever hit the national housing market. With the bubble having completely burst last year, more and more homes have hit the market and values have rapidly depreciated, leading to the current downturn that is the lowest state of affairs that has happened in at least half a century.

Looking at the overall picture, it looks like the circumstances could still yet get worse if the economy stumbles into a total recession. However, real estate is not something you evaluate on a national basis but rather locally. One region could be suffering greatly while the other continues to stay stable or even prosper. In fact, according to reports issued by the NAR, or National Association of Realtors, the median prices for existing homes in over a third of the nation's metropolitan areas are actually at higher values than what they were around a year ago.

It is also important to keep in mind that during the housing boom, individual regions had their property values change at different rates and different times. San Diego and Las Vegas were some of the first places to see the value of their property skyrocket, while Boston saw positive gains that were comparable but not nearly as explosive. Other areas, such as Portland, Oregon, and Albuquerque had managed to catch on to the bubble at a much later period.

In that sense, just as cities have managed to see their values change at different rates when the market was booming, they will see different changes occur as the national market shows a generalized downturn. Richard Gaylord, president of the National Association of Realtors, believes that those aspects are why it is more important than ever to examine the changes on an individual basis, from city to city, rather than looking at the picture as a whole. That way, you'll be able to precisely evaluate the market and see that not everything is as bad as it is made out to be.