Just “Normal” or Better

So the “Down Market” is in the news again. I have to say, I haven’t seen much of a “slow down” myself. People are still buying homes & homes are still selling. It is just not that BOOM market that well all knew couldn’t last forever. We are in a normal market. Welcome to stabilizing home prices & better, tighter lending requirements.

The fed cut rates again by dropping it a quarter point. That is great news for the lenders who are in a bit of trouble. Some of this trouble comes from lending money to people with bad credit, no collateral, or no documentation! Some of the trouble comes from buyers who bit off more than they could chew because times were good. Some of the trouble came from borrowers refinancing the homes to “take out equity” in their home that really wasn’t there because the appraisers valued the home for more than it would have actually been sold for on the market! This creates bad, unsecured loans & when a person defaults, the lender has no choice but to take on the asset, which is not worth what is owed on the loan!  These things have been piling up for YEARS. They were bound to hit sometime.

They have hit… but we have only seen the beginning of this mess.

Secondly, we have an oversupply in Northwest Arkansas. This supply is drying up as builders cut back more than 56% this year on new home starts & we still have a net gain of over 1,000 people a month moving into our area!

So maybe the market isn’t a boom market, but in our area it is still better than “normal” market. I’ll be reporting some numbers in a few weeks! Check back soon!

If you have any questions about the value of your property, give me a call! I’d be happy to do a FREE, Property Value Report!

Talk to you soon!
Ray