An article from RealtyTimes.com reports that nobody is going to blow a whistle and say, “It’s time to buy!”, so it’s important to pay attention to these signs in your marketplace.  One important sign to notice is when inventories start to decline.  This usually means that the best buys are leaving the market, and best doesn’t necessarily mean cheap.  Another sign is when mortgage applications increase, particularly purchase applications.  This means homes are about to leave the market, so less inventory means firmer prices and sellers will stop dropping their prices.  And finally, pay attention to the reduction in days on the market.  When DOMs are shorter, that could be a sign that a seller’s market is coming.  

Stop paying attention to the national media.  Fear has sidelined buyers even in good markets, and that’s exactly when you need to take advantage — before other buyers wise up.

Second, be ready to pounce when you see the home you want.  Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.  If you are in the market for a new home, now is the time.  Mortgage Rates have dropped and there are lots of homes to choose from.  Waiting for the market to “bottom out” could mean that you miss the opportunity to buy a great home, at a great price, with a great interest rate.

Some homebuyers have asked me how they can be sure if the values have dropped as much as they are going to.  Well, no one has a crystal ball.  Just as no one expected the boom we had in real estate here in the valley a few years ago, and no one expected just how far the values would drop, no one can be 100% certain that they have fallen all they will fall.  But buyers need to look at the overall picture.  If the mortgage rates are good, there are a lot of homes to choose from, and sellers are dealing, then NOW IS THE TIME!  You just might find the home of your dreams!

Give me a call.  Let’s talk.

Home prices will stop falling. New- and used-home sales will pick back up. And the subprime-lending debacle will be over but not forgotten.

But it could take a few years for that to happen in metro Phoenix. The prognosis for the housing market’s recovery came Wednesday at the Urban Land Institute Arizona’s Real Estate Trends conference. The real-estate think tank’s annual daylong gathering is one of the state’s biggest and most influential real-estate events. There, top economists, analysts, developers, brokers and investors present candid market predictions.

“The bottom of the housing market may occur in 2008 or 2009, but a full recovery will probably take three to five years,” said Elliott Pollack, an Arizona economist and real-estate investor. “This slowdown ends when housing prices stabilize, and they will. Unfortunately, the worst is still ahead of us.”Because of foreclosures, metro Phoenix home prices could fall 30 to 35 percent from 2006’s peak and values won’t likely return to that high before 2015, said Gadi Kaufmann of the national real-estate advisory firm Robert Charles Lesser & Co.

“Many of us thought last year would be the worst for the housing market, but 2007 was just the beginning, due largely to the credit crunch,” said John Chadwick, president of builder Pulte’s Southwest operations. “But the long-term fundamentals are still good for Phoenix. This is still an affordable region for the West.”

How many more houses go into foreclosure this year, how those add to the market’s oversupply of homes for sale and whether people who lose homes stay in the Valley all play a big part in when the market hits bottom.

“It’s going to be ugly, ugly, ugly this year,” Pollack said. “But in five years, this will all be a bad memory.”

Read the entire article:  AZCentral.com