Good News for Dublin Ranch Neighbors and Friends!

Amidst a firestorm of bad news surrounding the economy, the stimulus package, and the housing market there was, last week, a glimmer of hope for our Dublin Ranch neighbors and friends who are owners of Dublin Ranch homes.  Are you as shocked as we were?

You would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at some of the holiday parties I attended last year. Obviously, one of the first questions anyone has after “What is your name?” and “How do you know (insert the name of the party’s host here)?” is the question that, for me, causes some immediate interesting responses: “So, what do you do?”

The answer is always the same: “I’m in real estate sales and marketing.” These days, their reaction is usually similar, “REALLY… So how is that going?”

Most people feel they are well-informed on what’s going on in the market, and the tone in their reaction that sounds like I just told them I have a week to live before I die a slow, painful death indicates they are getting their information from the media.

Most people are shocked when I say that last year I had the best year I’ve ever had. Maybe it was just luck, maybe it was because I was lucky enough to work with some amazing people who encouraged me to work hard for them, or maybe it’s because in our area there are less than half the people selling real estate as there were in 2006.  Or maybe it was because I absolutely worked my tail off, knowing that when the market turns around, which it will turn around, that it will be stronger and faster-moving than we have experienced in quite some time.

But what will cause that turn-around?  Remember back in 2004 and 2005 when the media had nothing but good things to say about the market?  I remember sitting in training as a new Realtor and being shocked to hear about “low-doc” (no verification of income) and “no-doc” (no verification of income or assets; you buy a house based on your credit score!) loans.  I also remember reading stories in the newspaper about people buying cars and boats with their homes’ equity saying, “My house made more than I did last year!”

That was only four years ago.  But the the tide started to turn, and mumblings started happening and negative statistics started popping up.  Then, when you thought it could not go down any more, it did; then it did again.

Recently, I’ve been telling my clients that the bottom may be here, and what’s interesting is that we seem to be accumulating more and more data to substantiate that idea. Then, last week, I was looking at the news on my iPhone and saw this article.

Now, if you read the article you’ll note that most of it has a negative undertone.  You’ll note that prices were still down even though the number of sales were up, and that the increase was a national statistic; here in the West the number of sales for the month of December 2008 was actually down 3.7%.  Still — it was something positive that the media had to say about the housing market, and in this economy a positive ANYTHING is worth drawing special attention.  If positive titles like this keep coming, buyers will feel more confident and our prices will start a gentle incline again.

The only area in this article with which I disagree is where it talks about people not being able to get loans and banks not being willing to lend to people with good credit scores.  This is simply not true — practically every person I’ve needed to get approved for a purchase has been approved.  FHA loans are not nearly as stringent for credit scores as the article would suggest; the one thing I can say is that the days are gone of having bad credit, undocumented income and unverified assets.  If you have a down payment, good credit and reasonable income, you should be able to get a loan.  If you can’t, come talk to me and I will work on finding a lender for you.

The time has never been better to be buying real estate.  If you are interested in speaking with our team about Dublin Ranch homes, condos or townhomes, we are here and happy to help.