Have you seen all of the great news in the housing market?
- New home sales increased 11% in June (the highest jump in 8 years)
- New home inventory is the lowest since 1998
- Overall home sales rose 3.6% in June
- Homes on the market down 15% from last year
- Home prices still declined from June 2008 – so there are still deals out there (but for how long?)
What does all this mean? Could it be that the housing market has hit bottom? Still too soon to say for sure, but these are some great early indications.
In other news, the Dow Jones Industrial is up to over 9,000 points – the highest it has been all year. Wall Street brokers are starting to post record profits again. Goldman Sachs already paid back its government loan.
Some are even starting to say that the recession is over – we just don’t have the figures to prove it yet!
I’ve been predicting that the end of 2008 would be the worst of the storm and that 2009 would be the year of stabilization. I’m not predicting that 210 will be a banner year, but I do think we are going to see growth.
As housing inventory shrinks – prices will stabilize – and then they will start to rise. We probably have another 12-18 months of easy pickens out there. Better get ’em while you still can!
Lou Castillo
