I can tell you who is not buying:
1. Hedge funds, because the price is no longer attractive. Individual investors are splitting: most are waiting in the sideline and some are still buying
2. First-time buyers, because it is much harder to qualify now and the crazy loan hasn’t arrived here yet. They want to buy but they are still saving the down payments.
3. Deadbeats. The people who are foreclosed in the last RE bottom are surprisingly not buying this time, even though their credit scores are gradually repaired allowing them to buy. I don’t know why, maybe they are scared of REs for now. Normally, after the price surges in 2013, they will show up in the party expecting they can be rich again, but they didn’t in 2014.
4. Younger generations. The reason is job market related. While the job market has improved, they don’t feel that they get secure jobs (e.g. part-time) or the jobs that they like. Previously, people would still buy because they expect the RE to make them rich, now the expectation of that has been lowered, they are reluctant to buy until the optimal moment would come. But this is a timing bomb, who wants to live with their parents or even roommates forever?
