Sorry pal, but you won’t see the market stay flat. We have rising inventories, foreclosures, tougher lending standards, rising rates(albeit slowly), and many current loans reseting. The worst is yet to come as far as the resets go.
There are so many people that are hanging onto their current home by a thread, the threads are slowly breaking, and many people have no choice.
Prices are coming down, nearly all the new home builders in the Temecula Valley have reduced prices from $50k-$110k. This is factual and doesn’t represent flat to me.
As far as the economy, it is slowing too. I know times are getting tough, I see a few friends getting laid off. There will be many more in construction and RE related industries, like we are seeing in the lending industry.
The cost of living is also going up faster than incomes. Food, energy , gas, even beer is rising fast. If you think this won’t affect households, think again. Yes, Americans are spending, but more and more of it is with money they don’t have. They are racking up monster debt. It is slowing and will come to end as soon as rates go even higher, as they will. The fed can’t lower rates, most every other foreign central bank is raising rates, and our dollar keeps loosing its power. Soon, investors will find better earnings investing elsewhere, and we will be forced to raise rates. We had a hint at this the last few weeks.
BTW, most here have made money in the housing boom, we have sold at or near the peak. I can assure you that those of us that rent, are not bitter. I can vouch for this as my best friends are panicking as their equity dwindles and they don’t think they can sell. Then you have those who have negative equity. I know a few, and I bet I’m sleeping better than they are.
