09 Jan 08 
Real Estate in 2008
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It’s a new year and several experts have already released their predictions of what may come of the real estate market in 2008. After reading several predictions, opinions and statistics there is one thing that almost everyone agrees on… there will be more foreclosures in ’08.
After 2007, with an unbelievable 1.39 million foreclosures, it’s hard to believe that 2008 could be any worse, but according to Moody’s Economy.com we could face as many as 1.67 million foreclosures. It’s easy to see that- that’s a huge increase, approximately 280,000 more foreclosures. An article by Harold Brubaker of Philly.com states that the average amount of foreclosures annually for the period 2000-2006 was 872,764. In 2008, it looks like we will experience a little more than a 52% increase over the 7 year average beginning in 2000 and ending in 2006.
What’s this mean for the national real estate market? In short, more economic instability, a greater supply of homes, and a decrease in the price of homes throughout much of the United States. For those of us that bought homes over the past few years we are looking at a greater loss on our investment. The little good news is that, on a national basis, our real estate was overpriced and a decrease in home prices will make homes more affordable for many renters and first time home buyers.
There are some experts stating that the market will bottom out in the next 6 months and others speculate that this won’t happen until 2009 or later. Regardless of who’s right and wrong it’s important to our overall economy that we continue to buy homes when we need and can afford them. Waiting until the market bottoms out will just make things worse and prolong the current real estate dilemma.
Pay attention to your local market – real estate is, and always has been local. Don’t read too much into what experts say – they couldn’t predict the exact date of the real estate bust and it’s likely that they can’t predict when things will get better.
Tags: economic stability, economy, foreclosures, harold brubaker of philly, market trends, national real estate, Real Estate, real estate market
