In my previous post I spoke about adjusting to the new real estate market conditions. Well, in order to do that you have to know where it’s been, where it’s at, and where it’s going. So, all indications are we are not going to see the quick recovery first expected becuase of the perfect misfortunate of the alignment of several factors.
It all started with the desire of the media to crash the real estate market, then the decline of the housing market, followed by a struggling stock market, a crumbling of the subprime morgage market and mortgage crisis, a continual increase in gas prices, the uncertainty of the future political policies of this country and now the lack of confidence of the American people.
The biggest fact being the lack of cash and liquidity for homeowners and small business people due to the declining market, who are unable to tap into the equity in their homes, whether that equity was true or inflated doesn’t matter, the point is that it’s simply not there for the majority of Americans.
A less frugal America has things bottlenecked right now and only the strong will survive. There are so many things related to the housing market and many scrabbling to reposition themselves in this new economy. Contractors of all types such as plumbers, electricians, roofers, carpenters, pool contractors, mortgage brokers, realtors, etc… all going out of business or being laid off. Adding insult to injury the mortgage industry, who has played a large part in this whole mess with overagressive lending, now has tipped the scales completely over and moved from greedy to stingy. With an opportunity to help the current crisis they are now reluctant to provide solutions for struggling homeowners and have squeezed their practices so tightly that its difficult for anyone to get financing including the very people who could help such a market; first-time homebuyers and investors. A time in our history that would otherwise be one of the best buyers markets we’ve seen in over 20 years!
All this leads to my next post!
