Yesterday the New York Times ran an article that talked about how we may be seeing signs of a housing recovery in Sacramento County,which was hit hard and early by the housing crisis.
Sales are up 45% from a year ago, and other areas such as Las Vegas and parts of Florida are also showing significant increases.
Notably, prices have not increased, but are showing signs of stabilizing. According to an analyst quoted in the article, “…this is how things might look six months before prices bottom out.”
The article points out that sales tend to recover before prices, and that sales nationwide were down 7% year-to-year in March.
What’s happening locally?
First-time home buyers are driving the market in the Seattle area right now (as well as in CA, as noted in the article). With the surge in activity that I’ve seen personally and hear about from other agents, I expect April and May to show very strong numbers compared to earlier in the year.
Last year we had some odd perks in the spring and then a dismally slow summer. This year the activity seems more consistent, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we again saw some slowdown during the summer months. However, there are so many extreme factors in play right now (extremely low interest rates, the first-time home buyer credit, projections of upcoming job cuts, and the Microsoft layoffs of yesterday) that it’s hard to predict anything with a high degree of certainty. Not trying to hedge, but I have no desire to pull a Jim Cramer….
