Talking Points

from Hyde Park Office by Kim

What are real estate professionals saying to homebuyers and sellers about current market conditions? The successful brokers and sales associates are talking about the strengths that exist in the market - not the negative media hype. Below are positive angles that appeared recently in the media and underscore why it is a good time to buy real estate.

Recent Quotes & Excerpts about the Positive Signs in the Real Estate Market:

"GALLUP POLL: American's See Buyer's Market in Housing"

"Seventy-one percent think now is a good time to buy a house"

http://www.gallup.com/poll/117586/Americans-Buyers-Market-Housing.aspx

PRINCETON, NJ--Plunging housing prices combined with historically low interest rates have persuaded 71% of Americans that now is a "good time" to buy a house--up 18 percentage points from a year ago and the highest level of housing-purchase optimism in four years.

The S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows that housing prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas were down 19% in January 2009 compared to a year ago. Accordingly, in an April 6-9 survey, Gallup finds that Americans outlook for home prices in their areas is slightly more pessimistic than it was a year ago. Fewer Americans now expect housing prices to increase over the next 12 months (22%) than did so in April 2008 (29%) and more expect them to stay the same or decrease (76% vs. 69%).

Consumers' housing-price expectations in 2008 and 2009 stand in sharp contrast to those of the three previous years, when at least half of Americans expected housing prices to increase and fewer than one in five expected them to decrease.