How to Determine If the Real Estate Market in Your Area is Improving

You are thinking of buying a home, but you wonder if you can get a good deal. Perhaps you are trying to sell your home, but you wonder if you it will sell in a down market. Obviously, if the real estate market were improving, you would have a better chance to sell. There are signs that can help you to know, even if you are not an expert, if the real estate market is improving in your area, regardless of what is doing elsewhere. Based on that knowledge, you will be better prepared to decide whether to buy or sell. You might get a lower price in a down market, if you want to buy, but if you are trying to sell a down market will not help you at all.

Drive around you town. Are there less for sale signs than there were a month, or two, or six ago? Experts say one sure sign the real estate market is improving in an area is that there will be fewer "for sale" signs than there were previously. That is not a sign that home sellers are giving up. Rather, it is a sign that homes are starting to sell in the area. You can also find out the same thing by going online and searching on various websites that allow you to search for houses for sale by location and by price. One such site is Realtor.com.

In a down real estate market, a realtor will no doubt return a phone call or respond to an email from any prospective buyer as quickly as possible. In bad economic times selling is hard enough. He won't want to alienate anyone who might buy a home he is attempting to sell for someone. In your area, does he take just a little longer now to return a message? Naturally, at any time he won't want to lose a potential customer and will want to respond to any message as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, when he busier because more people are buying homes he will take just a little bit longer to respond.

In the tough real estate market the cost of financing or refinancing a home sale has gone up. On the website, www.thinkglink.com, Ilyce Glink said that loan fees are now the most they have been in the past twenty years. In your area, however, have those fees started to go down? When the loan fees in your area to finance or refinance a home sale are only one percent or less, you will know the real estate market is improving in your area.

Are there fewer foreclosures in your area than six months or a year ago? The number of foreclosures has been rising quickly. If that pace is slowing in your area, the real estate market is improving. That is a sign that home owners are paying their mortgages on time. Talk to experts in your area. Search your local newspaper to find out what is happening in your area.

Are the home prices in your area still dropping? Has the situation improved? If the situation has improved in your area that is a sign the real estate market is improving. Prices have not dropped as much elsewhere as they have in Arizona-up to 50%--but they have dropped. Prices will only start to rise when they first stop dropping. Has that happened where you live?

Barbara Corcoran, who owns a real estate business, said, according to the website, hamptonroads.com, the real estate market is improving. She said that two signs the market is improving is that potential buyers are checking Internet listings more often and attending more open houses in instances of homes that are for sale. How many open houses are in your town? If there are many that is a sure sign of an improving real estate market.

"I believe the bottom of the market was last year," Corcoran said in the interview, which was printed January 10, 2010. She added that people are not as wary of buying a home as they were recently. She said many more people are attending open houses.

One other way you can find out about the real estate market is to research it online. On Realtytimes.com you can research how strong the real estate market is in any state, in any county.

Citations: 5 Ways to Know the Real Estate Market is Improving, May 1, 2009 by Ilyce Glink, Thinkglink.com
U.S. residential real estate market is improving, expert says at lecture by Tom Shean, Hamptonroads.com