Although it may be hard to accept, the sellers market is gone. Who knows when it will return.
"The boom is definitely over, there’s no debate about that," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of West Chester, Pa.-based research firm Moody’s Economy.com. "Now the question is more how hard is it going to land, if it lands at all."
The answer? Depends who you ask — and what location you’re talking about. How to feel about it? Depends which side of the market you’re on — and what location you’re talking about.
Few, if any, economists are enthusiastic about current market conditions, thanks to a host of bleak figures recently released by home builders, federal agencies and the National Association of Realtors.
On Aug. 22, luxury home builder Toll Bros. announced that its net income fell 19 percent in the quarter ending July 31 from a year prior. Earlier in the month, the company said new orders had fallen 47 percent. According to NAR, the number of existing home sales plunged 4.1 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.3 million, the lowest since January 2004. Nationwide, the median sales price for an existing single-family home inched up a painfully small 0.9 percent compared to double-digits in 2005.
But that’s just today’s pain. What about six months from now? A year? Five years? Opinions about the future range from hopeful outlooks to doomsday predictions.
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