"I am waiting for the market to hit bottom!" That's what I hear lately from a lot of my buyers. When is the bottom of the market here? Nobody will know until AFTER the turn. Bottom will be there for a short moment; after all it's a full circle and once it hits bottom it will be on the upswing. Is the bottom here now? I don't know myself to be honest and neither does anybody else. I do know this: The Keys are a unique market with a very limited supply of Real Estate and actual sales prices have not made the same drop as Real Estate in most other areas. There are not a lot of distress sellers in the Keys. Period!What has dropped are the asking prices! Asking prices are no longer 'any number in the sky' but a number based on previous sales and not on inflated prices on houses on the market that are not selling. I have buyers calling me telling me how amazed they are by how much prices have dropped because a house that was for sale for 2,5 Million a year ago, is now on the market for 1,7 Million. That is not a price drop; that is a seller who woke up; realizing that his property never was worth 2,5 Million even at the height of the market!Yes, it is true that actual sales prices have dropped somewhat but not drastically. What is definitely true is that properties have not appreciated over the past couple of years in the Keys. We were used to prices going up between 10-30% annually.No matter where you look mediawise: Real Estate is not doing too well! It is a buyers market (More sellers than buyers make a buyers market) . Buyers feel that they should be able to get one heck of a deal now and that is true in most markets in the US. Not so much here: I have written many very low offers in the past year only to find out again and again that sellers are not willing to sell their property for much less than the last likewise property has sold for.I met a good friend of mine yesterday evening, an appraiser in the Keys for the past 22 years, and I asked him if he thought that we are at the bottom of the market and he immediately answered "Yes, I think so". Maybe he is not right; we won't know until the turn has been made.My point is that this is indeed a great time to buy and sooner or later the bottom was/is here and will be... gone ....The market was somewhat similar to what it is now when I started working in the Keys and I saw just how quickly the market can change once it is on the upswing. I cannot tell you how many times I heard "I should have bought a couple of years ago" .... don't let that be you in a couple of years!
These are the new listings that have come on the market since my last blog:Click'>Click'>http://www.flexmls.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?20071114001925545537000000&s=6&id=1">Click
These properties have gone under contract:
Click'>Click'>http://www.flexmls.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?20071114002051102588000000&s=6&id=1">Click
and these listings were sold:
Click'>Click'>http://www.flexmls.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?20071114002157139640000000&s=6&id=1">Click
I hope you all are well and thanks for reading my blog!