Facts and figures are coming at us from everywhere. The important thing for you to know is what’s happening in your market, in your economy. Those are the numbers that will really affect your property values, what you can pay when you buy and what you can expect when you sell.
That being said, here are some interesting recent figures from Standard and Poor’s and the US Census Bureau.
According to David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor’s, average home prices across the country are now at the levels they were in the fall of 2003.
“It still looks possible that the housing market might bounce along the bottom for the foreseeable future before showing any real improvement that will filter through to the rest of the economy,” Blitzer stated. This statement, by the way, seems to be the one that I read most consistently, no matter what the source. I, personally, believe it will be three more years before we see a measurable turn around in the real estate market.
Data just released by the US Census Bureau states that the U.S. homeownership rate dropped to 66.9 percent during the second quarter of this year, hitting its lowest mark in more than 10 years.
