A housing rebound? Yes, it's possible.
...Credit Suisse says the worst is behind us and that fear of another hit on the housing market is just overreaction. The bank offers a few factors that could help home prices from here on out, including government support of about 70% of home mortgages that will likely keep prices from revisiting the nerve-wracking plunges seen in 2007 and 2008. Also, The Wall Street Journal's Brett Arends earlier this week listed 10 reasons to buy a home, countering a recent Time Magazine cover story earlier this month that questioned the pros of homeownership. Arends lists everything from record low mortgage rates to savings on taxes to guarding against inflation.
All are worth noting, but one of the more striking bullish arguments come from an economist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Real Estate. Bill Wheaton, who thinks the housing market is poised to make a strong comeback, calls home construction "a sleeping giant that is about to wake up."
Wheaton thinks much of the excess home inventory would either be sold, occupied or other otherwise absorbed by 2013. But from 2011 onward, demand should return to pre-recession levels. What's more, he says, the recovery of home construction could boost overall GDP at levels unseen during recoveries after previous recessions, with the exception of the massive building that happened right after World War II. Not just a comeback, but a strong one...
OK, take your pick...but even the GOOD news is not that good. MY opinion, not that anyone asked, is a continuing downward movement in values for, at least, 12-18 months. That's if everything stays relatively consistent with how it is today; Interest rates, inflation/deflation, unemployment, taxes etc.
I'd love to hear your opinion...send me an email. And as always, thanks for reading!
