The New American Reality.... RENTING!!

Before I go on to part 3 of 3 of my personal experiences in the Real Estate of the Great Recession, let me tell you a story about the state of the homeownership market in Nevada.

A friend of mine (sorry i can't tell you his name), ask me last week if I know many people who opted out to just renting rather than buying.  Since I am in the Real Estate business, the salesman in me would rather say that the market is such a buyers market and people would be crazy to just rent if they can afford to buy.  However,  I did confess that buying and renting at this point in time is largely based on his future plans. 

As the Great Recession devastated the Nevada housing market, many part of the State ( i.e., Las Vegas) have seen homeownership decline to an average of 60% owner occupancy.  Prominent homeowner destination such as Las Vegas during the boom market saw great declines of non-investor related purchases.  In Reno, NV there are census out there that says a 47% owner occupancy. High rates of foreclosures and job unemployment have greatly contributed to the rise of renters.  
Now, its hard to blame the decline of homeownership in Nevada solely on foreclosures and job unemployment, we have to admit that both the southern and northern part of Nevada are very accustomed to transient living.  Many people in the State of Nevada tend to move within 3 to 5 years. We can interpret this in so many ways, however, this is the reality of our Nevada housing market.

Now, how do we turn this around? Well, there are simply no easy answers to this.  However, it thus help if current homeowners be more pro-active in building an active community.  Neighbors meeting neighbors, owners actively participating on homeowner association decisions and providing volunteer work to enhance our parks and school systems etc. Potential Buyers should start jumping off the fence and start picking up vacated homes.  The longer buyers decide to wait for lower price homes, the more likely neighborhood deteriorates and foreclosure occurs.  By the time potential buyers wait for the neighborhood of their choice to hit rock bottom, their might not be a good neighborhood left to live with.  If at all possible, current homeowners should still work with their bank and possibly modify their loan.  I know I will hear arguments to this but I believe we should do all we can to stay in our home and keep our neighborhood from deteriorating due to foreclosures.  I have seen many neighborhoods like this in Reno, and what was once great and beautiful, are now dead grass and broken windows. Neighborhoods like these attracts robbers, juveniles, and rodents. Definitely, not the nicest thing to see.

There are simply no easy answers to turn around the decline of homeownership in Nevada other than Time.  In Time, massive foreclosure will past, lenders will start to lend more, and unemployment will decrease.  But for now, I believe the trend is going towards RENTING, which I call the New American Reality.