Where have all the Buyers Gone?? Now a days, that is pretty much a question asked by many Realtors. In fairness, not every market suffer from a perceived lack of buyers. In Reno, Nevada (Yes, I am in the #1 forclosure State), we are slowly witnessing a decline of active buyers looking for homes. A great deal of explanation to this is the end of the subsidized Firsts Time homeowner tax credit. This is a government program that enable home buyers to receive a 10% tax credit for a purchase of a home with a maximum amount of $8,000 for the 2009-2010 calendar year. With a September 30, 2010 deadline, many home contracts that was purchased before April 30, 2010 are now scrambling to complete their transactions. However, as the July numbers shows, Nevada just suffered a 15 year low in home purchases. We can only hope that succeding monthly data show an increase in home sales.
Another explanation to the lack of home purchase is that most buyers are waiting if prices will continue to dive down in prices. Well, in my opinion, this could be a self-fulfilling prophecy. As more buyers wait for prices to drop, more homes are left unsold. With more supply than demand, and banks lowering prices on recently foreclosed homes, prices will certainly drop. Greed sets in, and market become depressed. Food for thought, a depressed real estate market is never good for anyone; as we have experienced in the last couple of years with this Great Recession. Another explanation why more buyers are riding the fence is that they fear for their own job security and making a huge purchase at the moment is out of the question. As of September 2010, we have seen a great deal of upswing and downswing of the paper market (stocks, bonds, mutuals). There has been good news that the retail and the manufacturing sector of our economy are going through positive numbers. Many people, in my opinion, are willing to spend more on necessities, and smaller priced items. As the uncertainty continue, we will still see shaky confidence on buyers buying big items such as house.
I do feel that the Real Estate market has gone through its worst time. however, I also believe that it will still take a few short years before most home buyers will feel a sense of absolute confidence to jump in and buy homes. My suggestion however is not to follow the lemmings of this world. When times are tough, that's when we find the greatest deals. When buyers starts buying, thats when all the great deals are gone. So, if you are one of the people who have the means to buy a home at this particular point in time, buy now and enjoy your home.
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