Truth Be Told
Last week we made the presumption that the real estate industry is on it’s way to recovery, and it turns out that it is…but at what cost? In our previous article we pointed out that Realtors had seen their first increase in salary in over 9 years, with a 2.3% increase. Now, reports are in fact stating that the housing market has been shaping up since the beginning of the year, indicating the reasoning behind that salary increase.
However, another report released by NAR has some heads turning, as it’s claiming that 15.7 million homes were underwater, with only one out of 10 underwater home owners making any headway. Let’s look at this a bit critically now, and examine why it is that the property market is rebuilding itself, while people are drowning in debt? This seems rather paradoxical, doesn’t it?
This is why we are asking at who’s cost is the property market repairing itself. Obviously Realtors are beginning to reap the benefits of this new-found stability in the market, but what about the 15.7 million home owners who are seeing no relief? Maybe it’s due to Realtors not leading buyers to smarter purchases? For instance, an example of why many homes are in debt is the “nicest home on the block” theory, where homeowners literally own the nicest house on their block, and are unable to sell them due to their price range being outside of the appeal for the neighbourhood and the buyer. One tip we picked up, is that it’s in fact smarter to buy the worst house on the best block. This way, as the home receives repairs and renovations, there will be nothing but profit gains, as opposed to renovating a house on a sub-par block, resulting in too expensive of a property for the area, and a dead-end for sellers. What other tips can you think of to aid this underwater housing market? Join the conversation with us on Twitter.
photo courtesy of http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-5817484473
