What’s Normal Anymore? Palm Harbor Realtors Not so Sure.
What’s normal anymore? I met a new friend - Janie - while at Steve’s Produce stand today that got me thinking about a new study - Housing in America: the Next Decade – by John McIlwain of the Urban Land Institute. As we were surfing through the bin of Ruskin tomatoes, I shared that we are Palm Harbor Realtors.
Janie said “Oh, my God, you poor thing, a Realtor! How ARE you surviving?!”
The not-so-funny thing is that I get a similar response from just about everybody these days. Condolences are part of my new normal.
After explaining that things are actually quite good for some of us Palm Harbor real estate agents- I confided that we are, in fact, experiencing the Wild Wild West with the flood of Pinellas short sales on the market. And that, yes, while things are good, they are anything but normal – well – uh, that is, my old normal.
Janie, like most, then wanted to know what we expect the market will do? The study referenced at the beginning of this post says the housing market will not return to what it was prior to the downturn but rather the “new normal”. Hmmm……
He predicts that nationally,
- Residential real estate will drop another 10% in 2010.
- In 2011, prices will start appreaciating by a modest 1% a year until at least 2020.
- There will be a big jump in the number of people “underwater” in their mortgages that will opt for short sales or end up in foreclosure
- Older baby-boomers will defer to staying close to family members rather than moving to the sunbelt - Whoa- that’s us!
My mom always used to say, if you don’t like what you see, just imagine a field of daisies instead. Mighty fine advice, as I sit here and figure out which way is up.
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