2007 a wild ride in real estate world
Goodbye to 2007, hello to 2008! What will we find in the real
estate market in 2008? Of course, it depends on who you talk to.
But the general feeling is that 2008 will be a great time for
buyers to find great deals with excellent financing. If buyers
hesitate, they’ll miss out on their best opportunity in years.
2007 a wild ride in real estate world
Goodbye to 2007, hello to 2008! What will we find in the real estate market in 2008? Of course, it depends on who you talk to. But the general feeling is that 2008 will be a great time for buyers to find great deals with excellent financing. If buyers hesitate, they’ll miss out on their best opportunity in years.
Now why would I think that? Let’s take a look at the economic picture. First of all, corporate profits are strong. Wages are rising. In the last year alone 4 million new jobs were created.
The dollar is weak. While it means we pay more for our trips oversees or for imported chocolates and clothes, it could mean more foreign investment in the U.S. Let’s look at Canada for example. A few years ago the Canadian dollar was worth 70 cents. Now it is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.10. If they purchased a property in the U.S. they could get it for about 50 percent cheaper. Whoa, doggies! Come on down! The same holds true for European investors as well.
And, of course, real estate is still the best tax shelter. Between 1995 and 2004, according to the research conducted by the Federal Reserve, the average renter accumulated $4,000 in wealth. The average homeowner accumulated (Get this!) $184,400. Big difference. The National Association of Realtor’s research shows that if you held your property for six years during that time span you had a 97 percent chance of having a growth in your equity.
Quit reading national media for your news about real estate. They report on national trends. That’s about as precise as having a national weather forecast. You can’t compare one city’s market with another. Real estate is a local phenomenon. Hence, you need a local Realtor! (Oh, have I said that before?)
Laurence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, attributes much of today’s sub-prime mortgage problem to greed. (Ah, didn’t you hear that from me a while ago?) Wall Street investors wanted the 10-12 percent return that subprime mortgages yielded as opposed to the smaller returns from more traditional mortgage products. As Yun says, “They gambled. They lost.”
His outlook for 2008 sees a shift from greedy speculators to serious homeowners. 2008 will be a year of opportunity where there will be serious, healthy business. Yun thinks the market will stabilize by 2009.
So all that doesn’t sound like doom and gloom, does it? Of course, it’s been a tough year for a lot of people in real estate, and industries involved with it such as builders, title companies, tradesmen, furniture and appliance dealers, etc. But each year is welcomed with a fresh start. It will be an adventure no matter what.
What else can we expect in 2008? Let’s look at color trends. According to Jack Bredenfoerder of the Color Marketing Group (a not-for-profit association of over 1100 international designers) colors will come down in value and become more natural in 2008. “Highly saturated, bright colors are still going to be around but they’ll be used more as accents.” High contrast between colors is very cool as well.
White, any white, even used together is expected to be very big as well. You know what I have to say about that. White will never be wildly popular with me until they make self-cleaning houses. Maybe not even then. Have you ever cleaned a self-cleaning oven? It still seemed like I did most of the work! Perhaps it would help if I did it more often than once every 5 years.
The year 2008 is also about going green: Not only the color green, but the concept of Green! Bamboo floors and other stylish eco-friendly products are expected to be very “in” this year.
I read somewhere that the symbol “X” is going to be very in this year. I think last year might have been butterflies…they seemed to be everywhere. Before that it was pirates. But this year X marks the spot.
The cool metals…silver, pewter, stainless…are the in ones this year. Brushed nickel is big as well. Sorry, if you like brass you’ll have to wait for another fashion season!
Understated luxury is the theme for 2008. Though furniture and accessories will tend to be over-sized, they will no longer be ornate and medieval looking. Instead, the look is very open, very elegant and very serene. The Asian influence is back with its accent on simplicity and functionality. The idea is to make living spaces cleaner and simpler and easier to maintain. I say if I can’t hose it down I don’t want it.
Leather is still very popular (except with PETA) but the shift is from oversized, dark pieces to smaller, more feminine lines and colors: pink, robin’s egg blue and caramel are much more stylish than black and dark brown.
That gives you a head-start on what you’ll need to know in 2008. May you be blessed with abundance. May laughter, love and light follow where you go. It’s a good life.
Be kind to your Realtor.
