How long before we hit bottom?
Although the nationwide market shows signs of still dropping the market here in Myrtle Beach seems to have reached what I call a rocky bottom. By that I mean that it seems to now be just bouncing along the bottom with no significant drops or rises. The past four months have produced monthly increases in units sold which I feel is a good thing.
Sure, your going to find some properties with substantial drops here and there, these particular properties most likely have extenuating circumstances out of the ordinary. As long as we have foreclosures and short sales being dumped on the market you will see this. As a whole I see the inventory of resale properties and new construction remaining rather stable with the possibility of recovery.
How will I know when the market hits absolute bottom?
Easy question, no one has a crystal ball but I will say this, "You'll know when it hits that bottom when prices start going up". So if your trying to wait it out and save a couple bucks, step likely, you just might shoot yourself in the foot.
Why should I buy now?
Let's look at it from an investment standpoint. The market here is pretty much at 2004 - 2005 prices and when you ice this cake with historically low interest rates. What do you have in a few years? Return on your investment. On the other hand, don't think I telling you to start buying to flip, absolutely not. If your in the market for a primary or secondary home that your planning on holding for a few years, yes, grab an agent and start looking.
When do you think values will go up?
That's going to depend on how soon we can reduce the number of foreclosures and short sales on the market. I do think that we'll start to see some very small increases sometime in early spring to mid summer of 2010. We're never going to see what happened a few years ago, that was a freak market and really could have been avoided if we had learned anything at all from the mid 80's when that market hit bottom. At least this time we didn't see interest rates jump into the 17 -20% range.
My thoughts are that we will see small increases and gradually climb back to the 8 - 10 percent appreciations. Therefore maintaining a healthy market with stability for the long haul. Healthy real estate markets breed a healthy economy. History has proven that over and over.
.
Please understand that these answers are my opinions only, arrived at by continually monitoring this local market.
