How do you know if your housing market has reached the bottom?

November 20, 2008

All markets are different. During the next few years, some housing markets will turn around faster than others. How do you know when your particular market has reached its bottom? If you wait until others pick over the great deals, you'll miss the bottom.

Keep a track of how many properties are listed from month to month. Once you start to see a reduction in inventory then that may mean that buyers are starting to buy. There could be two reasons whey inventory is reducing – overpriced homes may be taken off the market and sales volume could be picking up. You can find out this information from your local real estate agent.

Keep reading national and local newspapers. If your local media reporters are now starting to interview experts in your market and asking questions like, “Have we reached the bottom?” then that might be a sign that there may be a shift.

Talk to your friends and co-workers. How are they feeling about your local economy and housing prices? Are they more optimistic now than they were 3 months ago, or even last month?

Consumer confidence will be a big part in the housing market turning around.

Be on the lookout for mortgage interest rates stabilizing and mortgage companies start to ease lending restrictions.

One of the biggest indicators is when prices have stopped dropping. The secret is to buy before they start to inch back up again!

I’m not suggesting that you wait till the absolute bottom of your market to buy. You have to look at a home as a place to live, not an investment. Only you can determine what an affordable monthly payment is relative to the value of the home you are purchasing. There are individual homes for sale that can be bought at the bottom of your market, even if homes in general have not reached that mark.

Talk to a trusted real estate agent – we can help!

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Local Information for Mesa, AZ

Latitude: 33.411199 -- Longitude: -111.746438

Other Area Cities: Chandler Apache Junction Mesa Gilbert Scottsdale Tempe Higley Paradise Valley

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Mesa is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona and part of the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale Metropolitan Area. It is the third-largest city in Arizona, after Phoenix and Tucson. Mesa is one of the United States' fastest-growing cities, and currently ranks as the 41st-largest. In 2005 the mid-decade Census survey estimated the city's population to be 448,096. Though a suburban city, Mesa actually has a larger population than better-known cities such as St. Louis, Missouri, Miami, Florida and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Despite its large population, Mesa has a decidedly bedroom-community, sprawl-like character. Its downtown is minimal, and there are very few buildings in Mesa with more than two stories. Nevertheless, the recently completed Mesa Arts Center may help invigorate downtown Mesa. The city is also home to many gated retirement communities, which may explain the large percentage of senior citizens in the population. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Arizona 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Mesa	Arizona	United States
Population	396,375	5,130,632	281,421,906
Median age	32	34.2	35.3
Median age for Male	30.7	32.9	34
Median age for Female	33.6	35.5	36.5
Households	146,643	1,901,327	105,480,101
Household population	392,426	5,020,782	273,643,273
Average household size	2.68	2.64	2.59
Families	99,856	1,287,367	71,787,347
Average family size	3.2	3.18	3.14
Housing units	175,701	2,189,189	115,904,641
Occupied units	146,643	1,901,327	105,480,101
Vacant units	29,058	287,862	10,424,540

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