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 Elkhart, IN

Latitude: 41.683149 -- Longitude: -85.968798

Other Area Cities: Elkhart South Bend Goshen Mishawaka

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Elkhart has long been the headquarters of numerous manufacturers of musical instruments and accessories, of which most of the surviving companies have been absorbed into the Conn-Selmer conglomerate. In 1884 Dr. Franklin Miles launched the Miles Medical Co. in Elkhart, which in later decades produced products like Alka-Seltzer and One-A-Day vitamins. Later, the Miles Medical Co. was purchased by the German company Bayer, in 1979 and was consolidated into the larger Pittsburgh-based Bayer, Inc. by 1995. Elkhart is home to many Recreational vehicle (RV) manufacturers, including the Damon Corporation, Four Winds, Hy-Line, Keystone, Monaco, Skyline, Sun Valley, and Travel Supreme. Many other manufacturers, including Dutchman, Heartland, Gulf Stream, and Jayco, can be found nearby in Goshen, Middlebury, Nappanee, and Wakarusa. Due to the high concentration of the RV industry in the area, Elkhart is dubbed the "RV Capital of the World." -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Indiana 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Elkhart	Indiana	United States
Population	51,874	6,080,485	281,421,906
Median age	30.8	35.2	35.3
Median age for Male	30	33.9	34
Median age for Female	31.9	36.5	36.5
Households	20,072	2,336,306	105,480,101
Household population	51,216	5,902,331	273,643,273
Average household size	2.55	2.53	2.59
Families	12,506	1,602,501	71,787,347
Average family size	3.16	3.05	3.14
Housing units	21,688	2,532,319	115,904,641
Occupied units	20,072	2,336,306	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,616	196,013	10,424,540

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