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 Palmdale, CA

Latitude: 34.581005 -- Longitude: -118.100603

Other Area Cities: Lancaster Acton Palmdale

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Palmdale, the first community within the Antelope Valley to incorporate as a city (on August 24, 1962), is located in the northeast reaches of Los Angeles County, California, United States, separated from Los Angeles by the San Gabriel Mountain range. As of the 2000 US census, the city had a total population of 116,670. As of spring 2005, the city proper has a total population estimate of 143,227, according to Palmdale municipal government sources. As of the 2005 population estimate, the Palmdale / Lancaster, CA Urbanized Area (a US Census Bureau defined term) has a population of 480,238. While Palmdale is still a part of Los Angeles County, the urbanized centers of Palmdale and Los Angeles are separated by the San Gabriel mountain range, which is about 40 miles (60 km) wide. This range forms the southern edge of the Antelope Valley portion of the Mojave Desert. Palmdale is one of the two principal cities of the Antelope Valley. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

California 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Palmdale	California	United States
Population	116,670	33,871,648	281,421,906
Median age	28.2	33.3	35.3
Median age for Male	26.8	32.2	34
Median age for Female	29.4	34.4	36.5
Households	34,285	11,502,870	105,480,101
Household population	116,576	33,051,894	273,643,273
Average household size	3.4	2.87	2.59
Families	28,105	7,920,049	71,787,347
Average family size	3.72	3.43	3.14
Housing units	37,096	12,214,549	115,904,641
Occupied units	34,285	11,502,870	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,811	711,679	10,424,540

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