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!

As of 11/22/09 the Carla Griswold RePage is ranked at 7,229 with 40 points.
The monthly top RePage owner will receive a cash prize. Help this agent by bookmarking this site and posting it to blogs and other Web pages and encourage others to visit.

Local Information for Stillwater, OK

Latitude: 36.121538 -- Longitude: -97.068537

Other Area Cities: Cushing Stillwater

Enter our Photo Sweepstakes and Win $200 for your Stillwater photos!

To see random photos for other cities Click Here.

Submit your photos of Stillwater and become eligible to win $200. Click Here for details.

As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 39,065 people, 15,604 households, and 7,318 families residing in the city. The population density was 541.6/km² (1,402.7/mi²). There were 16,827 housing units at an average density of 233.3/km² (604.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 82.48% White, 4.30% African American, 3.89% Native American, 5.05% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.88% from other races, and 3.36% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.50% of the population. There were 15,604 households out of which 20.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.1% were married couples living together, 7.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 53.1% were non-families. 34.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.13 and the average family size was 2.81. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oklahoma 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Stillwater	Oklahoma	United States
Population	39,065	3,450,654	281,421,906
Median age	23.9	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	23.8	33.9	34
Median age for Female	24.1	36.9	36.5
Households	15,604	1,342,293	105,480,101
Household population	33,163	3,338,279	273,643,273
Average household size	2.13	2.49	2.59
Families	7,317	921,750	71,787,347
Average family size	2.81	3.02	3.14
Housing units	16,827	1,514,400	115,904,641
Occupied units	15,604	1,342,293	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,223	172,107	10,424,540

Visit US Census