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 Gulfport, MS

Latitude: 30.401641 -- Longitude: -89.076169

Other Area Cities: Gulfport Biloxi D'Iberville Long Beach Pass Christian

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Gulfport is the second largest city in Mississippi. It is the larger (population wise) of two principal cities of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Gulport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, Mississippi Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city of Gulport had a total population of 71,127. Gulfport is co-county seat with Biloxi of Harrison County, Mississippi. Gulfport is the east coast home to the US Navy Seabees. On August 29, 2005, Gulfport was hit by the strong east side of Hurricane Katrina, and much of Gulfport was flooded or destroyed (see details below). Much of Gulfport was also severely damaged by Hurricane Camille on August 17, 1969. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Mississippi 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Gulfport	Mississippi	United States
Population	71,127	2,844,658	281,421,906
Median age	33.6	33.8	35.3
Median age for Male	32.2	32.2	34
Median age for Female	35.1	35.3	36.5
Households	26,943	1,046,434	105,480,101
Household population	67,703	2,749,244	273,643,273
Average household size	2.51	2.63	2.59
Families	17,653	747,159	71,787,347
Average family size	3.07	3.14	3.14
Housing units	29,559	1,161,953	115,904,641
Occupied units	26,943	1,046,434	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,616	115,519	10,424,540

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