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 11/27/09 the Debi Shapiro RePage is ranked at 1,608 with 95 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 Lockport, IL

Latitude: 41.588659 -- Longitude: -88.047267

Other Area Cities: Lockport Crest Hill Joliet New Lenox Plainfield Romeoville Lemont Mokena Shorewood

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

To see random photos for other cities Click Here.

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

Lockport is a city in Will County, Illinois, United States. Incorporated in 1853. The population was 15,191 at the 2000 census, and estimated to be 22,161 in 2005. Lockport is located in northeastern Illinois, 30 miles southwest of Chicago, and north of Joliet, at locks connecting Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal with the Des Plaines River via the Lockport Powerhouse. It also has locks of the old Illinois and Michigan Canal. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Illinois 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Lockport	Illinois	United States
Population	15,191	12,419,293	281,421,906
Median age	33.4	34.7	35.3
Median age for Male	32.8	33.3	34
Median age for Female	33.9	36	36.5
Households	5,599	4,591,779	105,480,101
Household population	15,187	12,097,512	273,643,273
Average household size	2.71	2.63	2.59
Families	4,137	3,105,513	71,787,347
Average family size	3.17	3.23	3.14
Housing units	5,835	4,885,615	115,904,641
Occupied units	5,599	4,591,779	105,480,101
Vacant units	236	293,836	10,424,540

Visit US Census