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 Cedar City, UT

Latitude: 37.682606 -- Longitude: -113.074402

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Cedar City is a city located in Iron County, Utah, 250 miles South of Salt Lake City on Interstate 15. It is the home of Southern Utah University and the Utah Shakespearean Festival, among other festivals. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 20,527, and by 2004 was estimated at 22,224. The city has shared in the rapid growth of much of Southwestern Utah since the late 1980s. Brigham Young is said to have helped design the layout of the town. The median income for a household in the city is $32,403, and the median income for a family is $37,509. Males have a median income of $31,192 versus $19,601 for females. The per capita income for the city is $14,057. 22.1% of the population and 14.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 20.2% of those under the age of 18 and 4.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Utah 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Cedar City	Utah	United States
Population	20,527	2,233,169	281,421,906
Median age	23.3	27.1	35.3
Median age for Male	23.7	26.7	34
Median age for Female	22.7	27.7	36.5
Households	6,486	701,281	105,480,101
Household population	19,911	2,192,689	273,643,273
Average household size	3.07	3.13	2.59
Families	4,683	535,294	71,787,347
Average family size	3.37	3.57	3.14
Housing units	7,109	768,594	115,904,641
Occupied units	6,486	701,281	105,480,101
Vacant units	623	67,313	10,424,540

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