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 Mobile, AL

Latitude: 30.679523 -- Longitude: -88.10328

Other Area Cities: Bay Minette Daphne Chickasaw Prichard Saraland Theodore Mobile

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The settlement, then called by the French name "Fort Louis de lá Mobile", was first established in 1702, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana. Following a series of floods, the town was relocated downriver to its present location near the head of Mobile Bay in 1711 and named Fort Conde. The capital of Louisiana was moved to Biloxi in 1720 and to New Orleans in 1723 and Mobile was relegated to the role of frontier town and trading post. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the French and Indian War. The treaty ceded Mobile to Great Britain and under British rule the colony flourished. The British renamed the city Fort Charlotte, after the English Queen, and reenergized the port. Major exports included timber, naval stores, indigo, hides, rice, pecans and cattle. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Alabama 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Mobile	Alabama	United States
Population	198,915	4,447,100	281,421,906
Median age	34.3	35.8	35.3
Median age for Male	32.3	34.4	34
Median age for Female	36.1	37.2	36.5
Households	78,480	1,737,080	105,480,101
Household population	192,735	4,332,380	273,643,273
Average household size	2.46	2.49	2.59
Families	50,764	1,215,968	71,787,347
Average family size	3.09	3.01	3.14
Housing units	86,187	1,963,711	115,904,641
Occupied units	78,480	1,737,080	105,480,101
Vacant units	7,707	226,631	10,424,540

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