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 Shawnee, OK

Latitude: 35.342474 -- Longitude: -96.933775

Other Area Cities: Seminole Shawnee

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Shawnee is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, USA. The population was 28,692 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Pottawatomie CountyGR6 and is part of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area and is the principal city of the Shawnee Micropolitan Statistical Area. Located on Interstate 40, Shawnee is just 30 minutes east of attractions of downtown Oklahoma City. To the east and northeast, the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System offers barge access to the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes region. Major employers in the Shawnee area consistently report average absenteeism rates of only 2% and 7% turnover[citation needed]. Human resources personnel at Shawnee firms indicate that Oklahoma workers are more productive than plants similar in operation elsewhere in the continent. Shawnee is an active Main Street community. The Oklahoma Main Street Program is a downtown revitalization program. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oklahoma 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Shawnee	Oklahoma	United States
Population	28,692	3,450,654	281,421,906
Median age	33.3	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	30.1	33.9	34
Median age for Female	36.3	36.9	36.5
Households	11,311	1,342,293	105,480,101
Household population	26,939	3,338,279	273,643,273
Average household size	2.38	2.49	2.59
Families	7,306	921,750	71,787,347
Average family size	2.96	3.02	3.14
Housing units	12,651	1,514,400	115,904,641
Occupied units	11,311	1,342,293	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,340	172,107	10,424,540

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