![\"PD*26655194\"](\"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/files\/2009\/02\/houses-of-parliament287078.jpg\")
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Nick Churton assesses the first few weeks of real estate market activity in 2009 and suggests that while the economic picture may still be grave in both the US and Europe, local market activity in the housing sector seems to be far from moribund.<\/p>\n
The shiny chrome pinball of bank failures on both sides of the Atlantic still crashes around the machine, ringing up eye-watering losses as it goes.<\/p>\n
Newspaper headlines sensationally remind us of the effect this is having.\u00a0 But some media can often be out of step with breaking real estate market news.\u00a0 Experts as they may be, news reporters are not working day-by-day in real estate offices and they are often the innocent mouthpieces of received wisdom.\u00a0 Real estate statistics and trends do not have the immediacy of the stock market, they take longer to filter through and then distort the up-to-date truth.<\/p>\n
Fortunately each piece of negative media news makes one fewer bad headline in the future.\u00a0 This downturn will end, just as certainly as the Great Depression of the 1920s ended.\u00a0 Already, in 2009, there are signs of increased activity in the real estate market.\u00a0 These are not \u2018green shoots\u2019 – heaven forbid one should announce that just yet!\u00a0 But there are signs that people who have to move are getting on with it.\u00a0 These signs also show that many sellers have brought their hot price expectations more into line with cold reality.<\/p>\n
It is never easy to come to terms with a loss of some equity in one’s home \u2013 especially for those who have never had to come to terms with this in the past.\u00a0 But before long the desire to move on in life overcomes even the most steadfast seller when faced with the proposition that getting on may be better than holding on \u2013 especially when what they are holding on to might still be sinking.\u00a0 It\u2019s rather like asking comfortable passengers on the Titanic, before it hit the iceberg, if they would like to freeze in an over-laden lifeboat and then asking them again after the collision.\u00a0 Same question.\u00a0 Different answer.<\/p>\n
We are living through a dramatic piece of economic history that will be mentioned as much in the future as the Great Depression has been in the past.\u00a0 Indeed it is probable that the two events will be forever linked as classic examples of modern cataclysmic economic and commercial breakdown.<\/p>\n
But those of us living through such shattering events are being forced to make decisions that few of our grandparents and great grandparents ever had to make.\u00a0\u00a0 Mass home ownership, we have all learnt, can wear two masks \u2013 one of comedy and the other of tragedy.<\/p>\n
Much depends now on how quickly that shiny pinball comes to rest.\u00a0 But meanwhile there are sure signs that the real estate buying and selling public are fed up with this recession, they are not prepared to put their lives on hold while the governments across the world get their policies sorted out, or until the banks get their houses in order or even until price correction ends and property regains its upward momentum.<\/p>\n
Buyers are visiting real estate offices in greater numbers, checking online and inspecting homes.\u00a0 And why shouldn\u2019t they be?\u00a0 There is great choice, prices have come down dramatically and those with the finance can enjoy some of the lowest interest rates ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nick Churton assesses the first few weeks of real estate market activity in 2009 and suggests that while the economic picture may still be grave in both the US and Europe, local market activity in the housing sector seems to be far from moribund. The shiny chrome pinball of bank failures on both sides of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[59,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.myewm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}