If you were a fan of the 90's show The X-Files, you might remember that Agent Mulder kept a poster hanging in his work cubicle that said, "I want to believe".
And while we might not all want to believe in little green men, all of us in the real estate and mortgage industries want to believe that the housing market is on a strong path to recovery.
There are plenty of encouraging signs, too. But one claim that is being trumpeted is a bit premature: that we have entered a Seller's Market.
While home prices have been rising consistently lately, and inventory is declining, there is one necessary ingredient for a seller's market that we don't have yet: a strong and growing pool of buyers ready, willing, and eager to buy a home.
The fact is, we're running about 1.3 million units a year behind the average number of homes sold between 2001-2009 (which includes pre-boom, boom, and bust years).
And there are some fairly significant headwinds in our economy and real estate market that are pushing against the creation of enough buyers to raise those sales figures.
As just one loan officer, you may not be in a position to impact the national real estate market, but you can certainly have an impact on your local market, and in the process, you can build a reputation with both Realtors and Consumers as the go-to lender for the home purchase market -- which will put you in a very good position when we finally do fully recover from the disaster that struck in 2007-2008.
For a full analysis, and my recommendations for productive action, see my latest white paper, The Phantom Seller's Market -- which you can read on this site or download as a PDF.
And while we might not all want to believe in little green men, all of us in the real estate and mortgage industries want to believe that the housing market is on a strong path to recovery.
There are plenty of encouraging signs, too. But one claim that is being trumpeted is a bit premature: that we have entered a Seller's Market.
While home prices have been rising consistently lately, and inventory is declining, there is one necessary ingredient for a seller's market that we don't have yet: a strong and growing pool of buyers ready, willing, and eager to buy a home.
The fact is, we're running about 1.3 million units a year behind the average number of homes sold between 2001-2009 (which includes pre-boom, boom, and bust years).
And there are some fairly significant headwinds in our economy and real estate market that are pushing against the creation of enough buyers to raise those sales figures.
As just one loan officer, you may not be in a position to impact the national real estate market, but you can certainly have an impact on your local market, and in the process, you can build a reputation with both Realtors and Consumers as the go-to lender for the home purchase market -- which will put you in a very good position when we finally do fully recover from the disaster that struck in 2007-2008.
For a full analysis, and my recommendations for productive action, see my latest white paper, The Phantom Seller's Market -- which you can read on this site or download as a PDF.
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