Here we are in the heart of spring time! The weather has begun to get warmer, then colder, then hot, then...well, it is certainly unpredictable. Being a weather forecaster in the past year or so has certainly been a little more challenging, I would imagine. You might say the same for many industries for the past 5 years, and real estate is certainly not immune.
Historically, spring time has been one of the more active seasons in real estate, and this year started out showing some real signs of life. Here in Greenville, we were seeing homes sell faster and with more interest than in quite some time. There were even some homes that had multiple offers in the first few days on the market. Showings on listings were overwhelming, with two and three a day on good new listings. For sale by owners (fsbos) had been almost non existent in the past few years, but also started recently popping up with some success, thereby making others believe they could do it too. Yes, it appeared the pent up demand that had built up during the recession was starting to "spring" forth. Then all of the sudden we hear of some economic news that didn't meet expectations, and there is this pause in the action.
Now certainly everyone isn't going to believe that it would happen overnight...that several years of a down market and dropping prices, foreclosures, and short sales was going to just magically disappear in just a few short months. Actually there probably wasn't even a few folks that believed that would happen. It did appear, though, that we were starting to really make some modest headway back from the depressed economic stronghold that seemed to keep tightening it's grip. As it turns out, we are experiencing what experts predicted all along, a pause in our recovery. Last year, we experienced a pretty severe pause that lasted for a better part of an entire year. This year's pause won't likely be known for a few months. If the unemployment numbers stay strong and gas prices don't skyrocket, maybe we will know in a few weeks instead. This will, unfortunately, be a recovery of 'starts and stops.' Where it starts back will likely depend on the rest of the world, thereby reigniting that consumer confidence that has shown is there lurking in the darkness...and ready to explode! I think we all are about ready for that to happen.
J. J. Bowers
Realtor/Owner
greenvillescrealestatetoday.com