Constant Change ~ Is the New Normal?
Well, unless you live in the basement of a rock for the past several months, you’ve heard a lot of news about our resurging real estate market in Metro Phoenix. But is it true?
Yes, it’s true! But as every ad states: For a limited time only!
The market will change. Up, then down. Down, then Up. The days of normal are behind us. Phoenix will never be just “normal.” There is no more normal. Our industry is, our housing market is, hurtling at a pace NEVER ever seen before, EVER! We may have statistics that point to certain periods in our past, but can they be accurately translated to this time, this era?
From Mike’s arrival in the Valley in 1994 until 2004, the Phoenix Metro real estate market was considered stable, VERY stable. Average annual and consistent appreciation was 3-4%.
If you purchased a home ten years ago in the Metro Phoenix area (and most anywhere in the U.S. for that matter) and then Rip Van Winkled away the past decade, you would have awoke to find the value of your home in Phoenix exactly what you paid for it back then, as in zero home appreciation.
So, the Rip Van Winkles of the past ten years may be the real winners. They stayed in their home and didn’t worry about home values. It wasn’t why they bought a home in the first place. They bought a home for their families to be raised in, or a home to retire in, or a home on the lake to enjoy. They also didn’t use their home as an ATM machine, like many of us did. Yes, having equity is a good thing, but as we all witnessed, it was but a vapor – and then it was gone.
If you know of anyone who can buy a home, now is the time to buy a home. This is not a slick and greasy sales approach, but this is based on the facts we have currently at hand which are:
• Extremely low home prices, (which are moving up again)
• Bottom basement level interest rates
• Still fairly generous tax advantages, but these will all change in time.
And constant change is now the “New Normal.”
