Bernanke, Too, Sees A Stabilizing Housing Market
May 15th, 2009 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, For Sellers
It seems like the housing slump has been going on forever. It’s hard to pinpoint an exact date, but the housing boom, when home values skyrocketed and sales volumes soared, lasted roughly through the early part of 2006. Since then, the housing market has slowed.
Lately, though, we’ve seen some good news regarding real estate. Housing sales increased in both February and March in the city of Chicago. The median housing price rose 5.7 percent in Chicago in March.
Now we’re hearing positive news from some of the biggest names in the federal government. Just last week, for instance, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, had some good things to say about the housing industry. You can read his remarks in this story at Inman News.
Bernanke said that he is seeing signs that the housing market is beginning to stabilize. Bernanke pointed to the fact that the sales of existing homes are no longer plummeting every month. He also cited an increase in the sales of new homes as reason for optimism.
Bernanke, like many other government officials, pointed to the fact that condominiums and single-family homes are now more affordable as the biggest reason for this newfound market stability.
This makes sense. Housing prices rose too high during the real estate boom. It was difficult for too many buyers to afford quality homes in desirable locations. Housing prices needed to fall. Watching them do this has been painful. But without lowered housing prices, a real estate recovery isn’t going to happen.
The key now is to not get too excited about the housing market’s positive signs. Remember, the country’s real estate market – in terms of home sales — is still down significantly from even one year ago. And it still has a long way to go before anyone can realistically say that the housing market is on the rebound.
Still, I’m thrilled to be promoting some good news on this blog. And I hope this is just the start of it.
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