Where do we go from here?

Here is a post taken from our Sept/Oct newsletter where we ask “Where do we go from here?”

The big question everyone seems to be asking these days is “where is our real estate market headed?” Anyone that can tell you that should also be able to give you six really good lottery numbers as well.
The fact is, there are literally hundreds of things that are going to effect our future. I attended the Economic Outlook forum at the Biltmore last month. Industry “experts” from several fields of expertise spoke (Elliot Pollack, RL Brown, etc.). The overall feel that I got was very positive based mainly on our state’s job growth and population increases. The commercial and industrial speakers were also positive regarding their industries. One item of concern was the current inventory levels of new and resale residential real estate. I do agree with RL Brown that the builders went a bit overboard with the lotteries and huge waiting lists. They had hundreds of people on waiting lists and planned to build a huge number of properties based on these lists. When the market began to come back to reality, many of these lists disappeared, leaving large inventories that they need to get off of the books. The result actually makes it look like a good time to buy a new home, as incentives and pricing are very aggressive. On the resale side it’s tough to compete with the big boys, but I believe our market will correct itself and be pretty healthy for quite some time.