Originally published in the Real Estate section of The Bulletin, Bend, Oregon's newspaper, earlier this month, this excerpt from an article by our own David Pease gives some insight into making the decision to buy a home.
Prospective buyers who are waiting for prices to bottom out should consider the possibility of rising interest rates... those who wait until they feel prices have reached the absolute bottom may see their bargains disappear if mortgage interest rates fluctuate upward, as many industry observers predict they will.
“Predicting the bottom of the market is like reading tea leaves,” observed Sandy Garner, CEO of The Garner Group Real Estate in Bend, Oregon. “From what we see in terms of low inventories and absorption rates, we are at or close to a bottom by any workable definition.”
Absorption rates are “inside baseball” in the real estate community, but they are a useful way to measure the market. They calculate how long it would take to sell existing inventory based on the number of sales and homes on the market. Simplified, they show 4.8 months of inventory for June in the Bend, Oregon residential real estate market. The most recent high was 6.3 months in August, 2010.
“In the real estate business, anything under six months is considered a seller’s market,” Garner said. Rates are based on Central Oregon MLS Listing statistics.
Look for more from this article on Bend, Oregon real estate in upcoming posts!
