Do You Dress For The National Weather?: The Rest of the Story Series

I just read a news item on azcentral.com entitled “Pending home sales plunge to record low”. If you only read the headlines, like most people, it leads you to believe that all housing markets are in tragically poor condition. Better stay in that rental as long as possible, all markets are going under! But think about this for a moment, what if you switched on the local news and it gave you only the “national weather”? The forecaster says, “Our weather here today will be 47 degrees with rain which is based on the median weather reports for 20 metro indices over the last 6 months.” Did that give you any indication of what the weather is like right NOW or how you need to dress for the day? Of course not, nor does a “national housing” report give you any viable information about the greater Phoenix real estate market.

The report goes on to concentrate on “plunging sales” in November. Of course there were fewer reported closings in November, there were only 16 1/2 business days in one of the shortest working months of the year. The figures don’t explain the “why” of the market or the fact that real estate sales are highly localized. Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) which services the greater Phoenix area indicates that home sales for December 2008 were UP 60% over home sales in December of 2007 a nice peak for sales that have showed a year over year monthly increase since June of 2008.

One of the biggest problems that agents and consumers face is the “bald” numbers tossed out by various news sources. Frequently, the numbers are inadequate, incomplete and irrelevant. Numbers alone don’t tell the “Rest of the Story”. Like it or not consumers need a local real estate expert to help them with the information analysis necessary to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities in this LOCAL market.

DF

(More on the Rest of the Story Series)