When I was working out this morning at the gym I noticed the financial news and they said that the Dow hit a 5.5-year low yesterday and that new home construction hit an all-time low since they have been keeping records.  The question a lot of people are asking themselves is how this affects the housing market.

The commentator went on to say that there was “fear” and “uncertainty” in the market.  Those are two things that the housing market cannot stand.  When there is “fear” and “uncertainty” people often do not make decisions.  When people are not making decisions, that means there are less sales which causes prices to drop and therefore has a detrimental effect on the market. 

How long will fear and uncertainty remain in the market?  Obviously, that will remain until there is some reason that the public thinks that the market has stabilized.  It is my hope that this will happen soon because it is having a negative effect on property values.

When your buyers are worth less, they are less likely to purchase.  Anyone can understand with what is going on in the market, our buyers have been hit hard on their portfolios and they have less money to spend on real estate.  This means that they are not going to pay what they would have paid six months or a year ago for property. 

To simply set this aside and say it does not affect your property value is not true at all.  It does have an effect. 

My opinion is that if the stock market continues to go down, a lot of people will perhaps decide that they do not have confidence in the stock market and will invest in real estate.  Most people have confidence in real estate even though they understand why property values have decreased recently. 

In other words, NOW IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!