For the last month it seems like everyone who called me was complaining about the stock market because their assets kept going down in value.  I’m so excited to see that we have had about eight or nine days of good news in the stock market – I think that has a positive influence on the overall real estate market.

I have had people ask “why does that affect the Hilton Head real estate market”?  It is simple – the most important factor in real estate is consumer confidence.  In other words, when people feel good about their net worth, they are much more likely to go out and buy real estate – especially secondary resort real estate in places like Hilton Head Island.  When people feel bad about their net worth, they are less likely to spend for those “extras”. 

It is my hope that the stock market has bottomed out, prices are up and I think we will see a corresponding trend and increased activity in real estate.  There have been a lot of people sitting on the sidelines waiting for the right time to buy – this may be it.

Wow, the stock market dropped 4% yesterday.

Stock market values affect real estate values, even though not directly.

It has been my experience that people buy when they feel good about their investments and are more cautious when they do not feel good about their investments.  7 out of the last 8 days the stock market has dropped and there was another big drop yesterday.  This probably means that now is a pretty good time to buy.

I wrote an article once “When will history really teach us a lesson” – in this article I talked about how the people who bought in 1991 when every single indicator said not to buy real estate, are the people who came out big winners.  I think those indicators are here today meaning it is a great time to buy.

Consumer confidence is a funny thing.  When consumers do not have confidence in the economy, the economy slows down and real estate prices drop.  We have some unbelievable real estate deals today and now might be a good time to shop around.

I recently had a prospect tell me that he thought the market had not bottomed out and he thinks it will bottom out in 6 months.  I told him that he was probably right, but the problem is that he is not buying a mutual fund of real estate – you are buying one specific property. 

There are some great deals available – take advantage of them!

Obviously Wall Street has been in the news recently and most of the things that have been going on have made investors leery of the trust factor (of Wall Street). 

Helping Real Estate

Obviously when things like this happen people tend to have more confidence in the real estate market then they do investments.  In the long run this will help people purchase more real estate even though in the short run we have been effected because people’s investments have been so low that they don’t have the money to purchase. 

People Believe in Real Estate

The advantage of buying real estate is that people get to make the decision them-self.   They pick out the property they like and they feel better about their investments. 

In the past, more people have invested in Wall Street because they felt these were “professionals”.  But the erratic behavior and dishonesty of several people have hurt Wall Street as a whole, even though there are bad real estate agents just like there are bad stock brokers.  Recently the bad stock brokers have been getting more publicity than bad real estate agents. 

Obviously the greed on Wall Street is bad for everybody.  I’m not saying I’m glad it happened but I do think it is going to make people more conscience that one of the best investments they can make is real estate.