This is the first of what I hope will be many posts in the future. It is a little awkward trying to write like I would talk but here it goes.
I was very skeptical about starting my own blog because I don't necessarily trust other blogs to give me accurate and honest information. I came to the conclusion after listening to the national and local media tear apart the consumer's confidence in the housing market that there is a need for honest and accurate info about the housing market and maybe a blog is the best place to get that info. Perception is everything when it comes to the housing market and when the public perceives there is a problem then there is. The housing market is different from the stock market although the national media tries to treat them the same. If you buy a stock it is the same whether you live in Collierville or San Fransisco. If you buy real estate it is definitely not the same in Collierville as it is in San Fransisco but the national media acts like it affects us all the same. The real estate market is based on location, location, location!
This is why I have decided to start my own blog about the housing market in Collierville and this is who I am. My name is Allen Green and I am the managing broker for John Green & Company Realtors®. We are a family business located on the Historic Town Square in Collierville, TN. I have been a licensed Realtor® in Tennessee since 1989 and have been practicing full time since 1995. Before deciding to join my father in the real estate business I was a pilot. I have been around real estate all of my life and have watched my father grow his company from a one man office in 1979 to over 50 agents and 15% of the market share in Collierville today. I have also seen Collierville grow from a population around 7,000 to over 40,000 today. My father is a past "person of the year" in Collierville as well as one of the founders of the Collierville Education Foundation. My brother Michael is the current chairman of the board of the Collierville Chamber of Commerce as well as a member of our local board of Realtors® mls committee. I am a past president of Main Street Collierville as well as a current board member and a member of our local association's finance committee. I tell you these things only to let you know I feel uniquely qualified to discuss the issues of the real estate market in Collierville.
Now that we have the boring stuff out of the way lets get down to the nitty gritty. What is the state of the real estate market in Collierville? This is a tricky question and one that requires several answers. First let me say compared to other markets nationally and locally our market is strong but if compared to the last couple of years it has softened. Everyone in the nation is seeing some softening in the market due to foreclosures and negative talk about the market in general but we did not not have double digit run ups in our home values thus we have not seen the huge drops in value. It is true if you have to sell your home right now you will probably have to take less than you thought your home was worth 6 months ago but it will still sell if priced right and is in good showing condition. The next answer to the question is, the Memphis area was undervalued before the trouble in the housing market and Collierville is one of the best sub-markets within the Memphis market so Collierville has been hurt less than other markets in our area. One of our biggest problems has been people that want to move to Collierville have had trouble selling their home. The federal goverment just raised the FHA limits to $271,050 from $200,160. This should help with the resale market in Collierville as well as people wanting to sell their home and move to Collierville. The bottom line is it has been a little soft in the Collierville market the last half of last year to the present but their is light at the end of the tunnel. I look for things to be a little up and down until after the Presidential election and really look for things to improve by spring of 2009.
I hope I have not rambled on too much, I could keep writing for another hour but I will save some for my next post. Please subscribe to my blog on the right side of the page to get updates. I will also post new listings on this site as well as links that I find useful. Thanks for reading and I look forward to your comments.
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