Is it time to buy?

To buy or not to buy? That is the question or should I dare say opportunity. I have been asked by many clients whether they should buy now or wait on the sidelines until things hit the bottom. Each client has a different situation but the Collierville market offers a tremendous buying opportunity that won't last forever. Here are the reasons I think it is the time to buy:

1) "Buy low sell high". If we aren't at the bottom of the cycle now we will be soon. Buying now will mean you are on the bottom of the curve over the next cycle. Some people will try to wait until they think we get to the absolute bottom but why wait? You have a better selection of homes now and over several years it will not make that big a difference whether you bought at the very bottom of the cycle or right before the bottom.

2) New home inventory is being reduced with minimal inventory being built behind these sales. this will help stabilize the market and will help the recovery. It also means that very soon there will be a shortage of new homes. You now have the opportunity to make a great buy and have a pretty good selection of new homes, but that will not last long. With the weakaning dollar you will continue to see the rise in construction prices. This means you will see a dramatic rise in new home prices once the inventory thins out and things pick up a little. I anticipate the new home market inventory in Collierville will gradually be reduced and at an undersupply by the end of the summer. We should see the resale market stabilize and start to heat up again after the presidential election in spring of 2009.

3)Interest rates on a 30 year mortgage are still at historical low rates hovering around 6%. When can you say you have had the opportunity to purchase a home at more perfect time? Low interest rates, a buyer's market and a location like Collierville that will be in demand for the next foreseeable future make this a perfect opportunity to buy.

One of the obvious hurdles to being able to take advantage of this opportunity is selling your present home. The one piece of advice I can give is look at the big picture and price your existing home to sell. It is tempting and just plain human nature to hold out for what you thought your house is worth; but what about what it costs to buy your next home? Look at the big picture and focus in on what you will owe or have invested in your next home. You will see that if you are moving up in price it makes sense to take a discount on your home if you are getting the same or better discount on the larger home.

If you are lucky enough to be in the situation to be buying a home, take advantage of this situation instead of letting the situation take advantage of you.

State of the Collierville Real Estate Market(First Post)

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.

Coming Soon!

I have created this blog to discuss issues that affect the real estate market in Collierville. I will be posting info as soon as I finish setting up.