For those of you that continue to wonder and ask about our local real estate market we have provided some surprising answers and conflicting information in terms of what the national newspapers and press are reporting.
There is good historical data that the bottom line in the housing market is only about a year away. Recovering from the real estate recession is less predictive.
The percentage of foreclosures is sure to rise given the current mortgage crisis.
However, data proves that even if the annual range of foreclosures is 4% of households the local economy will not be significantly damaged.
Even though the purchasing power of borrowers has become more conservative it is the borrowers from prior years (2001-2006) who got caught in the mortgage industries over extensive credit lending and lenient terms, that will suffer the most.
According to the Maine Real Estate Information System, Inc. Realtor's in Maine sold 1,425 homes across the state during August 2007 - a 6.74% jump from last Augusts total of 1,335. The medium sales price for homes remained unchanged at $195,000.
On a national level home sales dropped 13% since last August.
Fortunately, Maine has been the exception to the rule in terms of the disturbance in the mortgage industry. We have many local lenders offering a variety of different terms to buyers. Our niche is our location and all that we have to offer that most of the county can't compete with. So if you ever heard of location, location, location... in the simplest terms we should consider ourselves extremely lucky to be positioned so well.
Please see MREIS'S report for August below.
Posted by Kathryn Townsend, owner/broker Townsend Real Estate
