I am glad the tax credit has expired and I hope that the government does not bring it back. Nobody needs the artificial enthusiasm that the tax credit brought to our real estate markets and the economy. I know that I was a proponent of the tax credit when it first came out but after a year of watching what it did to people and the housing market in Tacoma I am glad that it is gone and we can begin to rebuild our local and national housing markets.
In many ways the tax credit was like Wal-Mart offering 75% off everything the week before Christmas. People started acting rudely towards one another. I had one seller who responded to a buyers request for closing costs with something along these lines “why should we pay anything for the buyer? After all, they are getting paid $8.000 to buy our house. What are we getting?” People were making crazy offers on houses that they really did not even like just to get the $8,000. Why would anyone buy a house just to get $8,000? I mean that it is a very nice amount of money but nowhere near enough to warrant the purchase of a home. Everyone was acting entitled to things that they had no right to feel entitled to. Now much like January after Christmas where we all spent too much money on too much stuff that we did not need or that we now realize we even wanted but it was 75% off at Wal-Mart so it had to be good right? we will start the process of reevaluating our needs and our budgets.
Buyers will still want to buy houses. Sellers will still need to sell houses. The markets will still be the markets. Life will go on. I am optimistic that we will see an even faster recovery now that the people that are participating are actually participating because they want to for their own true reasons. Not because they were being bribed into making the decision.
I brought 2 homes on to the market yesterday April 30th. 2010. Crazy? perhaps hard to tell. Yet this morning when I looked in my MLS both homes had had over 2 dozen views in one day. My other listings that are active, no views. Is this a function of new inventory being shiny and new and exciting? Or is it the function of the market realizing my sellers want to sell and have priced their homes to sell without any artificial encouragement? I don’t know but I do know this. We will know soon enough.
The world did not end last night and today it’s a new world. When you’re ready to talk real estate I’m ready to be of service. I hope we talk soon.
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