Happy New Year to all of you! I hope your holidays went well. Here at The Brian Maecker Team we all took pieces of the holidays off and we are excited to start 2009.

Well 2008, is over and the market saw big drops in prices, drops in sales activity and drops in inventory. We have also seen interest rates drop to record lows.

What does all this mean to the public of Colorado Springs? First it means that real estate is at or near bottom. Over the last 2 years we have seen prices drop 15-20% in various areas of Colorado Springs. I think the carnage is over. Inventory is continuing to drop. This is another indicator that is showing the market is leveling off. In 2007, we saw record amounts of inventory and now in 2009, it is back to normal. Activity was pretty constant in 2008, until September. When big banks collapsed it scared us. Today we are seeing banks doing loans to qualified buyers at record low rates. I look for these rates to stay constant throughout the first half of year.

Foreclosure will continue to make news. We will see another wave of them in summer and fall. We are cycling through a bunch now and the next wave will come as we are finishing this batch. So foreclosure inventory will remain constant.

So, sellers & buyers, prices will not go up in 2009, but I don’t see any real depreciation happening either. Inventory will remain constant giving buyers many good choices. Real Estate is a great value right now. We are at the same average price that we were in 2003. From 1998, prices across the board are $100,000 higher. Real Estate is a solid long term investment. It is a good time to own a home and enjoy the benefits. In my 24 years I have never seen rates this low and when I saw prices discounted like this was 1988. The buyers of then have enjoyed huge benefits. This is the time to buy investments or move up.

Please give us a call and I’ll show you how!

Thanks,
Brian