Presented by Prairie Title June
6, 2014
Commentary
by Frank Pellegrini, Prairie Title CEO
Tired of
getting whipsawed back and forth by contradictory news on the residential real
estate front? Me too. It seems like whenever we read a positive story about sales or pricing, we get blindsided by dour reports. Some of the
journalists who cover our industry seem to be in competition to deliver the
most depressing news and conjecture the fastest. What are we to make of all this?
Think
about CoreLogic’s recent price appreciation report. National home prices were up 10.5
percent
in April from 2013, though they increased at the slowest rate of appreciation
in 14 months. At the same time, continued inventory shortages in many markets
are expected to keep driving prices higher in the year ahead. Good news if
you’re selling your home. Not so good news for buyers competing for less
inventory than we need to really get things moving.
One observation I would make is
that optimism and pessimism move on a sliding scale in reaction to conditions
in the local marketplace. All real estate is local, right? While trends
certainly influence our industry at a macro level, once you get down into the
weeds things can look different. I try not to let the macro have undo influence
over business decisions at the micro level.
Housing
truly is the engine that can, and someday will, push the economy forward in a
big way. Not today, but sooner rather than later, and in some markets sooner
than others. Meanwhile, all we can do is manage our businesses to the
environment and be prepared to hit the accelerator when the time comes.
Questions
or comments? Call me at 708-386-7900, or send me an email:
frank@prairietitle.com.
Related
stories we’re following:
Unrelated,
but worth watching:
