>>30% more inventory up for sale in the toney areas of Long Island now then from the last peak I saw - Summer of '02. >>
Real estate inventory often peaks in the summer months. You just acknowledged a peak in your area in summer '02--yet, didn't demand and prices still progress after that? It's going to take a lot longer than a few summer months and a lot more evidence than this to confirm a slowdown in residential real estate demand across the country.
I think things are a bit slow where I live, too, simply because the second house in my neighborhood to come on the market in a year (an estate sale, this time) is still on the market after two weeks. Maybe no one likes the house, and the inventory of competing, similarly-priced homes is up a bit, due to summer. I know I don't like the house. But then I didn't like the one next door to it, either, which went on the market in May for more money and sold in a week. (Owners of that one are moving to a retirement beach house in Delaware.)
Don't go looking for blood yet. Maybe soon, but not yet.
In my area, families who are looking for new schools for their kids in the Fall have already chosen their homes and are moving in right now.
A Wall Street Journal real estate story on Friday noted the large amount of multi-million-dollar properties for sale in the Hamptons. According to one real estate agent quoted in the story, people sorta balk at paying more than 10 million or so for a weekend house. I should think so! This isn't necessarily a reflection on what other, more typical Americans, are doing about housing these days.
Just my opinion. |
