Rod's Blog

What follows is from the gut rather than hard stats.

I sense some restraint in the local residential real estate market during the past few weeks. This is the result, in my opinion, of the constant drumbeat of bad news and uncertainty that have become inescapable. We have a national real estate market in a world of trouble...banks (BIG banks) closing... FANNIE/FREDDIE with cooked books leading to an unimaginable drop in value....breathtaking drops in the stock market followed by white knuckle volatility...a presidential campaign & election with promises from both sides to "fix" these problems...and this week, the highest unemployment rate in 14 years.

Yet here in Fredonia and the rest of my market area, I sense only modest restraint...not a collapse, not a bursting bubble with tumbling values (we really had no bubble to burst). It is a little hard to factor out the typical seasonal slow down which usually occurs this time of year. But there are no rash of foreclosures leading to an oversupply of houses, no grinding halt to lending. The lenders I work with are still lending much as they always have...actively and responsibly.

Who knows what's around the corner? I sure don't... but thus far, our market continues to be what I would characterize as stable. And that is, relatively speaking, a really good thing.