Turnaround? Rebound?

For today, and I think today alone, I'm going to give credit to Kimberly Blanton at The Boston Globe for her piece in the Globe Real Estate Blog. Add this new news to the stats yesterday from MAR and The Warren Group and you'll see more and more cautiously optimistic news. Yes, the housing market nationally is down. There are segments of the market which are way down. However, Boston is still growing in terms of prices and other key market waypoints.

Let's face it, the once thing Greater Boston always has going for it is life. How many thousands of students and young professionals come and go each year? How many new doctors arrive for their residencies and how many new biotech jobs are created each year? These people all need a place to live. Add that to the normal cycle of life (birth, death, new jobs, kids growing up, etc...) which causes people to move and you'll see all of the key elements of a perpetually strong real estate market.

People in the market today have heard all of the news, they've been scared by all of the bad reports and they're taking a look at their life priorities. Those who truly need to buy or sell are motivated by that need and make their decisions accordingly. This is why our market is so healthy today. A renter who shouldn't really buy yet is holding off until they actually have enough money to buy. A seller who is changing their quality of life lists their property to move, not to make gobs and gobs of money. This is all good and this will keep us all strong for a long time.

Remember, extreme growth feels really really good, but most times it's not sustainable, and this is what we saw happen recently. We're back to "normal" growth now, and we're in a good spot.