Chattanooga Real Estate Blog

It’s that time of year again.  Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour Saturday night when you go to bed.

Good news:  Capital Economics says all indications are that the housing crisis in the US will draw to an end this year because banks are loosening their credit standards and beginning to loan more money.

Bad news:  But even they don’t think the loosening up of credit standards will be significant enough to turn housing prices around.

“While credit conditions may have loosened slightly, some potential homebuyers are still struggling with credit requirements. In fact, Capital Economics points out that in November 8 percent of contract cancellations were the result of a potential buyer not qualifying for a loan.”

“Any improvement in credit conditions won’t be significant enough to generation actual house price gains,” and potential ramifications from the euro-zone pose a threat to future credit availability.

Good Magazine did a piece on Chatype which is the baby of D J Trischler, Robbie de Villiers, Jonathan Mansfield and Jeremy Dooley.  It’s a custom typeface for Chattanooga.  If all goes according to plan we’ll see our own typeface on signs, business cards, emails and city government websites soon.  They’re still working on it but I love the mockups.

This follows an article Good published last year on the green initiative at the Volkswagen plant.  One of VW’s efforts to be environmentally friendly is the paint department.  Instead of sending waste paint to the landfill they are turning it into cement.

Last month the New York Times named Chattanooga one of the 45 places to go in 2012. Wow, Chattanooga with the likes of Helsinki, London, Tokyo, Florence, and Vienna!

In the play Curse of the Starving Class Sam Shepard wrote “Everyone wants a piece of land. It’s the only sure investment. It can never depreciate like a car or a washing machine. Land will double its value in ten years. In less than that. Land is going up every day.”

If we look at the last few years this isn’t true.  At least generally speaking.   However given time the market will turn around and real estate values will begin to increase again.  The downward trend we are seeing now will not continue forever.

What does this mean for you?  Buy now while prices are low and reap the benefits in the future!

Realty Trac released the stats for the 3rd quarter home sales.  Foreclosures accounted for 20% of the home sales nationwide during the 3rd quarter of 2011.  Our local market percentage was higher than that.  During the same period we had 1,633 residential sales.  416 of those were foreclosures representing 25.5% of the total sales.

I expect the same or higher figures for the fourth quarter both nationwide and locally.

I wish everyone a safe, prosperous and happy new year!!

Economists expect prices to continue to fall through at least mid 2012.  This is due to the continued oversupply of houses available due to the huge number of distress and foreclosed properties.  See the full article here.

The article is based on 20 cities but is a good representation of the entire country.

It’s that time of year again when we get back that extra hour of sleep.  Don’t forget to move your clocks back an hour before you go to bed Saturday night.