When you check any recent news articles, you will read that the real estate market is slowing down. The banner years of 2004 and 2005 are now seeing a marked slowdown. But that isn’t all bad news. For the last two years, it has been a sellers market. Prices were skyrocketing, and sales were high, as well as appreciation values on the properties.

Many areas saw huge pre-construction sales, especially in the condo market. That trend is coming to an end. Investors are trying to sell off their properties, wanting to recoup losses, and that is flooding the market.

Buyers right now are simple homebuyers. They aren’t investors, they are people looking for their own homes. It’s becoming easier for buyers to find the right property. Still, there are those sellers that are holding out for the higher prices they’d have been able to easily get even six months ago.

Sellers are going to have to start being more realistic in their expectations to sell their properties. Still, prices for homes continues to increase in most areas, while buyers are finding it harder to afford the increased prices. Buyers are more selective now. They have much more to chose from than they did this same time last year.

Sellers are finding that if they don’t lower their prices, their properties are staying on the market longer. Sellers aren’t realizing that it’s just normal people buying property, not so much investors looking to turn a quick dollar.

Jay Butler, the director of the Arizona Real Estate Center said, “This is still an expanding market, minus the hype involved in it.”

The concern for buyers right now is affordability. “It would be hard from an economic standpoint to sustain the kinds of growth rates we’ve seen for the last year and a half given our income levels,” Butler is quotes as saying.

Real Estate prices have reached a peak that buyers aren’t willing to risk. Experts say that now will be a period of adjustment. Sellers will become more realistic in their expectations.

Experts have predicted that 2006 will continue to see a slowdown, until sellers become more realistic in their expectations. A similar slowdown was seen in the 1980’s. For now, it’s a buyers market, not one for investors looking to make that quick turn-over for thousands in profits.

By Patricia Fuller

Real Estate Press