Solid data shows the real estate market is beginning to rebound

In their recently released “Sentiment Survey”, the Real Estate Roundtable announced that real estate experts from all around the country believe that market conditions are improving despite the current economy.

The Real Estate Roundtable is a widely respected association comprised of senior principals from America’s top public and privately owned real estate entities.  These are executives and business leaders who head development companies, as well as lending and management firms.

The Roundtable is important because every quarter, they commission a “Sentiment Survey”.  This is a survey conducted by the FPL Advisory Group, an unbiased third party hired to capture the opinions, thoughts, and perspectives of people who work in real estate every day.

Every question answered for the Sentiment Survey is a personal insight on what is seen and felt “in the field”.  Such an approach makes the survey a very human barometer of what’s going on, with a “street level” methodology.

During the meeting for the second quarter of 2009, the Roundtable found that almost 60 percent of the survey’s 120 respondents fully believe that the real estate market will improve within a year.  This surge of optimism is directly related to an uptick in the “Overall Q2 2009 Sentiment Index”.

The index, as opposed to the survey, is measured on a scale from 1-100.  It combines data from recent quarters and derives an average.  The current number for the second quarter of 2009 is 41.  This is up from 38 in Q1, and 33 in Q4 of 2008.

The Sentiment Survey also indicated that 88 percent of respondents report loans being harder to get now than one year ago.  However, a full 68 percent predict that one year from now loans will be much easier to get.

In essence, all these numbers indicate that consumer confidence is growing, and that confidence is fueling an improvement in market.  The future is getting brighter—and there is now solid data to back it up.

Want to know more- give us a call…..You may be surprised at just how well your area is doing, regardless of what you’ve heard.