Acorn Street - Boston's Beacon Hill

Now that the spring market is fully upon us, it can be concluded that not just the market in The Greater Boston Area is showing great signs of improvement, but nationwide other locations are also seeing changes in the status quo. Since the housing boom in 2006 it was typical commonplace for individuals to in a sense be overconfident in thinking that there would never be a housing downfall again. Well, the economic recession certainly put a halt to any of those false hopes and immediately transitioned these ambitious minds to ones full of fear.

It must be noted that now the notion of fear about the real estate market, the economy, losing one’s job and ultimately fear about the world rapidly fading into oblivion is ending as consumer confidence is rising. As the economy has slowly improved so has the job market. From January to March of 2012 there was on average about 212,000 new jobs pumped into the economy each month. In addition, the unemployment rate sunk from a previous 9.1% in August of 2011 to now 8.2%. In another blog we commented on how the average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage is now 3.88% and was 3.87% in February, the lowest since the 1950’s. With that said, clearly loans are far more attainable and cheaper currently than they were in times from recent memory. Prospective buyers can also take advantage of the generally more affordable housing market today. Of course this does not account for all towns and cities, however on a national scale this has been the trend of late.

One California broker shared that even calls from potential buyers improved a lofty 35% in frequency. In Ohio, it was noticed that for the first two months of 2012 sales jumped 16% as well. Across the nation, a real estate data company known as CoreLogic explained that two thirds of home prices are not at risk for foreclosure and that this sector rose 0.7% in February nationwide. This, as astonishing as it was to learn, was the first time in the last four years that such an increase has taken place for this bracket.

JP Morgan Chase even has issued 6% more mortgages for the months of January through March and also acquired a massive 33% more applications for them. Furthermore, Wells Fargo also saw noticeable boosts with a 54% increase in mortgages coming from an 84% increase in applications over the same period mentioned above.

However it is not all positivity spreading across the nation. Some areas are still struggling such as in Seattle where prices have fallen 9% over the past year as well as in Cleveland where they have dropped 7%, to name a couple. On the contrary, Dallas and our city of Boston are two the cities leading the pack in this revitalization period for the real estate market with proven successes over recent periods. Where there is a feeling of a gradually building trust in real estate and its supporting markets within a specific area then buyers will come. Today we can confidently say that with all of the evidence of a Boston housing recovery everyday from various reports, it appears as though the time feels right for a boost in our real estate market and that now is the time to invest.

More Information: Boston.com