This week our listings saw an average of two showings each.   That’s a bit slower than over the past few weeks, but activity still seems strong in general and my area Realtor peers are in agreement.   This month’s edition of Realtor Magazine was published and in it the Chief Economist of the National Association of Realtors, Dr. Lawrence Yun, wrote a great article indicating that the national real estate market may have hit bottom.   In his article, he writes “With the economy weakening, we’re unlikely to see today’s slow home sales pace pick up in the near future, but the picture isn’t uniformly bleak;   sales have appeared to stablize around a 5 million annualized sales pace, suggesting we might be seeing the formation of a bottom.”

Recently, several different publications have reported that the three best cities for recent real estate appreciation are Seattle, Portland (OR), and Charlotte.   This is right in line with the data I’ve been publishing over the past several months.   Don’t be surprised, however, if those same publishers start changing their mind in the next couple months.  

Over the past few weeks, I’ve explained in this blog that sales in Charlotte hit a low along with some negative price growth in January of this year.   However, the pending home sales were up for the first time since April of 2007.   This was an indicator that Charlotte, too, has hit bottom and is on the road to recovery.   Unfortunately, the national media tends to be a bit behind in their reporting.   So it won’t be surprising to hear the media report that Charlotte prices are on the decline.   Don’t despair, I don’t think you’ll see those stories last very long.