(Economist Karl Case of Wellesly College presents his “Case” that Real Estate Values are Close to Bottoming-Out.. Indications of Aggressive Buying & Stressed Inventory Point to a Healthier Real Estate Market.. Karl’s News is Supported by Years of Objective Measures in Buying Trends and the Effect on Prices.. This is Great News!)

Real Estate in Sarasota & most areas around Florida, are immune to national indicators of real estate values.. When the economy takes a hit & spending slows, Florida does sufer similar to that of other states, but Floridian Values are quicker to recover. I believe this is due to the quality of life, comfortable weather, and amenity-packed communities that make residents feel like they’re always on vacation. Demand is consistently high here. Florida real estate “sets the trend” rather than following buying & selling trends.. When buying bounces back, Florida is one of the first places consumers invest in.. Because of the notably historic high volume of real estate purchases happening in the Sunshine State, our numbers reflect a radical snapshot of conditions.. Buying has been down & sellers are struggling to sell; however, read on below and notice that experts are predicting “the bottom could be close”.. The Federal Government has stepped into the Mortgage Mess to clean house, & a large chunk of the bank-owned, distressed selling situations have cleared out.. There’s still a niche of the market that’s “bailing out” & contacting REO departments of their bank of & short sale specialist, but as noted, the bottom is close to here & real estate is showing signs of strength. Losses are high the mortgage market, but these types of indicators let us know, the end of depressing real estate values is closing in..

Housing-price economist sees market as near bottom

NEW YORK – Sept. 15, 2008 – Wellesley College economist Karl Case presented a paper at the Brookings Institution on Sept. 11 that suggests the housing market may be close to bottoming out. He cited modest gains in residential prices in nine of the 20 markets covered by the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index and a narrowing of the gap between incomes and home prices that occurred during the end of previous property downturns.

Also at the Brookings Institution, Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius presented a paper that uses state-level data from the Mortgage Bankers Association from 1998 to the 2008 second quarter and estimates $473 billion in overall mortgage losses if the Case-Shiller index holds steady at June levels.

Hatzius calculates that losses would rise to $636 billion if home prices drop another 10 percent and to $868 billion if prices plunge 20 percent, with lenders shaving $2 trillion off available credit in the event of a 10 percent decline.