Happy Holidays from All of Us at Pearce

It seems fitting to end this year, which has been so difficult for many in the real estate market, whether as client, agent, or vendor, by wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2012, with increased business for all!

Where Retail Goes, Will Real Estate Follow?

Retailers seem very happy with sales so far this holiday season.  Even booksellers, according to today's New York Times, have been seeing big increases.  Given the lackluster sales in the past few seasons, this seems to indicate that consumers have loosened their purse strings.

What does that mean for real estate?  While the fact that someone will buy a book doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy a house, the fact that someone won't buy a book almost certainly means that they will not make a large purchase like a house.  So it's a prerequisite that consumers have to feel more confidence before the real estate market will improve.  Hopefully, we're almost there.  Given the historic low interest rates, it's hard to believe that we haven't gotten there already.  Perhaps the start of a new year will push us over into a seller's market, or at least into a balanced one.

Assessment Woes

The City of New Haven has just released its new assessment figures, and there is a lot of talk in the media (see particularly the last couple of articles in the New Haven Independent) about tax increases by neighborhood.  As I've blogged about before, East Rock is the neighborhood in New Haven that stands out as having held its value over the past years of decline (Spring Glen in Hamden is the other one that really distinguishes itself).  Because so many areas in our region, let alone the core city, have gone down in value since the peak of the market, East Rock stands to have higher tax increases in the upcoming revaluation.

While one could look at that from a negative point of view, the real key here is that values have held up in that neighborhood, despite plenty of bad economic news and job loss around the region and the country.  Although that may cause taxes for people there to rise, they are not going to be underwater in value, as so many others are.  And that's certainly good news.