Florida Housing Market

This financial market is just changing with lightening speed. So much has happened since last months newsletter I've almost forgotten what's changed.

Let me give it a whirl.

• The Fed dropped the Fed Funds Rate more than expected to 0% to .25%. Great news for interest rates!
• The Fed will be buying $500Billion worth of Mortgage Backed Securities. This is to drive long term 30 year interest rates down!
• Inflation is still moving down. Great news for interest rates!
• Employment is worse than expected. Great news for long term interest rates, though bad news for home sales.

"Team, I realize this rapidly changing external environment continues to ask you to refocus how manage your business and set customer expectations. As I've discussed with several of you, in many ways our industry is simply changing more rapidly than it has historically. This is largely driven by the unprecedented challenges in the broader market.
We are working hard with our pricing partners to come up with a standard approach to implementing pricing changes on a go-forward basis. I apologize for the short notice regarding these changes.
Just as we did in this instance, we will continue to balance the needs of the customer, you (our associates) and the business. Thank you for your hard work, your understanding and cooperation."

Here's some more food for thought:

Interest rates for the first half of 2009 are likely to be the BEST interest rates of our LIFE TIME.

Savvy home buyers are getting the deal of the century on homes right now in terms of price, selection and interest rates.

The inventory of homes will continue to be high through most of 2009 and higher priced homes on the market will continue to decline in price.

Don't be lulled into a "waite till next month prices will be better" mode. I have seen homes on the market and being bought for less than the price of new construction in 2001 and 2002 and that's before housing prices began to rise!

Stay Tuned,
Todd Dawkins