As president of the Fort Wayne Area Association of REALTORS, I have done a numbers of interviews for the local media.  To prepare for these interviews I have researched and watched what I feel are important housing statistics for our market.  Here is what I see happening in the first quarter of 2008.

Let me begin by saying that I am really tired of all the doom and gloom being pitched by the media.  This mostly comes from national sources, but some of it comes from local sources as well.  While the market did decline last year when compared to the year before, many of us in the Real Estate business expected it.  But here is the important thing that most people seem to be overlooking; 2007 was still the fifth best year in Real Estate EVER!  What we experienced last year and are still feeling the effects of is a market correction.  The last five to seven years have seen incredible growth in Real Estate.  We were selling houses at record paces and building new houses even faster.  This correction was bound to happen.  But in case you missed it three sentences ago, is it was still the fifth best year in Real Estate EVER!

What we really suffer from right now in Northeast Indiana is a lack of consumer confidence.  All the negative stories we are hearing are scaring people right out of the market.  The problem with this is that most of the negative press is reprints of national stories from the news wires, or stories that quote national statistics.  The Fort Wayne market does not operate like the markets on the East and West Coasts.  We are ranked in the top 5 nationally as one of the most affordable places to live.  You get a lot of bang for your buck here and the housing market is no exception.  We hear about huge price declines on a national level and here our median home price has not fluctuated more than two to three percent for years.  That is great news when the rest of the country is seeing strong declines, but remember, the converse is also true.  We have not seen strong appreciation in our houses here for years either.  Fort Wayne and Northeast Indiana are very stable Real Estate markets.  In my opinion, this is a good thing.

So here is what I have seen in the first quarter of 2008.  We saw sales increase from January to February by over 20 percent and again from February to March by almost 7 percent.  Additionally our inventory of available homes for sale has declined about 10 percent since July of 2007.  Both of these are positive indicators and when coupled with our stable pricing I am of the opinion that we are seeing the beginning of the shift from a buyers market to a balanced market.  I am not suggesting that we will go back to pre-2007 sales levels overnight.  I don't think we will or should, but we will see things stabilize.  You still need to make sure that if you are selling your home it is priced right and makes a good first impression.  If you are buying, be aware that the winds (or at least the breezes) of change seem to be a blowin' and now might be the best time to buy a home.