Jump In When the Market is Down

I read an interesting article from the University of Florida about the state's high unemployment rate; Florida could face a long recovery in a Real Estate rebound, because of uncertainty.

If you are a homeowner and have had your property on the market for a year or longer, or if you are the agent trying to market that property, you know you both are waiting on this market to turn, right? So just how long must we wait for the market to turn? What will be that one factor that causes it to start turning? These are questions that are asked almost daily by not only owners but those in the Real Estate profession.

I read an interesting article from the University of Florida that indicated that with the state’s high unemployment rate, Florida could face a long recovery in a Real Estate rebound, because of one very dangerous condition, uncertainty. There are those economists who think the recession is over, on paper that may be somewhat true. People are still afraid to spend money and our unemployment numbers keep going up, that creates problems across the board in our real estate market.

Our unemployment rate jumped to eleven percent in September which is the highest level we have seen since 1975. If you couple the large number of foreclosures to that unemployment number, you will now find Florida near the bottom of all the states expected to rebound from this recession. Florida was one of the first states going into this housing recession and it’s more then likely going to be the last one out of it. Just too much inventory. Florida is experiencing one of the worst commercial real estate markets and there is no improvement expected, until the job market turns around.¬† Many retailers are asking landlords for rent abatement’s. Many have decided against expanding and buying more inventory to simply not renewing their lease. Many are banking on this holiday season to bail them out, I’m not sure that is going to happen.

It is still my strong belief that the barometer of how this economy is doing has nothing to do with Wall Street and the market numbers. The true barometer lies within the unemployment numbers. I hear it all the time, people look at the DOW on a daily bases and think this is what the economy is actually doing. If it had a good day then they think the overall economy has had a good day. Don’t ever fall for that one. If you look back at the great depression of the 1930’s the market had rallies, even during those times.

So once again we are back at square one when it comes to the subject of our economy here in Florida. What are we to do about it? How can we turn it around? It is going to take three things to turn it around, jobs, jobs and jobs. Simple solution to a huge problem. Where will the jobs come from? Certainly not from big industry, but from small businesses across the state. It is going to come from small businesses. In my opinion there needs to be plans put into place now that will allow incentives for new businesses to start up and existing businesses to expand and grow. Until this happens we truly are going to see our economy continue to falter.

So is it all bad news, doom and gloom? Absolutely not, our current market has created one of the largest financial opportunities for investors then we have seen in many years. The price of real estate is at an all time low. This should be the time home buyers and investors should be taking advantage of this situation. Remember, the market is down and it looks like it will be a while before it returns to healthier times, why would you not want to be in the driver seat when it does return? Don’t forget, our individual futures are nothing more then choices we make today.