Rancho Santa Margarita Blog

 Generally, postpresidential election real estate markets tend to improve slightly. The boost tends to be greater if the winning vote was substantial. President-elect Obama won the popular vote by about 7%. If history repeats itself–and it usually does–the real estate market will continue to improve in 2009. Many believe the reason post-presidential markets generally improve is because consumer confidence increases after the American voter has the opportunity to express his/her will through the election process. The more people who agree with the election results, the greater the consumer confidence.
The California Association of Realtors (CAR) predicts that prices will bottom out by mid-2009. CAR also predicts a 12.5% increase in the number of sales in California in 2009. Remember–months ago, we predicted that an improving real estate market would lead us out of the recession. Forecasts of continued low interest rates, lower foreclosure numbers, and increasing consumer confidence in real estate should continue to bring about an improved real estate market. The one concern is the economy. The bailout that Congress passed will hopefully bring about results within the coming months, and the nations economy will begin to heal. A final, encouraging observation: sales in September 2008 were up 96.7% from the same period in 2007.