Gary Watts has long been recognized as a forecasting expert by the real estate industry. His long-term analysis has also drawn the attention of the media due to his consistent accuracy. His Economic Outlook has been spotlighted in regional newspapers, including the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times. He has been seen on the PBS TV program Real Orange, and he has been a featured advisor on real estate forecasting roundtables. He holds a degree in economics with advanced studies in psychology from California State University at Sacramento. 

The housing market below $250,000 has most likely reached the bottom
Prices now in the $350,000 range are close to the bottom.
The rest of the housing market still suffers a restructuring of prices. 
Expect foreclosures and short sales to dominate the market through 2010.
Listing inventory should rise due to the large number of foreclosures set to enter the market.
The credit conditions should greatly improve, bringing more buyers into the market place.
Demand for properties will continue to be higher than the past three years.

Presidential elections always have a noticeable impact on the economy. Historically speaking, presidential elections usually reverse prevailing trends, which is good news in this economy. Since the media is covering a lot of the “drama” and not much on actually what the policies of each candidate are. I’ve desided to do a bit more investigation myself. For your convenience click below to be directed to the economic policy section of each candidate’s website.
Economic Policies for: Barack Obama

Economic Policies for: John McCain

I asked my loan broker, Dean Rathbun this week how important is it that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stay in existence. And her is what he had to say. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-supported mortgage giants at the centre of America’s housing market, pose a particularly acute problem for the government. Not only are they too big to fail, they are almost too big to rescue.
They hold or guarantee some $5.2 trillion of the nation’s $12 trillion of mortgages, backed by the thinnest wafer of capital, meaning their collapse would imperil the already paralyzed American housing market. Yet, an analyst at Graham Fisher, a research firm, points out, nationalizing them, a stark choice for the government since their shares tumbled last week, would “result in a doubling of the federal deficit, a further collapse of the dollar and unthinkable implications for the Treasury’s cost of funding in the debt markets.” (more̷

As tax season settles, consumers throughout the nation anxiously await their tax refund and rebate. According to the latest IRS estimate, tax refunds will be almost 5 percent higher this year, with an average $2,480 returned to taxpayer’s hands.
This financial boost couldn’t come at a better time. Get ahead of the tough economic situation by spending your tax rebate wisely.

As a realtor my I suggest on how you can make the most of your tax refund and rebate:

Spruce Up Your Home
Is your kitchen or bathroom looking a little dingy? If so, consider a renovation. Home renovating and remodeling can drastically improve the value of your home. On average a kitchen and or bathroom remodel will yield a return on investment of 80 to 100 percent. Investing in a kitchen or bathroom not only provides an unparalleled return, but allows you, the homeowner, to enjoy the benefits of this investment before you place your home on the market. The best upgrades to a home are: French Doors, New Window Treatments, Plantation Shutters,  Granite Counters, New Chandeliers and my favorite, give your home a new coat of paint. All I can tell you a home improvement will give you the pleasure while you own the home and when it is time to sell your home you will get most of your investment back. I know that new flat screen TV was on your list, but rethink it, should you need to sell tomorrow, no buyer will pay you that much more because you throw the flat screen into the deal.

Presidential elections always have a noticeable impact on the economy. Historically speaking, presidential elections usually reverse prevailing trends, which is good news in this economy. Since the media is covering a lot of the “drama” and not much on actually what the policies of each candidate are. I’ve desided to do a bit more investigation myself.
For your convenience click below to be directed to the economic policy section of each candidate’s website.
Also below are the links on how specificly each candidate will fix the housing crisis.

Economic Policies for:

Hillary Clinton                          Barack Obama               John McCain

Here are the specific plans each candidate has for the housing crisis:

Hillary Clinton                         Barack Obama                 John McCain

Phrased differently, is my $600 check really enough to turn this economy around? No, and it’s not
designed to do so. However, it will do more than you think. At its core, the package employs a simple concept. One of the first things that happens in a recession is that people lose their discretionary income. As a result, people stop buying iPods and designer jeans and, instead, purchaseCD players and Levis. The top-tier vendors have to cut back and fire some of their workers. Since they tend to offer higher-paying jobs with better benefits, these jobs are a substantial loss to the economy. The displaced workers essentially move down one rung on the economic ladder. This cycle can continue for several classes of workers, and the cycle is very difficult to reverse. This is what economists mean when they say, “we may talk ourselves into a recession.” Small clinical studies have shown that even a modest cash “prize” or “gift” can alter this tendency to spend less, causing people to focus on their extra cash, instead of the decreased bonus at work or the higher prices at the pump. Of course, that’s only the most prominent element of the Stimulus Package. Also included were improved lending conditions and an increase in the amount of credit available to certain banks.

This seems to be the unanswerable question. Journalists and analysts were asking this question over a year ago and are still unable to answer with any divinity today. The reason for the uncertainty stems from contention over the definition of the word “recession.” The traditional definition necessitates that an economy endure two straight quarters of negative growth before it is classified as a recession. By this definition, we are not in a recession. However, this definition is problematic for several reasons. Most notably, growth may not be a reliable indicator of improvement in the overall economy. For instance, oil companies are recording record profits this year, figuring into overall growth trends. But those gains come at the expense of millions of consumers and businesses.  So, while oil companies technically grow the economy, most sectors of the economy perceive this growth negatively. To complicate things further, growth is immeasurable for at least 6 months after a quarter ends. Most conservative analysts will tell you that a good two years must pass before accurate data can be collected and understood. In fact, our last recession ended before economists concluded we were in one. Once you eliminate the standard definition, you are left with an array of contending classifications, which explains the current difficulty in describing our period as a recession. However, most analysts will tell you that enough economic indicators are in decline to classify this period.