Memphis On List of Strong Housing Markets

This month’s stock market declines, the battle over the federal debt ceiling and the European debt crisis have deepened American pessimism for the national economy and housing market at large.  Despite this gloomy outlook we can actually expect home prices to rebound within the next two years, with an expected turn around as early as next year. Looking at this in more detail, the Fiserv financial-data firm forecasts that home prices in 384 U.S. metro areas will rise by an average of  2.7% between the first quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, with 95% of those areas showing gains in that time period. Chief economist at the firm David Stiff, notes that home prices are far more affordable at this juncture now that the housing bubble has burst.  Additionally in most metropolitan areas, home prices–when compared to household incomes–are at pre-bubble levels.

Memphis, Tennessee, in particular is expected to see a 10% gain in home prices by spring of 2013 according to a report by Fiserv Inc. Overall, the inventory of unsold homes and the amount of foreclosure inventory hitting the market is going to slowly decline this year and start to be less of an impediment to price appreciation.  However, depending upon what happens in the economy we could see some volatility due to affordability levels, economic policy changes and a possible increase in supply of homes due to those factors.  This increase in supply is dependent upon how much economic turmoil we see ahead and further price corrections in specific volatile markets like California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida which have already seen massive hits in the property values.  We have seen much more stability in Memphis Tennessee over this economic storm and we feel it’s necessary to invest in the right market to cover your downside risk.