Happy Almost New Year to Traverse City & Northwestern Michigan!
December 26, 2009
caroltraversecity
We’ll soon be saying the year 20-11
and here’s hoping/praying for a much better year for all of the hardworking residents of our State of Michigan.
I’m a realtor in the Traverse City area & have been for almost 19 years. I had the pleasure of enjoying what I now know to be a pretty lucky rocket ride for the first 14 years of my real estate career.
Definitely a different story now, and even though it isn’t nearly as fun & exciting as it was before,
it’s a market that drives me to new limits on constantly trying to keep up with the ever-changing
realities of today’s market so that I can help as many people as I can survive the ride.
It’s imperative that Realtors keep up with what’s going on in the market so that we can offer up the best guidance to our clients – many of whom have become innocent victims of the crumbling economic & real estate markets. Doing all of that, while very much fighting the battle ourselves – can be very emotionally draining & it’s important to keep close tabs on our own emotional states of mind.
The latest on what I see coming at us over the next several months unfortunately seems to be more of the same. Even though you may constantly see blurbs here & there about constant increases in home sales, I’m afraid to say that the market overall is not going to be healthy for quite a while.
It will still be a GREAT time for home buyers & investors to purchase properties, but it appears like the selling end is possibly heading for the same dismal conditions. There are two big reasons for that, one of which is the unemployment issue in Michigan which will continue to add more inventory to our market (unfortunately much of it may be in the form of fire-sale priced properties being either short sales or foreclosures).
The other dark cloud looming over all of America, is that several of the biggest lenders had somewhat of a moratorium on foreclosures and/or were utilizing the majority of their personnel in the hopes of convincing people to restructure/modify their existing mortgages.
Not a big secret that statistically those efforts are not producing the glowing results that the big lenders had hoped for. What that means is that there are potentially MILLIONS of additional mortgages across the U.S. that will be processed for foreclosure over the next 6-12 months.
I know & I sincerely apologize for this being so seemingly depressing, but there have certainly been lessons learned the hard way & powerful moments of awareness discovered by many families across the country.
Lessons learned? We all really do need to learn not to be such a disposable society & to truly
learn to live within our means, while always being prepared for the best & worse case scenarios.
And awareness needs to come in the form of knowing that these material items are really not what should be defining us in our own minds & worrying about having the best or the shiniest of whatever on the block. Family, health & doing our best to help other people whenever we can, should be the focus of our mental, emotional & physical energies. Even if it’s just a smile or a random act of kindness – you never know when a simple gesture can be a life changing event for somebody truly struggling under the pressures of today’s world.
WE ARE ALL going to be fine & make it out of this mess, and hopefully end up being better human beings because of it. Somebody once said ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff, and in the grand scheme of things – it’s all small stuff’. So when the going seems tough, remember to focus on the things in your world that really should be your focus & dwell on the positive. The rest of the crap will sort itself out & when we reflect back on it, we will see that it was just another speed bump in life.
Have a wonderful New Year to All & seize every moment of simple enjoyment that you can. The work & list of things you need to do, will wait for you.
Best Wishes!
Carol Franklin
Broker/Owner
The Bayshore Group
Traverse City, MI
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Entry Filed under: Northwestern Michigan,Real Estate,Traverse City,Uncategorized
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