Can the Building Sales Market be Good and Bad at the Same Time?

In recent weeks, Streetwise has looked at the divergence of opinions and perspectives present in the marketplace. There is significant optimism and pessimism present at the same time so the question becomes, Can market conditions actually be positive and negative at the same time? I believe the answer is yes but it is dependent upon individual circumstances.

There are many indicators in the market which lead us to be optimistic. Unemployment, the metric which most profoundly impacts the fundamentals of real estate, appears to have bottomed and we are starting to see job growth. Inflation appears to be in check and even the most bearish economists don’t see inflation as a short-term problem. Interest rates, while edging up, have not caused any significant increase in borrowing rates. When the Fed ceased its asset buying program at the end of March, we saw upward pressure on interest rates, particularly at the long end of the curve as the 10-year T-bill, which had consistently hovered around 3.5%, rose to over 4% for a brief period. Last Friday it closed at 3.625%, a surprising result after the Fed announced 10 days ago that it would begin a program to sell a trillion dollars worth of assets over time.