Many a real estate professional, whether seller or investor (buyer), would love to have a crystal ball. Well, short of such a magical device, there’s always Yours Truly to consult, and here is how nationwide trends appear at the moment.

What’s most striking about the way things currently stand is the decreased rate of mortgage delinquency. An industry survey completed a few months ago found that this rate has actually declined a little over the last three months of the past year, totally countering all common sense because the holiday season is usually the time when mortgage payments fall behind the most, what with increased heating bills during the winter and of course all that holiday shopping to be done.

Such developments have surprised many an industry expert. So could this be that much-awaited early sign of a recovery? Indeed, is recovery, then, finally on the horizon?

Probably not, sorry to say! Those of us in the business, not to mention macro-economists and the like, can’t help but continue to perceive the whole situation as still being extremely dire, with still-record numbers of homeowners in extreme financial distress. The main issue is that just too many of them have missed three or more payments now, and these are precisely the people who are, given their statistical history, the least helped by any of the wide variety of mortgage relief programs available. In other words, these very people are very likely to be going into foreclosure either next month or the one after that!

And given just such dire facts, the government has been forced to step in again on behalf of those with little or no equity in their property by announcing an additional five and a half billion dollars in aid, with money channeled to the very locales that the vast majority of troubled loans exist. But because this simply extends an existing refinancing program that hasn’t posted much progress for over a year now, many observers are skeptical. After all, refinancing costs can eat away at any savings made on lower interest rates, making the whole effort not quite worthwhile, particularly when the borrower also has reason to be worried about being laid off, as many such delinquents do!

So the upshot of all this is that property markets will remain in the doldrums for still quite some time. Little positive fluctuations in the general flatline trendline mean little in the face of a wider context that involves continued bankruptcy.

Okay, sorry about the bad news…how about some good news?

Well, it could be worse.

Sorry about that; but that is the truth. And savvy investors know that even slim profit margins can add up over time, and that opportunities exist in the midst of challenges.

And that’s probably the best news there can be in these economically tumultuous times, that bad as things are, they are not so bad that no “wiggle room” is available for any investor creativity whatsoever. Market fundamentals, while terribly shaken, have not collapsed.

Author Bio: For more great real estate articles, visit NationalInvestmentRealEstate.com for insights from industry insiders such as Isaac Toussie and others!

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: real estate, business, advice, property, property markets, realty