Some recent encouraging real estate trends in the residential market. Interest rates are near historic lows, new housing starts are up, some “bidding-up” wars are occurring especially in some of the hardest hit markets and prices have stabilized on the national level. The real estate market, though, still has a long way to go before it comes out of its most recent slump.
The land market, however, has reacted quite differently. Most notably, activity in land sales just stopped. Prices are generally stable. There is not much land in foreclosure. It seems that it is just sitting there waiting for some action.
Perhaps these new positive trends in the housing market will be the signal for interest to increase in the land market. Remember, the land market remained strong during the beginning of the housing decline. Land prices did not follow housings’ escalating downward spiral; it just “flat-lined” months after the initial housing downturn. Any good news in the housing market will also be good for land sales. The point is, if you were contemplating buying land during this “crash” period, this could be your signal to get serious.