There are several signs of a housing market pickup. One sign that your market is improving that you can't miss and that's when your phone rings with new clients ready to buy or sell. You would want to monitor the days-on-market to see if a sales turnaround is imminent. The five signs are:
-New Jobs v/s New Housing- one new homeowner is created for every two new jobs, so if job creation continues in your area and builders are scaling back on production, it's just a matter of time before the supply and demand equation moves toward equilibrium.
-Fewer Builder Concessions- look for new home builders in your area, as a sign for new confidence, to curtail their offerings of free mortgage payment, new toasters, designer landscaping and other concessions they rolled out at the start of the downturn.
-Months' Supply- the country had about a 10 month supply of housing at the end of last year, but the figure you're interested in is the months' supply for your market. The historical norm is closer to 6 months.
-Visitors per Listing- look at the visitor trends tracked by your local MLS using today's computerized lock-boxes. You can see not only how many visitors view a house but how long they stayed; more visitors staying longer suggests buyers are getting serious. Check listings for open houses.
-Rising Apartment Rents- healthy rental rate increases show strong demand for rentals, but if such increases go on for too long or rates rise too steeply, renters will start asking about buying because it would be cheaper for them to buy than to rent.
A Buyer's Agent can keep you informed when the housing market picks up and how to look for the signs to say it's a good time to buy.
