Why Buy Now, in July 2011?
- Local Horse Farm sells for $9.0 million (181 acres)
- The Economy has Turned Around
- 03/04/11: The U.S. unemployment rate drops below 9%.
- 02/01/11: Strong stock market: The S&P 500 index closes above 1,300 and the Dow closes above 12,000. These are the best levels since August 2008.
- 12/03/10: Pending home sales jumped 10.4% in October.
- 10/27/10: New home sales climb 6.6% in September as reported by the Commerce Department.
- 04/02/10: The job market brightens as U.S. Payrolls surge in March. Employment levels achieve the biggest gain in 3 years.
- 01/29/10: GDP up 5.7%. In the fourth quarter of 2009 the U.S. economy grew at the fastest rate in 6 years, led by an increase in capital spending.
- 10/19/09 The stock market is at a 12-month high. The S&P 500 Index is up 62% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 54% since the March 2009 lows. The S&P Homebuilders ETF (“XHB”) is up 88% over the same period.
- 9/15/09 Fed Chairman Bernanke declares that the recession is “very likely over.”
- Mortgage Rates are Near a Historic Low
09/30/10: Mortgage rates hit a record low in a Freddie Mac Survey: 4.32% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage.
- It’s a Buyer’s Market in Florida
Bargains are available at substantially lower prices than a few years ago. We believe that the real estate market has found a bottom and the market will improve, although slowly. California and Florida may be the first to recover since they were the first to experience large declines.