I am still working on it. Maybe someday I will get it to work, but as for now, I have to rely on my sense of what the future holds in order to take advantage of today.
We have talked (and written) a lot about how markets differ and how the conditions that exist in one market may not exist in the other one.
The eastern regions of Virginia are no different.
2008
2008 was tough on everyone. When the market crashed and prices began to fall, everyone became far more conservative about their real estate holdings. As excited and hopeful as we all were about business in 2008 was as morose and defeated as we were by 2010.
And as great as owning a second home along one of the many creeks and rivers of Eastern Virginia sounds, when you are unsure about the future, it is a luxury that many just aren’t willing to chance.
2017 and Beyond
But here we are with the darkest days of the recession in the rear view mirror. The Dow is up, unemployment is down, and interest rates remain well below historical norms.
The city markets are on fire and the millennial population seems to finally be ready to move out of their apartments and buy a home. Bidding wars are common, prices are shooting up, and everyone in the business is running in attempt to keep up.
The Bay Markets
So are the Mathews, Middlesex, Gloucester, or Lancaster markets behaving in the same way? No, these markets have never really acted like the markets of Richmond or Washington DC, but things have always moved a little slower here — and that is a good thing.
Ask yourself, if your future self could talk to your current self, what would you tell yourself? Is there any doubt that today represents one of the best buyer’s markets in recent memory? Is there any doubt that the market is poised for a sustained run? When you look at all of the factors, the timing couldn’t be better.
So if you are considering the purchase of a soul filling, sunset watching, crab feasting, stress relieving home along the thousands of waterways in the Middle Peninsula or Northern Neck, could you think of a better time? I can’t. And I have been in real estate for a long time.
Until my time machine gets finished, I will just have to use my intuition to tell me that the markets along the Chesapeake Bay are healthy and ready for the shrewd investor.
