This is my fourth December covering housing and economics for voiceofsandiego.org. December is the month more than any other where analysts and economists and regular homebuyers and blog-dwellers truck out their rationale for why the market will or won’t be better in the coming New Year.
Of course this December is no different. I’ve compiled a little roundup here of some of the recent prognosticating, and would love to know what you think.
- Public radio’s Marketplace show talked to USD economist Alan Gin for this segment today. Gin’s take: the market is firming here in San Diego.
- Gin also featured in a U-T economic outlook story this week, along with his colleague at USD, Ryan Ratcliff, who said “The recovery is about to begin, but we have a long way to go.”
- Both were speaking at a conference this week along with the Mortgage Bankers Association’s chief economist, Alan Jay Brinkmann, who offered this nationwide prediction: “I see the market holding on in the low end,” he said, but falling at the high end, above the $700,000 mark.
- North County real estate broker Jim Klinge blogged some of those predictions and attracted a few comments from readers who are expecting the recovery to take a lot longer.
- Here’s Rich Toscano on why he’s not making wide-scale predictions for the housing market right now.
I’ll be sharing soon what I’ll be watching in the next few months; now’s your chance. Leave us a comment and share your take: Are you buying? Selling? Watching the market? What is your prediction for housing and the local economy in the next several months?
— KELLY BENNETT