Unbelievable

Realtors are asked one question time and again: “How’s the market?”

The classic answer, one word: “Unbelievable!” The word covers a lot of ground; the wide dry deserts of short sales, the jungles of foreclosures, hard times and good times. Unbelievable was the giddy ride to the top of real estate sales 1998 to 2005, then over the peak, into free-fall down the other side.

The six- year slide down from that peak may be leveling off, according to recent reports. We’ve even heard claims of an uphill climb. That seems unbelievable.

I gazed out my office window pondering, “Which way are we really headed?” I should call my assistant and begin an investigation. I jumped in place when my assistant blasted in, smacking the door against the wall like a cannon shot.

“Must you?” I said.

“Hey, you called me.”

“No I didn’t. I mean, I did? Anyway, let’s go,” I said.

“Where to?” he asked

“To find out where we’re really headed,” I said.

He looked at me with a twisted brow and a hanging jaw as if to say “Haw?”

I slugged down the last layer of sludge from my coffee cup, flipped the lights, said goodbye to everything familiar, and hit the road.

I travelled six doors down the hall and walked into the office of a realtor. “How’s the market?” I asked her. “And don’t say unbelievable.”

“Okay. Different,” she said, “very different.” She said open houses are busier than they’ve been in a long time. Multiple offers are commonplace. Inventory is low, and buyers are competing for the few properties on the market.

“I’m working with buyers who are so frustrated they’re going crazy,” she said. “We’ve written full-price offers on six properties, and lost every time to buyers offering all cash, no loan.”

All-cash buyers are more prevalent than she’s seen since pre-peak days.

My assistant met me back at my office. “An appraiser told me sales are higher and prices are rising here in the North Valley,” he said. “Unbeliev—-“

“Hard to believe,” I said.