Mint has published an infographic on the housing recovery. Looking at their map it appears that everything is wonderful again. Unfortunately, just this one map does not tell you the entire story.
For one thing, the cause of the economic downturn was not just the mortgage meltdown, it was excessive debt. The mortgage meltdown was just the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
Secondly, and even more importantly, all real estate decisions are local. In other words, in real estate, the most important item is location, location, location. Looking at things on a national level does not help when decisions must be made on a local level.
Finally, things always look better when you are coming off a bottom. It all depends on where you measure from.
The government will tell you that we are coming out of recession and economic recovery is right around the corner. Since the mortgage meltdown could be considered the root cause of the economic downturn, it’s helpful to look at the current housing market to get a sense of whether the recovery is hitting close to home. As prices have continued to drop in cities across the nation, the number of home sales has been increasing in many areas. Especially profound was the dramatic percentage increase year-over-year between Q3 and Q4 in total properties sold. Our latest map may not be able to tell you when to buy and when to sell but it will give you some strong data with which to make an informed decision.
via Mint Map: Housing Sales | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice.
Hi, thanks for posting this one. We created this particular graphic for Mint, and I just wanted to say that your final point “Finally, things always look better when you are coming off a bottom. It all depends on where you measure from” is essentially the whole message of the graphic – that real estate sales volume specifically seems to bouncing back from its terrible lows (and hopefully it doesn’t end up finding an even lower bottom if rates rise and in the absence of homebuyer incentives). It’s definitely way too early to imply that the economy is fully recovering, but residential real estate/mortgage is definitely an important indicator in the early signs of recovery just as it was an early factor in the problems for the economy at large. This definitely was an optimistic piece and hopefully didn’t come off as being too sensational since the title and data was specifically in relation to the real estate market (although the intro of course does mention the economy at large, we know that real estate prices/sales rebounding alone aren’t enough to turn things around overnight). Thanks, we are big fans of your site and always enjoy your analysis!