The Train Is Leaving The Station...Are You On-Board ?

We've been in a real estate market correction for just over 3 years now. My prediction has been that the market will correct for 4 years before it starts to appreciate again. The typical real estate cycle appreciates for roughly 5 years and then corrects for about 2... a kind of 5 steps forward, 2 steps back scenario. Since we had an extraordinarily long appreciation cycle this time around (1996 -2006), it shouldn't surprise real estate cycle followers that 4 years of correction is proper and in line.

Signs of investor bottle-necking are here. Multiple offers on foreclosures are now the norm, especially aggressively reduced REO's looking to clear themselves from the books. The laws of Supply and Demand dictate the climate of offers, whether it be few to none or a dozen offers on one listing. I've witnessed the latter being the case, finding offers of a few thousand or more over asking price being the norm rather than the exception. This domino effect leads to the bottle-necking I was referring to, where everyone has the same subdivisions and homes in their sights with only one to emerge the victor. Is this the proverbial, "The train is leaving the station...are you on board?". I think it is, and it is important that you give it some consideration if you've been sitting on the sidelines waiting to make an investment move. Timing is everything in investing, and this period of amazing opportunity to buy real estate for pennies on the dollar is quickly eroding away.