The following are some interesting home sale statistics and comments about the stock market.
If your planning to buy a home in the Keys with the idea of keeping it for a while then this is a great time to buy.
HOME SALES
Florida's existing home sales rose 20 percent in February - the sixth consecutive month that sales activity showed increases in the year-to-year comparison, according to FAR. Statewide sales of existing condos increased 15 percent last month compared to the previous year; and February's statewide sales also were higher than January's figures in both the existing home and existing condo markets.
The Florida Keys real estate sales have also seen an increase over prior year. The low interest rates and reduced home prices have made this a great time to purchase a piece of paradise.
There are many great deals to be had. Just let me know what type of property your looking for and I'll find it for you!
Markets face ‘irrational pessimism’ NEW YORK – March 9, 2009 –
You’ve heard of “irrational exuberance,” right? That’s the expression Alan Greenspan coined more than a decade ago when he warned that investors could be bidding stock prices too high. His worry was that escalating asset values were trumping reality.These days, the opposite seems to be the case. Call it “irrational pessimism,” a fear that stock prices are headed in only one direction – lower and lower – because asset values and profits seem certain to fall.
Caught in the vortex of this new hopelessness are once-pristine blue chip stocks like General Electric Co., whose share price has plunged 45 percent in the last month to below $7 a share. Investors have become increasingly worried that losses at its financing arm could put a crippling dent in the conglomerate’s capital base.But before buying into the notion that all is lost, it’s worth remembering that stock indexes today are almost exactly where they were in 1996 when then-Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan issued his warning.Investors ignored him then, pushing stocks higher for more than three years until the Internet stock bubble burst in 2000. Now, a growing number of market experts are saying the time may be near when the Cassandras of doom should also be ignored.“You can get to emotional extremes in both directions of the market,” said Hugh Johnson, chairman and chief investment officer of Johnson Illington Advisors. “Savvy investors think in those terms and they know how to get that to work in their favor.”By that, he points to the short-sellers who are playing a big role in what the market is doing today. They make money betting stocks will drop, and have set the tone in this current decline, which began after the market reached record highs in October 2007.Peter Sorrentino, senior portfolio manager at Huntington Asset Advisors, takes that one step farther. “The shorts are staging raids on our companies,” he said. “For the last two years, the best bet you could make on the market was against it.”Sorrentino knows that because his firm owns 6.4 million shares of GE, and he can’t understand why the stock is trading where it is given that parts of the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company by his count are worth a lot more than where its shares are trading now.He’s convinced the shorts have made it tough for anyone in the market – at GE and beyond – to think positively because they could get burned. Therefore, investors have decided it is easier to follow than fight them, even if a company’s finances say something else.
The negative environment in the overall market is driving away prospective buyers, said Darin Newsom, senior analyst at the Omaha, Nebraska-based market information company DTN. “Right now no one wants to support this market,” he said.That may be driven by fear instead of reason.
Rob Skeel , Realtor
Cell --305-393-6300
Email--rob@robskeel.com
Century 21 Keysearch Realty--800-541-5019
Web Site-- http://www.robskeel.com/
