Scary Economic Times!

Sure there is plenty of negative economic news lately to digest, and a lot of it is tied to the real estate market, but there is also a lot of misleading information floating around. The media tends to focus on "the worst cases" and often the declining property values and the foreclosure statistics they use are from the areas that have been hit the hardest. They tend to ignore the housing markets that have remained relatively strong. For this reason it is important for us to stay informed about the economic reality in our geographic area.

Key to our area here in the Pioneer Valley is job stability. We here in the Five College area are fortunate enough to have good economic vitality because of the job security enjoyed by the education industry.

In addition, short sales and foreclosure rates have been accounting for one third of the sales in many parts of the country creating a downward pull on property values. Here in the Valley we have been fortunate enough to have a very low rate of foreclosures thus keeping our median sales price from dropping sharply.

The bottom line is that certainly we are in a challenging market and experiencing tough economic times but we have to keep focused on the positive elements that exist in our area. Hopefully our ride will not be as rough as many others in our country!