Each month, the National Association of REALTORS® obtains up-to-date and on-the-ground incisive comments from REALTORS® who participate in the REALTORS® Confidence Index (RCI) survey. The RCI survey tracks expectations about overall market conditions, buyer/seller traffic, price, buyer profiles, and issues affecting real estate, and can be found here.
The selected comments reflect the general sentiment expressed by REALTORS® who participated in the October 2012 survey, conducted from October 22 through November 5, 2012. All real estate is local and conditions in specific markets may vary from the national trend.
REALTORS® reported that the weak job market remains a major concern for buyers, especially given the dependence of credit scores on employment conditions. Policies that are seen to adversely affect the real estate market next year are the fiscal cliff and associated taxes and policies, and potentially regulations from the implementation of Dodd-Frank.
- “Job loss is still causing even the recent HARP homes to now start showing up in short sale and foreclosure market.”
- “Concerned with new Obama tax on sale of real estate. His new 3.5percent tax was slipped in under the guise of the Obama care health bill.”
- “The fear of sequestration is very real in Northern Virginia.”
- “The Dodd-Frank bill is causing chaos with buyers and sellers. Something has got to change!”
