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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 21 as those factors continue to become more prominent in the market, and homeowners and homebuyers recognize that it still is the time to buy a home. Another positive is that mortgage rates are at a very reasonable level. ey're not at their lowest point, but they're still very low— certainly by historical standards. ere's hope and anticipation that maybe the inventory situation will start to loosen up a little bit. It's not going to fix itself overnight. ere's not going to be a rebound where we need to be in terms of, say, home building. ings are steadily improving, so it would be very positive for the market if some of that pressure on the inventory side could be relieved, if we aren't back to where we need to be in 2018 or even 2019. Just making sure that we would see more homes relative to where we're at now available for sale would be a positive for the market. Where are some of the riskiest places to buy and sell a home? One way to think about that is, what are the characteristics of the market that make them risky or not? It's really a combination of those areas that might have a slow-growing economy, maybe weak job growth, and no tested markets. ose markets where there's just not a lot of population growth and the number of households—maybe the numbers are stagnate. Also those areas that have an economy that's really not tied to industries that are growing very quickly, it's difficult for households to see wage gains, and that's one of the key things that generates some enthusiasm about the housing market is this desire to be a homeowner. It can be accomplished and still allow homeowners to stay within a reasonable budget to be able to do it and not have to go too far out of their comfort zone, but that requires an economy that's adding jobs, increasing wages, and generating some activity. Markets that don't have that are probably going to lag the rest of the other markets out there in terms of recouping some of the losses they may have felt during the financial crisis. ere are quite a few factors one could look at, but those markets that are not as dynamic because the economy isn't as robust as it might be otherwise, or they just aren't attracting people to their local economy are the riskiest. ose are the ones that are really going to see the slowest growth. If the economy continues along as we see, most markets are probably going to benefit. Most metros are probably going to continue to see the unemployment rate decline. Everything is kind of moving in a positive direction. It's just a matter of degree to which ones are moving faster than others. High demand and low inventory has been a common trend in the housing market. What do you foresee in the next year for the inventory narrative? e trends in terms of low inventory and the affordability squeeze are probably with us through 2018. ere's no quick fix for the inventory problem. Yes, homebuilders can build more homes than they are, but it's a longer process to catch up with all of the people out there. So it will take several years for that to correct itself. at's actually going to be the basic story in 2018, the rising home values and the tight inventory. And with a thought toward what the implications for policies just like tax reform might be will either support or limit the growth that we have seen in the housing market otherwise. "Taking into account some of the potential impacts of tax reform, we're still in an environment where prices are going to be on the general upward trend, and that's probably going to limit affordability, especially for first-time buyers, and what that means in terms of saving for a down payment. I think that's going to continue to be a more significant concern as we look ahead to the next year to 18 months." www.assero24.com/defense The best defense for a better neighborhood Real People, Real Results

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