I think it is great. While sellers have to be more realistic on how long it will take to sell their home (3-6 months vs 1 month) as well as being realistic on what their home is worth; homes in the Portland OR area are still selling at an appreciating rate. Now is the best time to entice investors with great home prices for rental properties. For as most people know as home sales slow down, the rental market speeds up, allowing for higher rents. Also as most know real estate is cyclical and eventually the pendulum will swing the other way and some of those who invested in a low priced property today will get the payoff later.

real estate is just like the stock market.

Bears make money ... Bulls make money ... Pigs get slaughtered!!!

Price your properties properly or suffer a slow downward spiral of lowball offers once your property becomes stale on the market

You know, the short and sweet is this: Property is being bought and sold every day of the week. I personally have noticed a longer duration on the market...coupled with more and more occurances of Seller subsidies. I will say that people who are hanging on to the values of 12-24 months ago will be sternly corrected...in other words, greed kills.

It varies greatly from town to town in the Northern NJ area. In Wayne, NJ prices have only declined slightly which is more typical in a town that has so much to offer many individuals. Other more depressed areas like Paterson are seeing almost a 50% decline with much of the area being subject to bank approval.

Our market in Champaign/Urbana, Il is always more stable than other parts of the country because we are a college town, University of Illinois. We are definitely experiencing a buyer's market at this time. Sale prices are falling to levels they should have been 2 years ago. But, there is always movement. Our sales are currently down 7% in the MLS.

The media keeps telling us its a buyers market but the statistics are showing us this isn't true. Homes in our area in Maine are still selling for 90-94% of asking price. What has changed is how long. In 05 it was typical for DOM for 7-21 days until under contract. Now it's more like 2-4 months but the prices have held. We are down 3% over last March's numbers for values.

The buyers in Northern Michigan are very active, seeking the "great values" that are out there! Prices are 10-15% lower than a year ago which has stimulated significant buyer interest.

I had a very busy January/February. Now the phones just stopped ringing. Our snow finally melted and we have had good weather. I thought it would be busy. But not much going on in Northern WI. We have a big recreational market. Maybe the gas prices are scaring people.

The Buyers market is treating me fairly in the gated community that I am currently selling. I am however, seeing for the first time in over 9 years, many Lease/Purchase Agreements instead of just standard Agreements of Sale.