You know the old saying: anything is possible. But many things aren't probable. Mitt Romney has an 8% chance of victory. So we're going with Mr. Obama as winner and heading off to imbibe at some victory parties, and a couple of wakes, right now as the polls close at 7pm.The good news: Mr. Obama's victory is just fine for the C'ville/Albemarle area housing market. The disastrous national economy that Barack Obama inherited (as he likes to say) has been showing distinct signs of improvement. And locally, throughout 2012, right up through Q3, the Charlottesville Housing Market has seen some nice signs of activity. While this isn't technically a "recovery," meaning a return to the pricing and sales volume of the housing bubble, folks are now willing to buy and sell. As detailed in this long post about the area market, buyers from the bubble-era still face trouble; but buyers and sellers going forward are in much more confident positions. 2012 is the year of the bottom in this area, and 2013 will be exciting.
And we have much to thank Mr. Obama for in this turn of events. This housing scorecard is pretty good. Since Mr. Obama has been a friend to Wall Street and TBTF banks, the fear that the "shadow inventory" would destroy housing prices with a flood of inventory never happened because banks haven't been forced to mark the devalued homes to market (see #1,2,3). And with Fed Chair Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner solidly in place during the first four years, we have QE Infinity and a ZIRP that result in +/- 3.5 30 yr fixed mortgage rates. Even Freddie is doing better.
So raise a glass and look #Forward....
Photo: The Times of London.
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