Trying To Predict Housing For 2016?

Trying to predict the exact outcome of 2016's housing market in my specialty area of Santa Clarita Valley is like trying to grow lush green grass without using your sprinklers in a drought.

We think we have ideas of how it should go, but there is still some uncertainty in jobs and economy.

The biggest factor right now is, of course, the low inventory. We currently have 505 active properties available for sale. That's just shy of a 2 month inventory. That is not enough for a healthy, normal market.

While it did get up to the 700 mark in the recent past, it dropped down during what we call the seasonal time, and still hasn't popped back up.

My personal opinion is a Catch 22 situation.

We have sellers with equity now, right? They want to sell and move, right? But....this is the Catch 22.....there isn't any inventory for them to buy a replacement home.....right????

So, how do we fix that? We continue to list homes, and list a lot of them, and work through other options til they find their replacement properties. Move into a rental, move in with a family member, move into the long-term hotel, do a rent-back.

Some current equity sellers will want to move up, some will want to move down. We just need some movers. Creative escrows maybe, but we need some people who want to move.....and now.