What does the 2008 Philadelphia real estate landscape look like?

Happy New Year! I like to think of each new year as a fresh start in some ways, but for the housing market, I think we are going to see a continuation of 2007. I think the market will continue to stagnate due to the overall housing crunch. Due to low values, there will be certain opportunities in the market which we will look back on in a few years and say were a great situation.

If you have to sell today you must be realistic and probably you are looking at the selling prices from 2004.

New construction inventory will gut the market to a degree and will create some opportunity for buyers where banks might step in and sell the remaining inventory at a discount. The reality is that the prime areas in the City--Rittenhouse Square, Washington Square and Society Hill--have very little available inventory, less than 2 percent. The problem is that there are very few buyers. But the good news is when and if the market turns, the recovery of existing Center City condos will be quick. There are reasons why there is little inventory in the best locations, these people do not have to sell. They either stay put or keep their property and rent it since it is in a prime location. As with beachfront property, the value of property furthest from the beach goes down first. The value of property farthest from the Square (Rittenhouse) is the one going down.