Is it safe yet to mention that the housing market might be recovering? Being one who has superstitious tendencies, I usually prefer not to speak about such things and instead knock on wood. Rather than look ahead, I wanted to use this space to look back and recount what lessons have hopefully been learned through the struggles of the last few years.

My first would be that you should never look at your home as anything other than a long- term investment that will appreciate over time. Expectations that your home value will increase more than 2% a year might be akin to fools’ gold.

Next, I would say that you should think about long-term financing as opposed to shorter adjustable rate mortgages (ARM). Locking in a steady long-term rate will eliminate the false sense of security an ARM can lend itself to. ARMs can be like the deal that is too good to be true. They definitely serve a purpose but the majority of borrowers are better off with a 15 or 30 year fixed loan.

Number three: adjust your thought process as to how much house you can afford. Is it really necessary to buy a home just up to the point of what you can pay for? I would say the message that many unfortunate folks now in foreclosure would convey is to purchase only what you need and not what you might really want.

For me, the most important lesson from the burst of the housing bubble is to take the time to do your research! Carefully choose a real estate agent and loan officer. Make sure that you have come to them off of a solid recommendation or by your own thorough investigation. These are the most important people in your transaction (along with a reliable title company, like Monarch!) and working with professionals who value honesty and integrity will only serve as a tremendous benefit to you.

Has the winter that never was started the cyclical spring push a bit earlier than usual? The bears will tell you that the mild winter has accelerated the busy season and that this will affect real estate activity this summer. The bulls will tell you that this is the beginning of a recovery for housing and that we can expect the market to begin a slow steady climb back.

I suspect the answer lies somewhere in between the optimists and the pessimists. Isn’t it interesting that you can scan across media outlets and find such diverse opinions? Even more vexing is the interpretation of data and how easily both ends of the spectrum can be drawn from it. Those same bulls and bears again.

My view is that the only real barometer to “the market” is what is happening right in front of you. What is the status of your production, and what can you do to improve or change it? I think we all might spend a little too much time and energy worrying about what the world is telling us about the “state” of “real estate.” Maybe the focus needs to shift back to our business at hand and all of us dictating what “our market” is doing.

The moral of my bulls and bears tale is this; the only information that really matters, is that which you know to be true. The day-to-day grind of how your business world is unfolding is really the only gauge for our local market. Beyond the statistics, news releases and editorials are our anecdotes of each day, week and month that ultimately determine the real “state” of “real estate.”

Follow Monarch Title on Facebook and visit our website www.monarchtitle.net for continuous information about local events and classes from our professional development forum.

Thanks as always.