Quote of the day: Sit it out, sellers

Do you want to help heal the U.S. economy? Don’t list your house for sale this year.

That’s the main point I took away from the Chicago Association of Realtors’ Regional Economic Forecast 2009, held January 15th at the Palmer House. The panel, which I moderated, featured presentations by three economists and a leading Chicago real-estate analyst. The consensus among them was that the key to a housing recovery is getting more people confident that this is a good year to move.

“Let’s get buyers back into the market to absorb [housing] inventory,” said Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. Yun and others talked about various ways to do that—such as publicizing data that show housing is far more affordable now than prior to the boom, and by making the $7,500 first-time buyer’s tax credit, a temporary measure, a permanent addition to the tax code.

Chicago Magazine‘s Dennis Rodkin, from his recap of the Chicago Association of Realtors’ Regional Economic Forecast 2009. One of the many Realtors in attendance was Rubloff‘s Eric Rojas, who shared 10 highlights of the conference on his blog, The Chicago Real Estate Local.

(Visited 74 times, 1 visits today)