Louisville Housing Market

Well, with 2 house showings in 2 days right after Derby, I thought, perhaps, the housing market was picking up. But perhaps not. April wasn’t great for the market, and May doesn’t appear to be doing any better.

At the beginning of the year, bad weather was to blame. April could blame it on Derby festivities, but only partially. What is it then, that is causing such low interest? The report states that the house inventory is low, which should equate to higher prices, but that’s not happening. Why?

Here’s my theory: The market for the middle class housing is tepid. (Right where my house is situated.) But I’ve heard that the houses in the $400,000 range are moving. The problem is that, like all well intentioned mucking around with taxes, it’s the middle class that gets hurt. Gas prices have consistently stayed above $3.00 for 3+ years (Jan 22, 2011) in Louisville, KY,
health insurance is WAY high (what happened to that $2500/family savings?), and the costs of goods all around have increased.

The decrease for the middle class fall into wages, jobs, and purchasing power. A lot of people have not had raises for 5 years. A lot of people have lost jobs, despite the “fact” we’re coming out of a recession. And the pool of people in the Middle Class have decreased. (Some are getting wealthy, most are falling off the backside.) I also think that people are realizing that purchasing a house 2.5x their yearly salary really isn’t a wise move. And that’s a problem for the $40,000/yr wage earner and the available houses are $120,000+.  From what I hear the renter’s market is up. Here in a couple of weeks, we may test those waters with our house.