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Weichert founder hopeful on improving real estate market
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Real estate experts and economists spend hours and days crunching numbers looking for potential signs that the real estate market is turning around. This week, James Weichert, president and founder of Weichert Realtors, thinks he may be seeing some green shoots that suggest the worst of the housing crisis is over. Weichert's particularly convinced that the leads and sales figures for his company in June are signals that the recovery is beginning.
“Each week, additional signs emerge that point to a stronger housing market. Our recent company performance is particularly encouraging,” said Weichert in an internal message to his company’s 18,000 sales associates. “I am optimistic that we have seen the worst. From here on out, we are in recovery mode.”
Weichert reported that June was the company’s best month in terms of revenue units in 22 months. In the month of June, Weichert.com also attracted more than 1.5 million unique visitors, its highest total ever. The previous high was set in August of 2005. The top 25 real estate Web site also saw its highest daily average of visits in June, generating more than 116,000 visits per day.
The company also reported that the average attendance at its open houses was up more than 18 percent in June from the previous year. In fact, average attendance has been outpacing the previous year every week since the beginning of May.
“The strong increase in sales we saw in June is a positive sign that the market is moving in the right direction. More importantly, the interest that we are seeing at our open houses, through our Web site and in our sales offices tells me the pipeline is there for a slow but steady recovery,” added Weichert.
While Weichert has a positive outlook, he still believes additional measures are needed to ensure a return to a healthy and balanced real estate market.
Said Weichert, “Right now, the market is being fueled by an increase in sales of popularly priced homes as a result of the tax credit for first-time buyers. But to keep the housing recovery going and to also stimulate the overall economy, I still believe the best approach is for the government to take similar action to get the repeat buyer market moving again.”
Last week, Weichert released the results of a survey of more than 500 visitors to Weichert.com that found that expanding the current $8,000 tax credit to repeat buyers would provide additional motivation to buy for 80 percent of current homeowners. If the tax credit was increased to $15,000, as proposed in one bill, the number of existing homeowners motivated to buy would grow to 94 percent.
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