The Lehigh Valley real estate market
will stabilize this year, but it will take about three years for prices to
begin climbing again due to an abundance of homes on the market that will take
time to sell.
That was the prediction April 27 of Loren Keim, president of Century 21 Keim
Realtors in Allentown and recent speaker at
Lehigh University.
''I believe we'll start to see a stabilization this year, not an
improvement,'' Keim said. ''It's going to be a bumpy ride, but the final phase
of the housing slide.''
The Lehigh Valley housing market began deteriorating in 2007, with prices
dipping on sluggish sales following years of strong sales and double-digit
gains earlier in the decade.
The trend continued in March, when the
median sale price of a home in Lehigh and Northampton counties was $185,000,
according to the HomExpertMarket Report by Prudential Patt, White Real Estate.
Keim said there remains a disconnect between buyers and sellers that has
hamstrung the market. Many sellers still think their homes are worth a
fortune, and many buyers think they can get them for half the listing price,
he said.
Also hurting the market are prospective buyers who are reluctant to enter a
deteriorating market, he said. That pent-up demand is what will help the
market stabilize as those consumers take advantage of low interest rates.
