The real estate market buzz words “stabilizing market,” “returning to normal” and “market softening” may send the wrong signal to consumers. The housing market isn’t likely to implode in a mushroom cloud, but words like “normal,” “stable” and “soft” are more likely to produce complacent acquiescence when it’s time for a more proactive approach to changes in the market. Experts who have lived and worked through past market shifts take a decidedly more robust “cover your assets” approach to today’s [tag]real estate market[/tag] rather than trying to pigeon hole it as typical.

[tag]Real estate investors[/tag], including home [tag]buyers[/tag], are just as unrealistic about and unfamiliar with the real estate market as novice stock market investors were about the technology sector during the dot com era of sudden wealth and sudden losses. “They are unfamiliar with the real estate market, especially when it decreases in value and does not appreciate at the tremendous rates that have been seen recently in some parts of the country. It can not be emphasized enough how this is not standard and is not how long-term investors should be calculating their numbers,” Vander says. The fundamentals apply — realistic, conservative and well-diversified investments over the long haul virtually always yield greater returns than jumping on the wagons just as they are about to circle.

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