I’m a sports guy and as far as sports are concerned, it’s been a (for lack of a better word) bizarre year. Just to mention a few things such as, Marion Jones’ fall from Grace, the steroid scandals, Michael Vick and company, spygame, and our beloved Sean Taylor. No one ever said life was easy or that every path was paved with gold. The American housing market had its fair share of ups and downs as well.

However, 2008 has a better outlook. Even through the ghastly headlines of 2007, there were still a number of positive paramount economic forces bolstering real estate and keeping it from a complete pitfall. As these forces continue, it will put the recovery cycle into gear.

Look at the mortgage rates. The 30-year fixed rates were in the 6 percent range for a majority of the year with a few weeks in the high 5’s. This allowed many borrowers to refinance into alternatives such as Federal Housing Administration or conventional Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac loans. Not to mention that the announcement of the national loan-modification and rate-freeze will help those struggling subprime homeowners from going to foreclosure.

The national job growth, economic expansion, and thank goodness for low inflation has helped the national housing market in 2007 and will continue to in 2008. For all of you skeptical people out there listening to the news, the sales of new and existing homes totaled nearly a whopping 6.5 million, which by the way marks the 5^th-largest sales year in American real estate history!!!

Another needle that got lost in the haystack in ’07 was the inexperience of all things that come with a market boom as well as the unfelt pains of a credit crunch. The latest quarterly home-price data from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight found that while significant declines have occurred in dozens of speculative markets in the past year, prices were flat or up in 204 of the 287 metropolitan markets surveyed.

What goes around comes around. At some point in the correction cycle whether it be, sports, life, love, or real estate peoples’ psychology begin to change. In the case of real estate, people who want or need a house start to look around and realize prices are low and there is affordable financing. They say to themselves, “This is a smart time to buy.” The cycle has done its work.

That psychology should begin taking effect as 2008 starts to unfold.

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