Blame it on Phil

Boy, what a difference a degree makes—or actually about 30 degrees!  From our unscientific survey of various weather experts (LOL!!!) on a multitude of TV channels, it seems that nearly every day so far this year both the high and low temperatures have run about 30 degrees below average!  Oh, and then there was all that white stuff piling up on our driveways and sidewalks and front steps in record breaking amounts, plus those magnificent six foot long icicles dangling from our gutters, wreaking havoc on them and just waiting to skewer the postman or a dog walking too close to the house.

And then Punxsutawney Phil sees his danged shadow and scurries back to hide for another six months…or is that just weeks?

Who out there would be surprised that the volume of home sales and new listings so far this year has been well below the expected?  Phil maybe wasn’t surprised, but he sure was scared, so he dove back into his burrow to shiver some more.

And yet, we DO know—even without the expert guidance of our favorite on-air weather-person—that spring eventually WILL come, the tulips and daffodils will pop, and our bicycles will no longer have to weep alone in the garage.  And, yes, those folks who are thinking of buying or selling a home this year will climb out of their burrows and stretch and finally—finally—take action, delayed by our nasty winter, but undeterred!

So, why is it that we hear so many real estate experts (do they go to the same school as the weather people?) telling us that, because sales were way down in January and only picking up a bit in February, that 2014 is doomed and that we should all, like Phil, scurry back into our burrows as if those buyers and sellers were determined that, since they couldn’t buy or sell in January or February, then the heck with it, forget it?

While none of us can predict exactly what the market will bring us this year, we like what we saw a couple of Saturdays ago when, for a brief tease of what’s to come, the sun shone like a chamber of commerce video and the temperature soared to just below 60!  By mid afternoon, the traffic heading into Indy’s Broad Ripple area was stacked in all directions, as if IU and Purdue and the Colts and the Pacers were all playing in championship contests that very afternoon.  Talk about releasing some pent up demand!!

Okay, beer and wings may not be houses, but weather-bound pent up demand is still pent up demand, so we’d say pay no attention to that gopher in the burrow, and get your game ready to go once the mercury approaches a normal level, so you can grab all those opportunities as they start to pop like those tulips. 

And hopefully you’ll even see your shadow!

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching