Palm State Mortgage is always trying to get a peek at the future to let you know what tomorrow might bring us in the housing market and the world of finance.

Corelogic Inc, a prominent real estate analytics firm, recently proclaimed that “Orlando is unlikely to see its recent home-price gains continue in the months ahead…”  On the one hand, they predicted there would be 1.6 percent drop from first quarter of this year through the same quarter of next year. On the other hand, we have seen national increases of more than 6 percent.

So we might say, “What’s up with that?” David Stiff, chief economist for the Corelogic Case-Shiller Indexes explained, “I think the primary factor  is the foreclosure inventory, and Orlando and Fort Lauderdale have very large inventories of foreclosed properties.” He did offer us a few hopeful factors in this dim prediction:

1. His prediction did not reach any further than Spring 2014.

2. He qualified his forecast by adding that he did not expect a long down-turn for the city, state or nation.

Although we like to maintain an optimistic outlook, we find it easily comprehensible that the housing market has grown softer since nearly half of all existing-homes, nationally and state-wide, have been both cash deals and deals made by investors. We have actually been encouraged that home prices have been rising for the last 18 months. In fact home prices have gone up more than 20 percent in the past year.

Sean Snaith, an economics professor at the University of Central Florida, explained, “You and I both know that’s not sustainable.” He explained, “The investors have helped reduce inventory and drive up prices in selected markets such as Metro Orlando and South Florida, but whether they continue to invest in single-family homes depends on sales prices and rental rates.”

Now we join him in a big question: “How do such markets transition from sales heavily affected by investor-buyers to purchases made mostly by conventional homeowners?”

It is true that obtaining a mortgage has challenged some of the average home buyers, who stretched and stressed their credit limits during the Great Recession.”

Our research has given us five real estate revelations for this summer and the coming Fall:

1. The housing market needs some time to adjust, and we might be in for what Bette Davis called a bit of a “bumpy ride,” through Spring of 2014.

2. Palm State Mortgage Company knows America does not want to backslide into the days, when people could slip into a mortgage which they could not afford to retain.

3. In the near future, buyers should be able to qualify for mortgages, even if they possess a little less-than-perfect credit.

4. We have to agree with Orlando real estate broker, Myra Johnson, who said home prices “have been so volatile in Central Florida that they are difficult to predict.” She also stated, “Tied to a price decline is the fact we have all these vacant houses out there. The best cure is to get our neighborhoods back to where owner-occupants live there.”

5. Could Corelogic be wrong? The Tribune reported that Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based housing consultant, described the Corelogic report as “off target.” He believes that recent home-price growth might slow down soon, but not sink into a decline.

You will not want to miss more details, questions and predictions for the coming months, as Palm State Mortgage brings you more facts, findings, opinions and predictions in our next blog, Part II of Real Estate Revelations. We thank you so much for reading our blog, and we hope you will continue to “drop in” to keep up with both classic information, and late breaking news in the world of finance and mortgages.