"Life Moves On" Department

"So How's the Market?"

That's probably the question realtors -- myself included -- get asked the most.

The quick answer: it depends. On the neighborhood, of course. But also your price point; whether you're selling or buying -- or both; your age; your credit score(s); your intended holding period; and a raft of other factors.

But what's most obvious to me, three years past the market peak, and two years into a marked slowdown, is the extent to which my clients are moving ahead with their real estate plans, regardless of market conditions.

There are two likely reasons for that.

First, no one really knows where the market goes from here.

Not me, not (Fed Chairman) Ben Bernanke, not the smartest economics Ph.d (I only have a bachelor's). My standard, only slightly tongue-in-cheek response when asked about the direction of future prices is, "tell me what interest rates, unemployment, and GDP growth (gross domestic product) are going to be, and I'll give you an intelligent price forecast."

Of course, none of the foregoing variables is knowable with any certainty.

Which brings up reason #2: life moves on.

The clients I'm working with now are moving because they need less space, more space, or space somewhere else (like another city). That's because their families got bigger (babies), smaller (empty nesters), or they got a new job.

Life moves on.

Sooner or later, you stop worrying about what the future holds, and do what makes sense for you or your family, now.