When the market comes back……….People will finally be able to sell their house, we’ll see surgeons leaving their practices because real estate is more lucrative, sellers will no longer be under water on their mortgages.  Yep, it’s gonna be great again……when the market comes back.

Only problem is that the market we are currently in (at least locally) matches up to what historically has been considered normal.  About the only time in local real estate history that doesn’t match up to today is the heyday of 1998 to 2006, especially 2003 t0 2006.

Check this out.  Here are the January 1st through September 7th (today’s date) sales numbers for residential real estate deals in Lexington:

1997-2236 sales

1998-2911 sales

1999-2898 sales

2000-2811 sales

2001-2989 sales

2002-3133 sales

2003-3568 sales

2004-3746 sales

2005-3723 sales

2006-3469 sales

2007-3106 sales

2008-2538 sales

2009-2290 sales

2010-2395 sales

2011-2117 sales

Wish I could easily get the numbers prior to 1997, but they aren’t available online.  I was here prior to that though…I remember when it started to heat up back in 1998.  There was an article in the paper about a local realtor who needed foot surgery but was putting it off since the market was soooooooo hot.  1997 to 1998 was the largest jump in sales for two consecutive years.  Prior to that, the market was…..well, just normal.

And that’s why I really think that the market IS back, just back to normal.