'Cyclical' real estate market will improve, Realtors told

Although the current existent estate marketplace downswing eventually will change by reversal itself, agents should set up for hard times, Golden State Real Number Estate Commissioner Jeff Davi yesterday told about 300 members and invitees of the San Diego Association of Realtors.

“The marketplace is cyclical, you cognize that,” helium said. “There's no speedy fix. There's no Ag bullet.”

Several old age ago, during the fevered lodging boom, some agents could do gross sales simply by going to work and answering the telephone, Davi said. “Well, those years are over.”

He suggested that agents who haven't worked through former lodging slacks web with veteran soldiers have got got who seen the ups and down feathers of the business. They also should turn their attending to the rise figure of foreclosure properties, he added.

“I see that as an chance for agents,” helium said.

Davi's comments came during the association's Home Exhibition 2008, which stops today at the San Diego Convention Center. He was one of three tiffin speakers, along with Mayor Kraut Sanders and Greg Smith, the county's assessor, recording equipment and clerk.

It's Davi's duty to supervise the licensing and ordinance of existent estate agents and to look into complaints. Because the ranks of agents grew rapidly during the recent boom, competition now is keen, he said. There are well over 500,000 accredited agents in the state.

“One inch 53 grownups in Golden State have a existent estate license,” Davi said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Many analysts fault the current marketplace downswing on weak loan underwriting standards. Davi said the incrimination for the subprime mortgage crisis widens beyond existent estate professionals. In lawsuits of consumer loan fraud that his section investigates, borrowers often are in complicity.

He said he needed the aid of Realtors to modulate the industry.

“I desire to make certain we set the bad people out of concern so they don't ache people,” helium said.

While Davi emphasized the demand for agents to work through the lodging slump, Ian Smith said that tough modern times are almost over. Taking the phase after Davi, the tax assessor predicted that the lodging marketplace will soon rebound.

“We're going to be in a trough for a while, but '08 is basically the bottom,” Ian Smith said. “ . . . This is an outstanding clip to purchase existent estate.”

A cardinal hurdle to the recovery is the recent rush in place foreclosures, he added. “Before the marketplace can take off, we've got to acquire through these foreclosures.”

Smith criticized the loose loan underwriting criteria that enabled people to go on buying places as terms soared.

“We had people offering 1 percentage teaser rates, no down (payments), stated income. How in the human race make you suspend the laws of economics?”

In his talking to the Realtor group, Sanders, who is seeking re-election, focused on his achievements in office, including his attempts to decide the city's pension monetary fund problems. In part, he said the city, under his leadership, had made advancement in restoring finances, streamlining trading operations and developing new budget priorities.

Ant Pierce: (619) 293-1372;