Real Estate Gets Real

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) held its annual conference last week in San Francisco, where David Lereah, the chief economist for NAR, delivered his assessment of the current housing market and predictions for next year.

As has been reported, 2005 will set records for home sales across the country, a trend that the Nashville market has enjoyed. Lereah has consistently asserted that there is no real estate bubble. He has preferred the term “balloon,” and has said that, at some point, the air would slowly escape the balloon.

Today, most real estate practitioners agree that the air is leaving the balloon. As Lereah predicted, it is leaving very slowly, but things are slowing. As one San Diego Realtor put it, “The real is back in real estate.”