As the world [economy] turns
I don't watch soap operas but I do love the title of As the World Turns and apparently, it is one of the longest running and most popular shows of the genre.
I'm fairly certain my grandmother was a big fan. 
Anyway, back to more important matters like the economy and Charleston real estate. I got a phone call yesterday from a potential seller who was concerned that there were a lot of other homes for sale in a neighborhood where he owns a home and he was thinking of selling. Rather than just telling him what he wanted to hear which is that it would be easy to sell his home quickly for top dollar, I had to break the bad news to him that if he really wanted to sell, the home would have to be well priced and in top condition. After all, with so much competition of available inventory for buyers to choose from, if you don't price it right and the condition isn't pristine, you're basically wasting your time having a for sale sign on your front lawn.
Just a guess but he'll either pass on listing now or hire another Charleston real estate agent who will tell him what he wants to hear.
But that doesn't mean that his home will sell.
So how's the economy.
Well, according to the stock market which apparently bottomed on March 9 (and I got lucky and called it on March 5) and has retraced 50% of its losses and the bond market where long term interest rates have jumped recently, there isn't the same kind of worry that we all experienced last fall when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and then Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson went to Congress and basically said if you don't give us $700 Billion (with a B) and we can't tell you what we'll do with it (because we don't know) the world will end tomorrow.
So what's going to happen next.
I'm not sure but I don't think we're quite out of the woods on this yet. Activity in the Charleston real estate market has picked up significantly from the lull most of us experienced late last fall. Thankfully, we are fortunate to live in a wonderful place like Charleston where people want to live, buy or invest. But what's happening at the macro level.
Here's a great chart from WSJ with 3 scenarios for an economic recovery.
"The stock market has erased almost all its losses for the year, yields on long-term government debt have returned to something like normal, and commodity prices have been surging -- all evidence that the worst of the economic crisis may have passed.
But the road to recovery is far from smooth, or even assured. As investors ponder their next moves in this unusually unpredictable cycle, they are confronted with a confounding array of potential risks."
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