This is the question on most people’s lips, while a few profess to know all about it & try to tell the rest that the end of the World is near. The doomsayers could be right, but their record of accurately predicting major trends in real estate is far from infallible!

In truth, the market here on the Mountain is hobbling along. There are contracts being signed & contracts settling. During June & July Lane Realty put together over $2..5 million in contracts, with all but our most recent contract, now unconditional or already settled. These days, it takes 2 months to make the same value of sales (or even less!) that we were making in a single month a few years back during the boom, but that says a slow market, not a dead market.

Price is KING rather than VALUE right now. There are buyers across the price range, but the vast majority are in the under $500,000 range & looking for A BARGAIN!

We have noticed that properties that we consider to be absolute steals due to their many positive attributes, are dangling waiting for buyers to appear while others are selling that may look good to the uninitiated, but for real value can not stack up against some of those at similar prices that are not selling.

It is a difficult time to be an agent trying to analyse the market value of any given property. All the sales history available is often close to useless & more often than not it really does have to come back to experience & “seat of the pants” judgement.

In truth, the single most devastating impact on the entire South-east Queensland property market was the tragic floods in Toowoomba, Ipswich & Brisbane. The flow-on economic damage to all the surrounding areas has been incalculable. Shopping centre managers everywhere are tearing out their hair as shops close & replacement tenants can not be found. Councils are fighting to collect enough rates to keep operating. Every business relying at least in part on local area tourism has been hit very hard indeed.

The impact has dragged down the entire economy of South-east Queensland & been drastic in places like Tamborine Mountain which is so dependent on doing business with people who live within about the 100 kilometre range. The Gold Coast was never flooded, yet it has also been very badly affected by the loss of usually reliable tourism business because of the floods.

Of course, Tamborine Mountain suffered from incessant rains throughout the summer & autumn months too, with weekends (the prime time for selling anything) being total washouts. Finer winter weather has helped a little, but if 2 in every 7 days are showery here, then you can bet that they will be Saturday & Sunday!

World economic events do strike quite heavily on the Australian property market & fuel prices do have an impact on outer suburban areas. Interest rates here & abroad do exert strong positive / negative influences on real estate activity too.

The 3 major negative forces of the past 6 months have been the international economy, the fear of steep fuel price hike thanks to the war in Libya & the Australian Reserve Bank’s interest policies. In more recent weeks, the risk that the USA might default on its loans has also been hyped up by the media to create yet another source of anxiety among the general public.

America was never going to default because, at the very last resort, the President does have the power & duty to increase the debt ceiling under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. Congress knew this, so finally agreed to do what it should have done weeks ago!

The war in Libya is rapidly drawing to a conclusion, although there will no doubt be a few horrific headlines between now & the end of action there. Gadaffi & sons will be gone & Libya will start exporting sweet crude oil again. Petrol prices should then gradually begin falling.

International finances are not brilliant, but a rocky stability will hold in place & things will settle down.

Australian interest rates have now been on hold for 9 months & are not high by normal standards. The current economic outlook trends suggest that they will now remain fairly stable for a reasonable length of time.