Real Estate Predictions for 2014 and Nebraska

Everybody loves a top 10 list, and a list of the top 10 real estate predictions for 2014 is what every real estate publication across the country is trying to create at the moment — to capitalize on our uncertainty in the real estate market. If you don’t look too far, you’ll also find a bunch of year-in-review articles, as though we need to be reminded of what happened 11 or fewer months ago, in case we’ve gone half senile during that time period.

I create my top 10 list of a real estate forecast every year for About.com as its home buying expert. Most of the time, I’m right on the nose. That’s not because I have some sort of super power, but because I look at the way things are going and figure they’ll pretty much continue in that same direction. Oh, we might have a little up and a little down, but most of the time, if things are moving upwards, say, for at least 3 to 4 months, that’s a trend that will continue.

The main difference between last year and our new year of 2014 will be that last year, meaning this year now, will have experienced wilder swings. In Sacramento, for example, we’ve watched the prices of entry-level homes soar through the second quarter of 2013. When home prices shot up, buyers became nervous and started asking questions about whether we are in another real estate bubble. Seriously? Oh, yes, I see, they were born on the cusp of Rain Man meets Enya during the Reagan Administration, with no reference points prior.

You want to see old people in their element, I tell ya, you should see the movie Nebraska now playing at the Tower Theatre in Land Park. Nothing against the state of Nebraska, but the director elevated the winter wheat fields of Nebraska to an art form. It stars Bruce Dern in an endearing role. There were belly laughs in unexpected places during the movie. And lots of old people, many of whom I recognized from my own lineage, and I suspect some of the actors actually live in Nebraska and are not actors. It’s their not being actors that created some of the hilarity.

The movie is about this old guy, Bruce Dern, who gets a letter in the mail from a place like the Publisher’s Clearing House, informing him that he has won a million dollars if he has the winning number. To collect, he decides to go to Lincoln, Nebraska, even if he has to walk all the way, because you can’t trust the mail with such an enormous task. His son steps in to drive him, primarily, it seems, because the stubborn ol’ fool kept otherwise wandering off down the highway.

I can’t tell you anymore about the movie because I don’t want to spoil it when you can see it for yourself. Just like I can’t tell you anymore about my 2014 real estate predictions and forecast, when you can read it for yourself at the link in the first paragraph of this blog.