There continues to be numerous signs of optimism for the real estate market as we head into Spring and the nicer weather that’s just around the corner. I follow several real estate forums and belong to a number of networks with many other successful agents across the country and I’m hearing good things about the amount of general activity that agents are starting to see in a number of markets. Unfortunately, the sales numbers are down YTD from past years here in Walworth County but hopefully we’ll begin to see those increase as we get into the season. We are seeing a lot of new inventory coming on the market and that will continue to keep pressure on asking prices, making it more important than ever to be priced realistically and competitively. I saw an article in USAToday this week that briefly mentioned the Lake Geneva area, I assumed they were talking about a unit for sale in Geneva National that has been on the market for some time without much activity. It seems like the only news the media talks about when it comes to real estate these days is the bad news and that does not help us in our attempts to convince prospective Buyers that this is a good time to buy. We do continue to try to promote the positives like low mortgage interest rates with money readily available and warning about the danger of waiting on making a purchase, thinking that the so called bottom is yet to come. There is a good selection of property to choose from right now with many Sellers having adjusted their expectations and asking prices to reflect the current market conditions. Interest rates will not remain this low into the future and eventually inflation and appreciation will cause prices to rise, so all in all, this really is a great time for a Buyer to make the decision to move forward and buy now.