Some folks say that we can take current housing numbers (existing home sales down 8.6% from last month and 45% of homes for sale are “distressed”) to mean that maybe, just maybe, we’re at a bottom. I’ll hold off on playing that game and stick with the facts as to where the opportunity is in all this lost value.

With mortgage rates at four-year lows (at or under 5.3% for a 30-year fixed), if you’ve got the always-solid 3 C’s: great credit, proven capacity to pay your mortgage (that means a J-O-B), and collateral (at least 20% to put down), today’s real estate world is your oyster.

The hard part is that not enough of us have the 3 C’s right now, not to mention the ability and desire to move. Even if lenders open their purse strings, we still face sour job numbers month after month which cuts into our capacity to pay for a mortgage. We also have so much less equity, so there goes our collateral—a home is now worth a median $181,000 compared to around $230,000 back in July 2006. So, we’re staying put, in record numbers. Not a bad thing in the long term as we’ve hopefully learned our lesson that a home is not just investment to flip or live larger than our bank accounts allow, but a place for our family to feel secure and build wealth with equity.

Let’s just hope that we’ll all get back to building equity soon.

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