Being thankful, even when it’s tough.

By Joel Persinger
YourRealEstateDude.com

Now that the holiday season has arrived, the traditional “slow season” for real estate has begun. Folks are starting to focus on travel plans, family gatherings and last minute shopping sprees. Not many people want to move during this time of year, so sales of homes slow down considerably. As you’re reading this, you may be thinking, “What planet are you from, Joel? How could real estate possibly slow down any more than it already has?”

Indeed, this year has been a tough one for the real estate business and for anyone whose business is somehow connected to it. The crazy rise in prices of a few years ago, the collapse of the sub-prime lending market and the resulting credit crunch have all taken their toll on San Diego’s real estate marketplace and, more importantly, on San Diegans. Sales of both new and existing homes have been down dramatically, mortgage loans are more difficult to get even though interest rates are at historic lows, home prices have gone down to the point that many sellers simply cannot sell or even refinance and many real estate and lending professionals have either left the business or are on their way out and just don’t know it yet. Support industries have also suffered. Residential construction is a prime example. As you drive around San Diego County you don’t see all that many homes being built anymore. This means leaner times for contractors and the companies and workers they hire.

Tough times like these make being thankful during the season for “being thankful” that much more challenging. That is, unless we chose to focus on the positive. Your home may not be worth as much as it was before, but if you have one to live in, you are ahead of many millions of people around the planet who cannot say the same. We live in one of the richest cities in the richest state in the richest county in the world. Your bills may not get paid on time and maybe they won’t get paid at all, but you probably ate this morning. So did I. We’ll both probably eat well tonight too. In this city we have good, clean, running water, electricity that works well over 99% of the time, we can go where we please when we please and unlike the Middle East, where many of us have family or friends in harm’s way over the holidays, nobody blows up marketplaces, weddings or schools here. We even have it better than our counterparts on the East Coast. We have no snow drifts or blizzards. If we want snow, we go to Julian and play in it for a few hours before taking the short drive back to weather that is the envy of the world. Let’s face it, here the sun shines bright and the skies are clear almost every minute of every day.

Yes, times are tough financially for many of us, but when you really, honestly think about it, the blessings outweigh the curses in almost every case. So, as the year winds down and the holidays begin, I urge you to think about the good things, focus on the positive and have a blessed and happy holiday.