We’ve all said it.

I may be browsing in a store and a store clerk might come up to me and say _May I help you with something?_ or _Is there anything I can help you with today?_.

You smile and say:

>No Thanks,
I’m Just Looking.

On the web, there are those who participate in a forum, chat room or blog thread and there are those who lurk. Housing has lurkers too, only they are called “lookers.”

As the housing market cools, it doesn’t necessarily mean people have stopped _looking_ at property. They’ve simply been more reluctant to actually _buy_ something. In Dawn Bonker’s [Looky-loos ‘fess up [LA Times]](http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-lookers27aug27,0,6049213.story?page=1&coll=la-home-realestate), she explores the phenomenon. The lookers fall into three categories:

* Check out prices to see how they compare to their own house
* Get decorating ideas
* HGTV/”re-designers” who love to critique properties

Over the past 5 years, with the housing boom at full throttle, there are many who adapted real estate as a hobby, or to some, an obsession. Developers and sellers these days often wish they had better access to the thoughts of these lookers for insights that might help them sell their properties. Since lookers are emotionally detached from the properties, I would think their opinions would be more objective and therefore more constructive.

I think there is a fourth category as well:

* Buyers

While there are many former buyers who are simply out of the market, many of the lookers today are very interested in being buyers but they can’t make the decision. There is a lot of money on the sidelines right now but with all the worries about the real estate market, they are not ready to decide.


2 Comments

  1. patricia August 29, 2006 at 9:36 am

    Mr. Miller,
    At the end of this post you state “There is a lot of money on the sidelines right now but with all the worries about the real estate market, they are not ready to decide.”
    Do you have empirical evidence to support this claim? Or is it just a feeling you have.

  2. Jonathan J. Miller August 29, 2006 at 9:41 am

    Patricia – its really anecdotal. Our firm does 4k to 5k appraisals per year and we interact with many buyers, sellers and brokers every day. It feels like the consumer is waiting for a “go” sign to actually buy. We have seen this before. But who knows when and if this will happen.

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