A glimmer of hope in dark times…

As I view the daily news and track the local market, I keep watching (maybe hoping is the more apropos term here) for that glimmer of light at the end of this seemingly endless dark tunnel that we are experiencing in the housing market right now.

I recall taking a trip inside a cave once with my Indian Guides group, back when my son was young. The cave was one of those that has a stream in it (perhaps a river, but I don’t recall), so we were loaded onto electric motor powered skiffs and taken deep inside the cave on the water. Once there the guide went through an exercise that I shall never forget. He turned off all of the lights that had been used to guide us to that point and let us sit there for a moment. You have never experienced total darkness (see the picture of us on the left) if you have not done something like that. Then to illustrate how far our eyes will adapt to try to provide us some sight, the guide lit a single match in the darkness. We could see everything around us. That single little light was also enough to dispel the panic that had started to set in.

So now I look for that glimmer of hope in the desperate situation that we all find ourselves in these days. Perhaps it is the new Obama administration housing stabilization programs that will provide that little light in all of the current darkness. Perhaps it will be some other spark that takes hold in the market. Certainly something is needed to get us out of the darkness.

All it will take is some small light that allows buyers who have been waiting and trying to see through the gloom to finally feel that now is the time to act. Those few acts of faith in the future will start the ball rolling and it will not take long to gather both momentum and size. There is a huge pent-up demand for housing out there somewhere that needs to be released and then satisfied. Too many people have been waiting too long, trying to see when it would be safe to go buy a house again.

So, without even a visit from Little Mary Sunshine, I am hopeful that we shall see that glimmer of hope soon - a ray of light, even if off in the distance - and that it will grow into a bright glow of renewed faith and confidence in the future by all of those people who have been waiting and watching and hoping and praying for a better day. We’ve been through a tough winter in Michigan, both literally and figuratively and now it’s time for spring and the renewal that comes with every spring. It’s time for that one little hardy plant to push through the snow and proclaim new hope and new life. I’m ready. Let there be light!