1 – Inventory is low – (good for sellers, not so good for buyers)

2 – Interest rates remain low

3 – Prices (in many market segments) have stopped dropping, and are largely increasing.

4 – Sales volume is up across the board

5 – As always, do your own, supporting due diligence; your market will vary.

Click through to read the full Nest Report.

2012 Nest Report – Wrapping up the Charlottesville Real Estate Market by Jim Duncan

But … I wouldn’t be consistent if I didn’t express some concerns I have about 2013 – largely because the following are either unknowns, unknowables or uncertainties – three things the market doesn’t like.

Macro concerns:

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new mortgage rules’ impact – still an unknown.

Read the rules, if you’re interested. (PDF

And:

From the NYTimes:

As regulators complete new mortgage rules, banks are about to get a significant advantage: protection against homeowner lawsuits.

The rules are meant to help bolster the housing market. By shielding banks from potential litigation, policy makers contend that the industry will have a powerful incentive to make higher quality home loans.

But some banking and housing specialists worry that borrowers are losing a critical safeguard. Industries rarely get broad protection from consumer lawsuits, and banks would seem unlikely candidates given the range of abuses revealed during the housing bust.

No problem, right? All a consumer has to do is be too big to fail. Or be sued. Or prosecuted.