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Trying to imagine what the market will look like when it turns around? Keep your eye on the first time home buying activity, not just in the U.S., but also worldwide.

According to the president and CEO of Royal LePage Real Estate Services in Canada, “…first-time buyers will be the engine that drives Canada’s housing market in the months to come.”

Currently, first-time buyers represent 40% of all real estate transaction in Canada, which is down from the 70% peak a few years ago. “When first-time buyers don’t buy, it’s really like sand in the gears of the real-estate market,” he said.

In the U.S., real estate agents nationwide are currently updating their market conditions reports to reflect the new Spring Market in their local areas. Many of these agents are reporting to HouseHunt.com that “first-time home buyers are the greatest activity in their markets.” Nearly six months ago, the first-time home buyers were even with the repeat buyers in many cities in the U.S. according to HouseHunt.com’s 2008 3rd Quarter Survey (Q3 2008).

Fast forward to the 4th Quarter in 2008, HouseHunt.com CEO Michael Bearden says, “Our fourth quarter random survey of HouseHunt member-agents showed that first-time buyers accounted for 65% of existing home sales – up from 46% in the first quarter of 2008 – and nearly double the normal ratio between repeat and move-up buyers.”

With preliminary results for the 1st Quarter of 2009 showing an abundance of first-time home buyer activity, could the U.S. be at a “half-way point,” like its northern neighbor? It wouldn’t be surprising since there are many new programs in place to motivate the qualified first-time home buyer to make a purchase. The new FHA loan limits that were signed into law last month create an opportunity for any qualified buyer to purchase a home today at an incredibly low interest rate.

Combined with the first-time home buyer credit, today’s real estate market has what’s necessary to turn around.

There’s an interesting editorial on Yahoo! Finance by Vicki Gerson that looks at some of the positives for buyers that can arise from the current market.

The article states,

Investing in real estate used to be considered a “no brainer,” a can’t-miss investment.

But these days, this sure thing isn’t so sure. Home prices keep falling. Standard & Poor tracking shows prices down 7.7 percent nationally in November 2007. The National Association of Realtors, or NAR, reports that sales of single-family homes were down by 13 percent in 2007, the biggest drop since a 17.7 plunge in 1982.

Representatives of the NAR say that this makes it the best buyers market in a long time. Prices are down, interest rates are near a 45-year low and the supply of houses is high…

You can read the rest of the piece here.

An agent with some foresight and the help of a HouseHunt.com exclusive territory could easily take advantage of this market by creating relationships with buyers wanting to make moves in the current market. These are buyers that could be looking to purchase in as soon as thirty days, or as late as a year from now.

Either way, they’re going to need a competent agent who’s ready to go when they are. A smart agent should build a pipeline of these ready buyers, establish a professional rapport with them, and cash in down the road.