Housing Market

There was a lot of condo flipping and home flipping down here just 18 months ago.

That's partly what caused the problem. So many folks were buying on speculation that they fueled their own spike in prices. That forced people trying to buy homes to pay inflated prices. Once the speculation stopped, prices started to slide. At the same time, many of the folks whose only hope for home ownership was through an ARM reached the end of their interest-rate rope and hung themselves when the special rates increased.

Now everyone's screwed. The banks have a house that's not worth what they loaned. Their own borrowing is limited. Meanwhile, the homeowner is now renting because it will be a few years before they'll even have another shot at homeownership. The only good part is that their rent is probably way less than their mortgage was.

 

since i'm looking to buy a house in about 16 months, i sure hope those guys kept their yards up.

 

You should have heard all the yahoos on the board two years ago.

There is "zero risk" was a common refrain among those ARM lemmings.

 

i hope they took care of their yards.

 

"There is no housing bubble." "There is no housing bubble!" "You have no idea what you are talking about! I just told you, there is no housing bubble!"

My brother and his domestic partner1 just built a house --- not huge, but very nice. I have no idea how they afford it --- one's a driver's license examiner, the other's an insurance agent.

1Is that the right term? We can't just call them "shack-ups" anymore, correct?

 

If someone entered into a 10 yearARM two years ago and have no plans of staying in the home past ten years, explain why they would be a "lemming".

ARMS are not for everyone but like anythin else, if used properly it is a great financial tool.

 

My next door neighbor has had his house on the market for nearly 10 months now. Considering we're in a historic neighborhood, it's shocking nobody's bought it yet.

 

If they're opposite sex, "shack-up" works.

If they're same sex, "domestic partner" works better. Or "longtime companion." Not that here's anything wrong with that.

 

You know how they say California sets all the trends?

Well folks, a housing crash is coming your way. There are three homes within 1,000 yards of my home that are bank owned.

Countrywide has 2,501 homes IN CALIFORNIA ALONE that they now own -- and it's early in the game (for a mortgage holder to list as REO, a home has to be more than 3 months deliniquent, plus gone through a short-sell period and then an auction in which no bidder claimed the house. The whole process takes about 6-9 months...so this list is like looking back in time to last winter. Think about what that will mean for the market in a few months, once banks decide they can no longer carry 2,500 homes on their books and start slashing their prices!)

http://www.countrywide.com/purchase/f_reo.asp

 

This is not a trend California set by any means. In Florida, the market crashed months ago. Unsold houses have been sitting empty for months and builders have slowed their build rate as they try to sell down inventory. That's put the people who normally build new houses in quite a bind --- simply put, there's no work for them.

 

My housing market is smoking right now as well.
I bought a house in July 2006 and sold it in April 2007 and turned nearly $10k, if the ex-wife would have been willing to play hardball (bitch) then we probably would have turned nearly $20k.
I also bought a house in Idaho in summer of 2005 and sold it in spring of 2006 and turned $14k.
Maybe I have just been lucky in buying right before a boom and selling during a boom, but both the markets I have lived in showed no signs of slowing down.

 

Did you make any improvements to the property? If not, that's spectacular. I know the market doesn't swing much where my mom lives in the Midwest. There aren't many people coming and go, so there's very little turnover of property. That keeps things fairly stable.