I picked a bad decade to buy a house .....

With the housing bubble expanding, condos shot up in value in my area like a rocket. Two years ago, the condos (and townhouses) in my development sold like hotcakes, when one hit the market it would be sold within 1-2 weeks. Now I think the average days on market for a condo (or townhome) in my development is 35-45 or more.

 

On a separate note, if one was looking to move at this time (or in the next 5-6 months), would that person be better off making a contingency purchase (closing date contingent on selling current place) or would the person be better off getting a mortage for the full price (less down payment) of the new place and then refinancing/make a huge principal payment when the current place sells?

 

In this little slice of heaven, there is a yearly bump, but full reassessment is 10 years.
So the last house I rented before we bought was last assessed in 2002. Since the assessment, the interior was redone, a metal roof put on and siding on the house -- increasing the value four-fold.
Based on the actual assessed value, the guy who owns the house paid something like 95 bucks in property taxes last year....

 

Was that the Haney place?

 

I'm in that position where I'm trying to sell my house because my job is requiring me to live elsewhere. Reallllly bad timing right now. However, the lookers have picked up now that the holidays are over. I'm not praying to St. Joseph yet, but I'm being very positive and envisioning this house selling. I see this nice single school teacher eager to get out of a loud-ass apartment walking in and falling in love with the roominess and vaulted ceilings. And the huge deck on back is a "two-kegger!"

As for the ARMS, they're a decent way to go if you're not planning to be in your house a long time, which I wasn't. I ended up in it longer than I planned, but my mortgage is still lower than the fixed rate right now, even though it has, of course, gone up each year. There's a cap on it, which has kept it reasonable.

 

:-X

 

A new sig is born.

Oh, and wait on buying a house or condo yet. The market hasn't tanked yet. IMO, it's not even close to tanking yet. You'll get a better price in the future, although there are some poor souls with foreclosures (I hope this doesn't include you, FB) who have to sell incredibly cheap. Look for bargains.

Hell, T.O. can't sell his mansion in NJ (I think it's in NJ) and he's already cut 500K off of the price. I know we all feel bad for him.