This is one of those idiotic stories that makes it sound like people haven’t made money on their real estate purchases. I bought my house in 2000 and while my value peaked in late 2005, true it has fallen, but still far ahead of what I purchased for in 2000.
It’s all relative to the timing.
Do these folks have their houses appraised every 20 minutes, or are they just reacting to the hysteria dealers?
For me the drop in home values has been a blessing. I don’t plan to sell my home anytime soon and high values just drive up my property taxes. This year I was able to protest to the county the appraisal value of my home and got the appraisal value lowered significantly, which in turn lowered my property taxes significantly.
The taxman says the value of my home and the entire region has risen several percent. This means the generality is false in detail. Once the Natural Gas Pipeline deal has fallen through again and Democrats fill all pertinent offices a little over a year from now, this will become a ghosttown. But, for now we don’t care what they are doing Outside.
Well, I know my home’s value has gone down, but it’s more because the neighborhood has gone all to he!!. If I sold now, I would be lucky to recoup the purchase price I paid back in 1989. More likely, the home will sell for a lot less than that. If the house was in a better neighborhood, I could probably get a heckuva lot more.
You have NO real way of knowing the value of a home until you sign the sales contract. Everything up ‘til then is wild a$$ed speculation.
I bought my house in 1989. Even with the recent decline, it has still tripled in value.
Not according to property tax appraisers.
Of course, that’s just a backend way to raise taxes and is not tied to actual market value in many communities.
Really, fallen huh... more like the house prices were artificially inflated, and now they are coming back down to more sensible prices...
I mean I like at my house and it’s decent, but the market value is ludicrous...
My home hasn’t fallen in value. In fact, according to the county I live in, it is worth about 20K more than I could sell it for. :)
Personally, I don’t mind being taxed less to live in my home.
But they will. And the courthouse auctions will start up again.
We have seen it all before.
BUMP
So. Is it a home, or an investment? Some people gripe even when they have a roof over their heads. Maybe, they would rather sleep in the street.
Too bad everything has been given a dollar amount, including dirt.
“A record 26% of U.S. homeowners say the value of their homes has fallen during the past year, above the previous peak of 24% seen in 1992, a survey released Friday showed. Reflecting the extent of the prolonged housing slump,”
Following one of the longest and strongest run-ups in housing sales and values (national averages). Things go up, and up and up...until they go down. It’s not rocket science.
Home values have fallen? Shouldn’t there be a law against that?
I’m so glad I bought my house in close-in Arlington, VA, six years ago. As I look at declining home values in many markets across the US, I find also (as recently as yesterday) that home sale prices in my zip code continue to climb — up 18 percent over the last year. The average home sales price in my zip code is now just under one million dollars.
How come we’ve avoided the mess so many other localities are in? I think it’s not just that Washington has steady, government-based employment, but also that my neighborhood is within walking distance of a Metro subway station. In traffic-choked Washington, that one feature commands a price premium that shocks people new to the area. As a federal government employee, it’s a feature I use daily!
Mines gone up around 35% since I purchased it in 2000.
The value of my home has fallen as well ... in the eyes of other people. It’s still my home and a it’s rated at one good place to live. I’m not planning to sell it in the next decade so I guess I’m golden.
When home prices rise the media moan that no one can afford a home. When prices fall, the media whine that houses have lost value!
Prices go up, prices go down.
Perhaps the media really are longing for a controlled economy in which the government controls all prices and no one has anything and everyone is miserable.