Posted on 01/03/2010 10:10:37 AM PST by autumnraine
FELLOW adventurers, refugees from winter and armchair archaeologists, we are here on this shiny green tour bus to embark on a safari of sorts. We’ll be exploring the local habitat, as upended and reconfigured by an epochal real estate fiasco.
Our guide, Marc Joseph, stalks wildlife of the white-elephant variety. A real estate agent, he specializes in houses that proved financially disastrous for someone — the banker, the homeowner, the American taxpayer, often all three. Mr. Joseph’s bus is emblazoned with red letters spelling the name of this thrill ride: ForeclosureToursRUs.com.
As we navigate this speculator’s paradise turned financial wasteland, Mr. Joseph stands at the front of the bus in a green polo shirt, highlighting specimens like this one: a white stucco house fronted by palm trees and topped by a Spanish tile roof on a canal emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. It last sold in 2005 for $850,000. Yours today for $273,000.
“How much cheaper does it have to go before you say, ‘Well, that’s just craziness,’ ” Mr. Joseph beseeches as our tour group — mostly retirees from up North, basking in Bermuda shorts on another December day stolen from winter — examines the swimming pool and the Jacuzzi. “I’m telling you now, your opportunity is banging at your door.”
Yes, it has come to this in Cape Coral, a reluctant symbol for the excesses of the great American real estate bubble: foreclosed homes served up as tourist attraction. The struggles and pain that produced this ecosystem are neatly masked by the newly installed granite countertops, pristine carpets and fresh coats of paint that now ornament many properties on the tour.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
One reason the Florida real estate has suffered so drastically is that the property insurance went to off the charts levels. After the years of the hurricanes, most people were forced to increase property deductible to $10,000 for wind and then had the premium increased by nearly triple. Who would want that risk?
Then the bubble burst and now you can get some premium property for dirt cheap. Won't be good for resale value for quite a while, but if you are interested in just having nice property, it's there.
We vacation on Sanibel Island for a week in March every year. The empty retail spaces on the way from the airport are stagggering.
Another reason is that in many “snowbird” locations for rich baby boomers (and older) people, they’re finding out that their little “getaway” joint is going to cost them far, far more than they expected. This was seen in the condo markets in Florida and Las Vegas, for two examples. Now you can barely give away those condo’s, and some condo developments in Vegas were stopped completely, at a huge loss to the investors.
The way that people were affording these homes was huge leverage. People *still* have not come to terms with the full effects of the massive over-leverage in the US economy.
They will, tho.
Yet your leading comment, IMO, cancels out that small positive.
One reason the Florida real estate has suffered so drastically is that the property insurance went to off the charts levels. After the years of the hurricanes, most people were forced to increase property deductible to $10,000 for wind and then had the premium increased by nearly triple. Who would want that risk?
Indeed, who would want, not only that, but property taxes based on surrounding homes that haven't sold at the depressed price. We used to live in, and enjoy, the panhandle (Navarre Beach) but got out just before the insurance/property tax runups occurred. We ain't a goin' back.
Just read the whole article. Good stuff.
I bought a very modest home in 2008 and I don’t believe it’s now worth what I paid for it - but my neighborhood in San Antonio seems to be holding it’s own - more or less. Home values here are better than most cities, but property taxes are criminal in Bexar county.
I see a lot of homes on the market for long periods of time now. Hopefully we’ll be able to ride out this economic storm - keep the jobs and not wind up in forclosure.
The article certainly got me thinking of new ways to make money off of the misery of others misfortune, but I don’t think I’ll go down that road. Would rather do something to help those folks!
I’m talking about someone who has some expendable cash. Not those who are working class folks who pay a mortgage.
If you are relatively well off, have a hundred thousand or two sitting around, you can get some premium vacation property and let the deductible sit in the bank.
Then there are the new reports of home prices falling another 30% in S. Fl. More people are leaving the state than moving here. Banks are getting ready to dump props. Crime is rampant and unemployement is still climbing. We aint anywhere near the bottom of this mess yet!
Hmmmm,,, maybe it’s time for this retiree to get outa Ohio!
Yeah, I understand, but I think going in now is foolish in light of the impending Alt-A resets, et al, which IMO, will drive values even lower.
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