Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Posted on 03/21/2015 7:16:01 PM PDT by Lorianne
A few weeks back we commented on the rather disturbing news that repeat foreclosures jumped in January: (link at source)
Now, a new report from Zillow seems to offer further evidence that the US housing market may not be the picture of health after all (as if we needed more proof after housing starts cratered 17% in February). The percentage of homeowners underwater in the US was flat from Q3 to Q4 which doesn’t sound all that terrible until you consider that this figure had fallen for 10 consecutive quarters. Things look particularly bad in Florida and the midwest where Zillow notes more than 25% of borrowers are sitting in a negative equity position.
(link to Zillow report at source)
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
“Underwater homeowners...”
Must be because of global warming.
One lie after another by the feckless fool on the hill and his lying minions.
Real estate and housing is a commodity like precious metals, grains, oil and equities.
The markets have their winners and losers.
It up to the individual to make the right buying and selling decisions.
Interesting discussion, links at zh. Thanks for posting.
I’m currently prepping my house to put it on the market. Where I live, houses have appreciated quite a bit in the last couple of years. I would have definitely lost my shirt about 5 years ago though.
Did Tyler Durden put that comment in the article, or someone else?
A homeowner is only underwater if they have to or want sell right now and the value is less than the owe the bank. If you intend to stay in your home for the next 10, 20 or 30 years it does not matter what the value is right now.
A home is an investment you live in. There is value in that.
The biggest problem is banks are lending money to people who have no means to pay them back.
Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
In the Obama economy, underwater is the new norm.
I believe it is Sponge Bob!
Which one does Patrick live in?
Back in the early 1990s...a work associate of mine went off to Florida and got high-end contractor work (IT-related). He found this great house near a waterway...three-car garage...dock behind the house...small pool...and spent around $160,000 for it. For roughly eight years, he lived there and did well....but the contract deal was coming to an end, so he found work elsewhere. He rented the house out for four years....then decided to sell it when the renters left. The real estate people valued other houses around him and finally advertised his place at roughly $900,000.
When he was telling me this whole story...I didn’t have a lot of belief in it...buying a house and a dozen years later...it goes up by $750k? He showed me pictures and I just shook my head. The house sold in two months and he was very friendly with the new buyer. Around 2008 as the market collapsed, the new owner was putting it up for sale to move on (bad job market). This guy, a year prior, had anticipated the house might sell for $1.2 million. In the bad market....the real estate people told him to expect no more than half-a-million. Huge loss going on, if it sold. So the new owner found someone to rent it to and simply held on to wait this out. Four years later, he was still holding on. And I imagine that even today....he is still renting it out.
The one on the left. It is underwater too.
You are right (as far as winners and losers), but one very dangerous aspect of this is that many young people watching this unfold have sworn off buying homes (which is fine) and the families that would fill them (which is a demographic disaster).
Wonder what the percentage of CAROWNERS are underwater.
Even cash buyers are I bet. Boo Hoo.
I bought my home before the bubble (thankfully), and would never have paid the prices that were being asked during the bubble (basically twice as much). In fact, when we bought our home, we were about to give up and look for an apartment; this area (northern NJ) is too unstable to assume you could make those high mortgage payments for 30 years (on top of the high property taxes, which also kills the housing market here) - and events have unfolded that have borne this out. We’ve lost a lot of good jobs in the last twenty years (which won’t be coming back), our taxes are still very high, and there has been no housing recovery here. In fact, the area is being reduced to Third World status as 1) immigrants, often illegal, are trafficked here to keep our schools and housing full, and 2) many single family homes are being illegally modified into multi-family rental units since Americans don’t need so much space anymore (but can’t sell the homes) and need help paying the property taxes. In the past, when such modifications were made, towns would force the removal of the additional apartments; now they let them stand and increase the taxes on such properties.
Zillow seems to be undervaluing homes on a grand scale.
I read an article about that lately: the answer is about 28%. A new car also loses 17% of its value the minute you drive it off the showroom lot.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.