It's about time. Home buyers have been priced out of the market recently unless they went for one of those shyster loans. We need the market to revert to mean.
Posted on 11/13/2007 12:58:15 PM PST by Hydroshock
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of existing homes in the U.S. are forecast to decline to a five-year low in 2007, a trade group for real estate agents said Tuesday - and the outlook for 2008 is worsening.
The ninth-straight downwardly revised monthly forecast from the National Association of Realtors calls for U.S. existing home sales to fall 12.7 percent this year to 5.66 million, down from 6.48 million last year.
Last month, the association predicted a 10.8 percent drop from a year ago.
This year's sales would be the lowest since 2002, when sales hit 5.63 million. The realtors group forecasts sales will rise slightly next year to 5.69 million, but that is down from last month's prediction of 6.12 million.
The trade group's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said the housing market is likely to experience a "modest" recovery next year as mortgage markets stabilize.
"It is possible for even higher home sales activity than we're forecasting if buyers regain their confidence," he said in a prepared statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
>>So you’re saying it’s pretty much like everyday in the life of a real estate agent? Good to know...<<
Nope. Rather, in a tough buyers market it takes exceptional skills to make money. This particular agent is actually relatively well known locally. She is able to strongarm people that really need to, and can, sell into seing it her way or letting them find another agent. Often, once she does get them to a hot listing price, she or one of her apprentices will then buy the house.
I saw a home once (in a good sellers market), list TOO LOW by a very inexperienced agent. An interesting thing happened though and it was not anticipated. There were so many buyers that saw it as a good deal that it generated a bidding war with the result that the home sold for far more than it was worth.
We’re not in that kind of market now.
LOL. What would you think of a broker who told you, "Mr. Hydroshock, right now is a good time to buy, or sell, Boeing stock."?
It will be an excellent time to buy in, say 2012 to 2015. It is a very poor time to buy right now, unless you are simply moving from one home to another. I cannot imagine entering the market at this time.
And it is more prudent to wait for the bottom and then buy shortly after it starts going up than to buy just as the prices START to fall off a cliff - which is where I believe we are now. The former position holds very little risk, the latter, huge risk.
“say 2012 to 2015.”
That is an Armageddon point of view of the housing market.
If that happens the entire economy will be dead.
I don’t buy it..
It's a good time to buy a house IF:
you can pay for it without beggaring every other aspect of your life (the old 3x income rule is always best) AND;
you are comfortable with the market price of your house going up, or staying the same, or going down, over the next few years.
Come to think of it, it's always OK to buy a house if the above qualifiers apply.
Don’t base your opinion on how bad it would be. Rather, base it on the numbers and let the predictions fall where they may.
You know how resets effect the market, right?
Well, look at the chart in this article and tell me when you think it implies (or you infer from it) that it might be a good time to buy:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/51466-the-worst-is-yet-to-come-for-housing?source=d_email
Meanwhile, sales of imaginary homes are expected to show a modest increase.
>>Sales of existing homes in the U.S. are forecast to decline to a five-year low in 2007<<
HAHAHA!!
And a six year low in 2008, and a seven year low in 2009, and a...
It's about time. Home buyers have been priced out of the market recently unless they went for one of those shyster loans. We need the market to revert to mean.
Nuthin’ to see here folks. Just more “sky is falling” doom and gloom.
/s
I hope this one doesn’t fall to that “110” level like the last two booms did.
I would feel a lot more kindly towards them if they would stop charging such exorbitant fees for their services and using the force of government to restrict the way others want to buy and sell real estate.
It is time for the real estate business to change drastically. Open it all up to competition.
The shyster loans are a major reason for the rise in housing prices.
If you take a normal housing market and shove an extra wad of subprime buyers into any segment that will cause the prices to go up. Now that those buyers are gone the prices are coming back down.
bump for later read.
Oh, come on. You've got your head in the sand, man. Listen to all the investment advice on these threads. Hold onto that home until "times get better."
To a certain extent, we’ve reached a saturation point. Those folks who weren’t interested in selling and are happy where they are simply stayed put.
Those folks who wanted to upgrade have done so.
It’s unrealistic to think that you can entice somebody into buying and moving when they haven’t even unpacked the boxes from the last move.
Give it a break! Jeesh!
>>Oh, come on. You’ve got your head in the sand, man. Listen to all the investment advice on these threads. Hold onto that home until “times get better.”<<
In all seriousness, I don’t know if you are being serious or sarcastic.
I will say this: If I owned a home I wouldn’t sell unless relocating. But if I was a renter, I’d be a fool to enter now.
We’ve been seeing homes come on and off the market in our neighborhood for over a decade now and there is a big difference this year. Most of the homes that go off the market just, well, go off the market. No sold sign or anything. Those that are still on the market, with one exception ALL have “new price” signs up and some have for over a month, yet not a one has sold.
One of them is an older lady who’s husband has gone to a nursing home.
Meanwhile, as late as last year the homes in my neighborhood would see only a couple of weeks go by before the sold sign came up. Now a LOT of homes are just rotting away with the “new price” sign.
Oh, and one new development has a “huge price reduction” banner up.
This is a “near Seattle” suburb where we have a “strong job market”.
>>To a certain extent, we’ve reached a saturation point.<<
And that is where pyramid schemes get into trouble, as this one is.
That chart doesn’t show the huge drop in interest rates though. In the 80s, at 14% interest rates, you could buy the same house for more than TWICE what you could now and pay the same rate. Housing affordability index is more important IMO than just housing prices.
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