Posted on 06/15/2005 12:48:38 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
The bubble is starting to burst?
Well, some Federal Bank lady said Las Vegas would be deflating rapidly yesterday....
Heard some folks talking about home sales in Glen Cove, one of the nicer subdivision in Vallejo, Ca. Homes there had been appreciating rapidly, when one went up for sale, it'd be snapped up in days, with multiple offers. Now, homes are staying on the market for 5-6 weeks. I'd say that things are slowing down. When tract homes in subdivisions are going for upwards of 3/4 of a million dollars, how can prices continue to climb at 25-30% a year, as they had been doing? Salaries aren't climbing to keep up with that pace.
Wish they did that when I lived there back in the late 80's.
It's insanity. My first house, a tract I bought by myself in '66 for $19,500, recently sold for $525K. It was a nothing house then. I should have kept renting it out all these years. When I sold it for $65K, I thought I'd made a killing...lol.
Of course, what the article doesn't mention is that it's a lot easier to go up at a high percentage when your baseline is a lot lower. And I'll bet the base price for homes in the Inland Empire is considerably lower than on the coast.
05 Assessments here have reached as high as a 29% INCREASE! Sounds as if some people are trying to raise new revenue...
You know, even if housing prices remain flat (ie - no dip) ALOT of people are going to get hurt - they bought into housing they couldn't afford and now can not unload it for a nice gain - meanwhile they have to pay taxes, utilities and a mortgage on a house they can not afford to keep and will lose money (remember, it cost between 5%-10% of the value of a house to sell it)... And the kicker? The majority of loans today are "interest only" loans - ie - nothing goes toward your equity...
Glen Cove is still on the low side price wise for the bay area at large. I've not heard anything near like what you are talking about yet except when sellers get ridiculous. I follow the bay area housing market as a very interested amateur and I'm seeing well priced houses still going in one week and often in days. I'm still hoping for a very easy slowdown and then sideways will be great.

http://orange.idx.prucalrealty.net/details.aspx?firstrecord=20&=&VIP=Yahoo!+IDX&cc=realestate&fclose=n&newhome=n&za=and&fullnodeid=750007077&searchgeo=Compton%2c+CA&searchtype=2&propertytype=1&sort=5&sortacdc=desc
You know, the press missed the tech bust so badly they are now trying to cause the housing bust so they can say they reported it.
The media should leave it alone and it will do fine.
Please, someone, tell me how the average family pays over half a million for an average house. I see these couples on the house hunter program on HGTV who look like the run of the mill couple with a couple of kids and they're looking to buy or sell a house for $600,000. How?????? Why don't I ever see or read anything about the money to handle mortgages like these?
That looks like a house from the set of "Boyz 'n the Hood"...does it come with bulletproof windows?
key issue is whether rising prices are due to true supply/demand issues, or if it is just a frenzy of everyone wanting to buy since it keeps going up.
I mean, paying 500k for a 2 bedroom shack seems like a great idea if it will be 750k in 2 years.
Interest only loans.
JMJ! This is insanity. This will crash, and who will be stuck?
There were plenty of media reports on the tech bubble before it burst. The one who missed it, perhaps wilfully, were the wall st. analysts who continued to pimp shell companies.
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