"There is no housing bubble! All is well!"
Of course, in much of the country, Ol' Bob would be right. But in SF, Boston, LA, South Florida...look out below.
Posted on 10/13/2005 10:46:00 AM PDT by ex-Texan
Sellers forced to set lower prices as hot housing market levels off
An oversupply in housing that has been troubling other southeast Michigan communities has hit Washtenaw County in full force.
The result has been stagnant home values for the past two years. There's also evidence that values may be depreciating slightly as competition forces down prices.
Experts say the poor Michigan economy, coupled with a flood of new houses, has created the strong buyer's market.
"The inventory is greater than Ann Arbor really has ever seen,'' said Elizabeth Brien, a leading agent with the Charles Reinhart Co., a real estate firm dealing with properties throughout Washtenaw County. "And I think it's going to continue to grow for awhile.''
According to the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors, listings for single-family houses are up 21 percent through August 2005 compared to 2004, while the number of units sold has fallen slightly.
It's a bitter pill for home sellers who daily see stories about the super-heated home appreciation in other markets around the country. The national average for appreciation was 14 percent in 2004. Washtenaw County last year averaged just 1.5 percent appreciation, and is on pace for virtually no gain this year.
Through August 2005 the median sale price of a home in Washtenaw County was $227,500, compared to $230,000 that time last year.
Sellers face hard choices
A tough real estate market could damage other sectors of the local economy, as many people have been counting on gaining wealth through home appreciation. With access to equity so easy through lines of credit and refinancing, rising values have been counted on to pay for consumer spending.
Martin Bouma, a Keller Williams agent who has 68 residential listings, said about 15 of his clients are "very anxious.''
This is a Very Long and Detailed Report
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*BANG*, *BANG*, *BANG*, *BANG*, *BANG*, *BANG*
Thats the bubble's in FL, MA, CA, PA, NY, and VA imploding.
A brief excerpt permissible under the fair use doctrine:Surging investment in real estate over the past decade has led to a bubble that threatens to send the world economy into recession, economist Roger Bootle said.
House prices and the economy enjoy a ``symbiotic relationship,'' Bootle, economic adviser to accountants Deloitte & Touche LLP and a former adviser to the U.K. Treasury, said in a revised edition of his book, ``Money for Nothing.'' As the housing boom ends, consumers will feel poorer and pare spending, driving up unemployment, he said.
You are wrong. This shows exactly what I said would happen, a leveling off of prices. A bubble would be if prices dropped 20% or over most of the country. You point to one area where prices have leveled off and declare a bubble is here. The only bubble is inside your head.
Any anectodtal evidence supporting your position is bellowed from the rooftops, and any evidence refuting it is pretended to not exist and anyone saying it does is called names.
Prices continue to rise here. I'm in Bucks County, PA.
I hope this new "trend" hits here in the next week or two. I would like to see prices drop by about $30k-$50k. Why? Because we just sold our condo and are now looking for a house. Closing on our condo isn't until Jan 31st (at the latest, but the couple buying it said they wish to spend one more Christmas in their house of 35 years). So I figure no earlier than Jan 1st will we be closing.
That gives us a great advantage for buying now. We are in no rush, there is no pressure.
What I'm doing is adopting the wait and see attitude of the .com bubble sitters. The real estate bubble is out of control in Oregon. Just across the river in Washington, real estate prices are starting to fall. By this time next year, I expect housing prices to have crashed 30% in Portland. Foreclosure sales will be stacking up like crazy. Why? Because of mortgage fraud, loan serving fraud and illegal foreclosure schemes. Fannie Mae may be under formal investigation next year for massive accounting games. People may be under indictment. I will just bide my time while the market will be flooded with real esatate.
Because (as the article says) the economy is in the tank. Why? They now have a Democrat governor. One can conclude nothing nationally from this fact, except that Democrats can screw up even the most vibrant economy. (Which is precisely what Michigan had, under three terms of Engler.)
Thats the bubble's in FL, MA, CA, PA, NY, and VA imploding.
Yeah, the U.S population has been plummeting the last few months, severely reducing the demand for housing. Not!
The lib media in my area tell us every few months that only 30% of the population can afford housing, yet 99% of the population is already living in housing. Go figure.
"'She does not believe me, did not understand what I said and told me the loan and real estate agents specialize in real estate and would have told her if her payments could go up. If 34 of my clients with risky loans and no school past at best eighth grade are surprised by rising loan payments, we should be afraid. This is the last group desperate lenders pander to, meaning we're near the end.'"
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There is a vast difference between being able to afford housing, and living in housing.
Tex, so you live in Portland? Sheesh! what a move.
I imagine going upside-down with a big mortgage is worse than with a car loan. It would take many years of payments to have any equity again, chasing the downward price trend. Lots of 85% and even 90% loans out there.
Strong here in Colorado...
Tex, so you live in Portland? Sheesh! what a move.
The point is not that Michigan's bubble is bursting; it's that its economy sucks so houses aren't appreciating like other places. The people fleeing Michigan are probably driving up values elsewhere.
As much as I'd like to pin all the blame on the Cheerleader-in-Chief, I can't do it...not with so many damn RINOs controlling both MI houses.
"There is no housing bubble! All is well!"
Of course, in much of the country, Ol' Bob would be right. But in SF, Boston, LA, South Florida...look out below.
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