Posted on 05/14/2006 9:37:09 AM PDT by ex-Texan
The real estate market was due for a correction.
Here in southeastern Wisconsin, things have tightened up but property values continue to rise, albiet slower than previous years.
Gee, how many poential buyers in South Florida are saying, " Hmm,I wonder, after shelling out $600,000, whether my house will still be standing after the next hurricane."
there has also been a large amount of foreign investment coming in. the extraordinarily low interest rates coupled with the weak dollar(higher conversion for their currency) lead to an international interest in our housing here. things are cooling off now. most of the victims will be American unfortunately
"Bruce, a telecom manager in Los Angeles, walked away from two deals in Port St. Lucie earlier this year. He had flipped half-a-dozen properties from L.A. to Arizona, making from US$75,000 to close to US$200,000 on each."
Lets say he made $125,000 per house on average. For six houses, he made $750,000. Even if he lost his deposit over two (article says $1,000 per house), he is still ahead by more than half a million. Not bad.
I live in Pasco Central Florida and saw this coming because here the insurance rates have jumped through the roof. It's not hurricanes, it's sinkholes and aggressive attorneys who have found a candy store in the state insurance co, Citizens.
Citizens is so badly run that for years people are walking away with more than the value of their houses with the barest of proof. Now insurance rates have quadrupled and people are literally losing their homes and dumping them on the market because they cannot pay the homeowners. (In 3 years a jump from $600 to $4000 is typical.)
Lots of elderly on fixed incomes simply can't do it. If they've paid off, they are simply going without. Almost 25% of the houses in my area are naked in the storm, so to speak. A hurricane would be a financial disaster here.
My house has dropped almost 25% in value this year.
has anybody bought a condo/loft in downtown Los Angeles?
i'm compelled to but i need much more education about financing and real estate values.
presently about 10,000 units are in development downtown, renovations and new construction. the downtown is sketchy in some areas, but seems like it has nothing to do but appreciate as a result of all the new development and influx of professionals.
i'm only considering a unit in an old building. the new stuff feels very cheap and domestic, as opposed to the historic and raw of the old (real lofts).
ex-texan is the willie green of housing.
It must really suck to be around him. Pessimism bleeds all over everyone.
I live in Fort Lauderdale, and my house is worth more than double what I paid for it 4 years ago.
Miami sucks, period. Dade County, corruption, traffic, signs in spanish. Nobody wants to live there.
But north,in Broward Co., it's different. I have people literally knocking on my door asking me if I want to sell.
1000 people a day move to Florida.
Willie Green, I mean ex-texan, can bleed pesimism all day. What a loser.
Liar. Type in your address at zillow.com, pull up the graph, and show us.
Consequently, I do not see a national real estate bust, just as there has never been a national real estate boon. At any point in time since WWII you can point to places that are having a real estate boom and other places that are having a real estate bust.
Property markets are not uniform within countries. It may be that Florida requires a price correction. That does not necessarily mean that a correction is required in say, Texas. In fact, as you rightly point out, some parts of Florida may require a correction, but others, no.
It's not intellectually adequate to say that it's going to be happening across the board except in the case of a general, rather than property price, recession.
Regards, Ivan
I suspect some of the properties in Louisiana have lost some value.
fed rate raises do cause national modifications(trends), as do dollar conversion rates for out of country investors
It seems that doesn't matter to them. Houses have been selling like mad down there.
there still fighting for homes in my part of so fl
From the real estate closings in the Martin Co edition of the Palm Beach comPost I calculate that sales are about 10% of what they were two years ago.
Here in Hobe Sound For-sale signs are numerous and gathering dust.
I would say the article is accurate and the sentiment is not unreasonable.
I had no idea. I'm very sorry to hear of this. :-(
They're still fighting for homes in my part of Ca. too, despite one good slip of a fault line and everything turns to rubble.
I just upgraded my earthquake insurance and it still nowhere near the homeowners that a previous poster mentioned.
Which means that your kids may not be able to afford housing in Fort Lauderdale when they having families of their own...............Until the wave of foreclosures devastates those who bought at prices they could never afford without gimmick financing.
One has to keep in mind how much of the price inflation represents true value and how much of the price inflation is only made possible by the extremely risky financing gimmicks that will leave your kids either homeless after foreclosure or slaves to a mortgage where the principal will never be paid off.
In 1929, every Tom, Dick and Harry was buying hyper-priced stocks on margin and with ......interest only loans.
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.