Posted on 11/30/2006 11:55:07 PM PST by goldstategop
Edited on 12/01/2006 12:12:59 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
NEW YORK -- Like many other California renters in early 2005, Nick Basile and his fianc
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
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The key phrase here.
This is happening all over the Central Valley. Supply is outstripping demand. Quite different from a housing slowdown.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Ping
Two good rules of thumb, vis-a-vis real estate, as sorta-kinda relates to this story:
1. Buy with the intention of keeping it forever. Land is the one thing that no one is making any more of. As a finite quantity, it will rarely lose it's value (unless it was once a toxic waste dump or Mother Nature covers it with 30' of water). Inherent in this idea is that when contemplating a buy, you do your homework; location, relative values between nearby communities, tax rates, insurance rates, must always be taken into consideration before you buy anything.
2. If you can't unload it, rent or lease it out (if at all possible or feasible), for at least the monthly mortgage payment. Make sure your leasing/rental contract is as ironclad as you can make it, and if you require a caretaker (like a local real estate agent), ensure they have the best possible reputation, and read the fine print on anything they give you to sign. Even if you aren't living in it, a home still represents a real asset, a source of potential income, and almost-unlimited credit (to ONLY be used in an extreme emergency).
Just my $0.02, FWIW.
I have a friend that is settling on a new condo this week; $500.00 down on a $300K purchase price, 5/18% 30 year fixed first 10 year 7% second.
Financing like that will gradually soak up the overstock of homes for sale and the market will re-set.
Good one. There are some places in Florida still trying to recover the prices paid during the mid-1920s land boom.
When you buy swampland, you get what you pay for. See "do your homework" above.
Big difference between, say, buying real estate in Upstate New York or Southern Utah, and buying property in a storm zone, surrounded by thousands of square miles of wetlands all crawling with alligators.
But you are right in this case, so I should change that rule to "GOOD land never loses it's value".
The fatal error - but that's exactly the fear-mongering BS line that the industry been polluting the airwaves with for years. Does a car dealer dare try to tell you "it's now or never?" LOL!
NEVER enter into a pyramid scheme just as it is collapsing!
You take out an ARM, they take off a leg!
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