$870,000 for that house? You could score something like that for 1/4 the price on the east coast. I can see appraisers in that area getting their butts chewed by the loan officers and realtors when appraisals start coming in significantly below sales prices.
And one-sixth in the midwest.
There will plenty of finger pointing (and worse) to go around before this is all over.
That house in a modest neighborhood in North Georgia would also be no more than 1/4 that price, and would come with a much, much bigger yard.
In the Tampa Bay FL area, my guess would be about $400-500K. I'm anxiously waiting for prices to come down more so I can get a bigger house. Need more room.
Good heavens! That kind of cash would buy you a city block in Houston.
Location, location, location.
I've purchased numerous homes and rental properties in the Midwest over the past twenty years. I've never lost dime-one and have always made at least $30K profit on every sale.
And this was starting in the early 80's when interest rates were still high, all through the dot-com boom, and up until the present day. Slow and steady wins the race. :)
I'm sticking with my farm now, though. This little puppy is a goldmine. In another ten years I'll be able to sell it for easily 3x what I paid for it, as development encroaches. (We're land-locked due to farm zoning and a lake and public hunting land.)
However, I could be hit by a bus tomorrow, but that's my plan, anyway. ;)
What you can't really see in that picture is that the lot would not fit a standard mobile home. Notice how close th sidewalk is to the homes walkway. And the back yard may be slightly larger. Notice how close the house is to it's left, and the picture crops out the house on the right wich is just as close.
It is time to sit back and watch this market implode and pick up the pieces in a year or three - or 15 if it gets as bad as Japan did.
Funny, we were talking about that in the office today. Folks from the left coast and from up north are moving down here, and grabbing houses at whatever price the seller is asking. Very few home sales involve negotiating over the price. One lady in the office just sold her house for $30k more than what she asked. The yankees got in a bidding war over it.