Posted on 10/28/2007 4:14:43 AM PDT by Jacquerie
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The housing market is just getting worse. Home resales tumbled 8% in September to the lowest levels in this decade, prompting the obvious question: When will it all end?
The honest answer is no one knows. Optimists have been saying for more than a year that the worst is behind us, while the pessimists have been saying recovery is still a year, or years, away.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
“NEVER! It is going to go down and down and down forever! We are all going to die! Crisis! Panic! Buy our Junk Media product so you can find out more!
Don’t the Chicken Little hysterics in the US Junk Media EVER get tired of being completely wrong with their panic and fear mongering?”
Are you a real estate agent or mortgage broker?
You’d have to be, to be this rude and idiotic in the face of the facts.
It’s either that, or you are naive and clueless and live in one of the few pockets in the country unaffected by this, and you blindly and ignorantly think what your neighborhood experiences is the same for the rest of the world.
It'll hit bottom when a $200,000 house in California sells for $200,000 instead of $1,000,000.
Overcrowding in the US will continue to increase until somebody decides to quit importing illegals. Just one of the many burdens that cheap labor places on the citizens of this country.
Bilderbergers know.
Not even at zero percent.
That would, however, get at least one person (me) to refinance! :-)
Now who's being rude?
I am a broker and represent my SELLERs and BUYERs as I would my own Mother.... No one appreciates being lumped into negative categories....
There are creeps in every business including your business...whatever that may be.
Exactly. No one would have bid that $200K house up to a million if they didn't think that some other sucker would come along some day, and give them two million for it. What collapses bubbles is that markets eventually run out of suckers.
Here's something for the rose-colored glasses types to think about: These figures are from September closings, the ink on those purchase agreements was still wet back in July. In the summer, even a tin shack looks like a mansion in some people's eyes. Before pronouncing the bottom of the housing market decline, see what the figures are in this coming March, from January closings of November and December purchase agreements. When people's minds are on the holidays and gift shopping, they're not in much of a mood to tromp through rain, snow, and freezing cold to look at real estate to buy.
To be honest, this is a very locality-based issue. My sister bought a new house in Clermont, Florida for about $106,000 in 2002, and resold it 3 years later for $200,000. That's the type of market that fits your description. On the other hand, I had my house near Chattanooga for 5 years (2001 - 2006) and realized about a 12% gain. Slower market, but I've noticed that prices are steady in that market, especially when compared to the more speculative "hot" markets like in Florida, California, or along the east coast.
Location, location, location...
At exactly the momnent I decide to sell my house in a blue state and move to a red state to while away my waning days on the beach and the golf course.
It can be argued that the events of 9/11 affected only New York City, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, but indeed, it can be argued that it ultimately affected every part of our nation. I think the bursting of the housing bubble in the overpriced regions has at least the same psychological effect on the rest of the country.
The best and brightest would be great. How do we screen for that?
susie
Back in Midland TX in the early 80s we bought an older home (built in 1934). Fortunately for us the owner had to repair all of the plumbing underneath the house as part of the deal, and they put in all modern stuff. We did have to do some replacement of electrical wiring (it had the old cloth covered wiring) and did some remodeling to make it suit us (added a room on the back, completely gutted and redid the kitchen, had the floors sanded and polyurothaned (it was gorgeous old oak flooring that had never been touched) painted, etc. We lived there for 15 years, and loved that place.
I’m sure we lost money if you put a pencil to everything we did, but we also learned a lot and had fun in the process. I would like to do it again when we retire, but my husband is not so keen on it! I think the older homes have a charm that most newer ones don’t, unless you can afford to build and have a bucketful of money.
susie
The Toddster!!!!!!!!
That makes sense. Of course, we live in S. FL and so I only know what I see around here. We sold a home in E. TX almost 4 years ago, it took 6 months but we got what we wanted for it. Buying a house here at that time was a whole crazy experience. It was hard to find anything in our price range, and I was aghast at what 300K could buy you. Most of the homes in that price range were tiny and many were filthy and not kept up.
susie
It seems not everyone agrees. But, do I get a prize?? ;)
susie
The Liar!!!
I agree with your post. When we lived in Midland in our older home, my husband actually walked to work on nice days (he worked right down town). Of course, the drawback was the area was also in decline as many older neighborhoods are, because many house buyers just want a new house. I don’t get that, but I guess I’m in the minority.
:)
susie
We are living in a new house now. We looked at older homes when we moved to S. FL a few years ago, and the big problem was most of them were in terrible shape, they were too near the ocean (in the evacuation zone—so insurance rates were very high) the neighborhoods looked very spotty and some even scarey, and they were more expensive than newer homes in better areas (I think speculators were snapping them up to flip). So, we are currently living in a house built in the late 90s. It’s fine, actually seems very well built (we are not the first owners) but the yard is tiny and so is the house. But, it’s what we could afford moving from TX to S. FL.
Of course, if we had to sell now, I’m not sure we would get our equity out of it, by the time we paid realtor fees etc. Story of my life.
susie
It's true that people need reasons to take on debt and the end of the asset bubble means the end of the reasons. But there's a couple of mitigating factors, first inflation fear stimulate asset purchases even at sky high levels. Second, the fear of the credit crunch has caused people around here (nothern VA) to "lock in" their credit now. These are mostly people who are buying a house to live in knowing that eventually the prices will rise again.
Not even at zero percent.
Japan had an arguably larger asset bubble and the banks were stuck with bad loans that they refused to write off. Here the banks are writing off debt left and right. We have perfected the ultimate form of capitalism, credit booms and busts with creative distribution and destruction of credit. The world is starting to catch on so the dollar is dropping. But the dollar will become oversold, then rise, then the carry trade will kick in and output a flood of new credit.
Like I alluded to above, there are still willing borrowers. I went in a year ago at 2.5 times income because I am betting on inflation.
True, but refinancing doesn’t recharge the economy.
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