Who wouldn't like this house?
Posted on 01/22/2019 9:05:41 PM PST by dila813
U.S. housing sales, a key pillar of economic growth in recent years, are looking weaker again.
Existing home sales declined for much of 2018. In December, according to the National Association of Realtors, sales of single-family homes, condos, and co-ops fell a larger-than-expected 6.4% from the previous month. A Reuters survey of economists projected home sales to decline by a modest 1% in December.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
Trump delivered on a strong economy but no one imagined that the Liberals would deliver on Civil War II (however much a cold war currently) at the same time. It is CWII that has brought uncertainty to the economy. This puts a damper on big ticket purchases like housing.
This is not good news for me, as I need to sell two houses to move out of my high-tax, crazy probate home state.
I keep an eye out for abandoned houses that can be refurbished into rental property. I spotted a nice, apparently factory built 1500 square foot 3/2 on about a quarter acre in an attractive neighborhood. The back door was wide open. The laminate floors were buckled; mold on the wall, a few holes in the wallboard. I looked it up. It sold in 2016 for $205,000. I was considering offering $75,000. There is no way a bank would take that kind of loss unless they’ve had it for several years. They have no incentive to take the write-down. It isn’t a loss until they sell it.
But, in my mind, the correct price for such a new, small stick-built in that neighborhood was about $105,000 new. Here we had what appeared to be a manufactured home for twice what I thought it should go for. I think we are seeing the result of Obama quadrupling the money supply in eight years. We are just beginning to see the result of that financial ineptness. That money spent a long time floating way up in the economy, in the stock market; because banks did not loan it out. They invested it. So, the stock market went up and the economy stayed low. Now, that money is coming down the ladder and starting to compete for groceries and houses. That is the very definition of inflation; too much money chasing too few goods.
I’d really like to see state-by state statistics on a map. Anyone know where to find one?
I think the state data might tell an interesting story
We left SoCal in 2010 — a 2500 sq. ft. house on a tiny lot in a subdivision of “little houses made of ticky-tacky, and they all look just the same”. Came to TN and paid cash for a 4700 sq. ft. house, on 2.5 acres, on a gorgeous river, with money left over.
California was impossible and we hated it so much!
You nailed it. But isn't it funny that the business press can find a reason for every up and down the stock market takes. Yet, they are dumb-founded by fundamental economic concepts that you have just espoused.
The National Association of Realtors has had issues in the past with some of its stats.
I’d get an additional source on this data.
From 2011...
http://business.time.com/2011/02/22/did-realtors-inflate-home-sales-by-1-6-million-in-2010/
That is a very real problem here in NJ; people realize they are just renting the homes from the teachers’ unions (75% of our high taxes go there), and young people want none of it. Combined with the complete collapse of the nuclear family and birthrate, who needs them? The trend here is to renovate existing single-family homes into multi-family or rooming houses for childless adults (single or cohabitating, rarely married).
NOT a week goes by that I don’t get a postcard or envelope offering TO BUY my house FOR CASH ...
‘splain to me what is taking place there?
In Texas, BTW. North Central.
Some of the best financial news I’ve heard in years. Real estate is a huge, corrupt operation. People have no idea.
Simple, if you’re not going to make money on the price going up, why go out on a limb for such enormous amounts? Leverage works both ways - on the way up and on the way down.
Who wouldn't like this house?
Our women are ugly and our schools are TERRIBLE.
Yeah; we gots cheap homes, but sometimes the house out back need to be moved from time to time.
Our dentists barely make enough money to exist and Barney is still looking for another exploding goat.
Please; if you value what you have now, do NOT move to Indiana (or any of the other hell holes you've heard about that cluster in the Midwest. There's a REASON our grandpas never made it to California!)
I guess I should remain silent about my exorbitant $1,700 yearly property tax that I have to pay on my 10+ acres and 2,400 house.
Who says that it should go up all the time? It goes up, and it goes down. Of course they don’t know why. They never know why, but they always seem to be able to “find” a reason, even if it’s not true.
Of course!
Mechanization of the farm has released thousands TO BE ABLE TO MOVE TO URBAN ENCLAVES.
In 1992, I bought my first home, a three-bedroom, for $92,000. My parents thought it an outrageous sum but it was actually a pretty good deal.
In 2014, I bought my current 4-bedroom home in CT for just under $600,000. It's a nice home but really not that much better than the home my parents bought in 1969 for $13,000 (and that house would sell for at least $500,000 today).
Home rates have gone up at an astonishing rate the past 40-50 years. Way more than incomes have gone up. I just don't see how this can be sustained. In many major markets, the average price of a home puts them out of reach for most people not making a six figure income.
My two grown sons both have good jobs that pay well but live in apartments up in Boston area. There is no way they can afford a home at Boston area prices at their incomes - which is pretty decent for their age bracket.
So basically, I think we might be in for a long period of time where housing prices are stagnant or even drop a bit. I don't see that as a bad thing.
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