HOME PRICES PLUMMETING

The Austin American Statesman | 01 February 2003 | Shonda Novak

[eno_]

A year ago I sold an absolute wreck in the Chicago suburbs that had been in my family for $400k! Insane. My mother wanted to keep it. I told her if people are willing to pay 400k for a place that needs 150k of work, let them have it.

That's about the only time I ever successfully called a market top.

[LS]

I already shoveled yesterday, and again this morning! Looks like I'll have to do it yet again, too.

[stands2reason]

If you don't give a damn about scenery and like being surrounded by conservatives, come to Midland, Tx. You can get a nice brick 1500 sq. ft. house for 40-70k.

[stands2reason]

The only immigrant problem NM has is those damn gringoes who keep moving in from out-of-state. They have no problem with the Mexicans, they love 'em. If you go, you'll have to consider the presence of hantavirus and the plague. And people complaining about things that happened 500 years ago. I didn't last there a year. I high-tailed it back to Texas a newly-formed raving conservative. The last straw was some guy in a bar ragging on my husband for being from Texas (they especially hate Texans) by saying, "Yeah, we kicked your asses at the Alamo, man!"

Hope this helps.

[The Coopster]

Just a matter of perspective, I guess.

BTW - property values here have outpaced inflation every year. My crime is low, my air is clean - of course, we're a little nothing burg of only 1.5 million or so. A varied economy means that I don't have to deal with the huge swings in the economy. Cold winters take care of most of the jurassic-type insects, and you have ample warning for tornadoes - which only do damage in localised areas (compared to earthquakes, which strike without warning, and do much more widespread damage). We're 3 hours from Chicago, 4 from St Louis, 5 from Nashville, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, and 8 from Atlanta. Middle of nowhere? Hell, we're in the middle of EVERYWHERE, and I don't have to brave multi-hour rush hours every day of my miserable existence. I'll trade corn for granola any day.

But it's ok that the people on the coasts think the way they do about the Midwest. It keeps them from moving here.

[stands2reason]

That'd be 89.5k here in Midland...

[Renegade]

Not in the Atlantic Cty, South Jersey area . Prices have gone through the roof.. I can't believe people pay so much for land built on sand that will be destroyed by the next big hurricane and get snow in the winter to boot.(22" today )

[Joe Hadenuf]

California prices seem to be holding steady. They are taking a little longer to sell, but prices are hold pretty steady. Not to many homes on the market, inventory of existing homes for sale is very low. Very few selling here.

Personally, I have no desire to sell, and looking at the weather in most of the country, I feel very lucky.

[Semi Civil Servant]

How does a 3% increase constitute plummeting?

Only when the media is trying to get rid of the current President. The media desperately wants an economic meltdown, and this is one of their current sermons.

If the housing market ever "plummets" like the Internet stock bubble, the nation will be in a depression worse than the one in the '30's. Unlike an investor's shares in "Whatwasithinking.com", houses have an intrinsic value. They may be over-priced. They may be hideously overpriced. They may go down sharply in price. But everyone has to live somewhere. If houses all lost 70% of their value nationwide (as has NASDAQ), it's all over for everyone.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Not happening in San Diego

Agree, the entire Southern California area seems pretty strong.

[Tailback]

A lot of communities have artificially propped up real-estate prices by enacting legislation that limits the amount of available housing, whether by restricting development, or the kinds of houses that can be built, or the minimum size lots.

You just described the situation in Portland and the Willamette Valley. (Oregon) My wife and I bought our first home 3 years ago. 3br 2bth 1400 square feet on a 80X100 ft lot. $127,000 The funny thing is that there's plenty of space in Oregon, only 3 million or so population in a state that pretty big. Urban growth bounderies and land use laws are bleeding Oregonians dry.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Try back east or the northwest. You'll love it this time of year. Oh, and see if you can't take a few with you. Thanks.

[Joe Hadenuf]

We'd like to bolt someday to a lower taxed area with decent weather....any ideas?

You want low taxes, good weather year round, no ice, snow, or brutal humidity and heat, tornados, etc?

I don't have a clue where that would be, but I'll tell you, if you find it, it's going to be extremely crowded, and expensive!......Hehehe......

[Torie]

Portland area prices have been rather stagnant for about 6 years or so. I own a house in Tigard that assessed at $164,000 in 1996 and is at $188,000 now. I bought it in 1990 or so for $96,000 as an investment, because I could get a rent of about $950 a month. Now the rent is $1,150, although property tax rates were slashed in the interim (that was part of my thinking at the time), but it has become a pedestrian investment. I bought another house in Tigard for $72,000 back then, and it brought in a rent of $825 per month. For a Californian, I considered these rent to value ratios just absolutely insane.

[bulldogs]

"the cost of living in chicago area is higher than anywhere in the midwest."


I will second that. From Streamwood.

[Katya]

I don't think you can make a sweeping statement regarding real estate markets nationally. The markets differ based on future population expansion and how much new construction can be built.
The Washington DC market is still very low on inventory. Our suburbs and cities are older with little available land to build. Our suburbs spread all the way to Martinsburg West Virginia.
As the boomers kids grow up, finish college and begin to look for housing the market only becomes tighter. Last year condominium prices went up 11%, beating local house price increases.
Of course in DC we also have a permanent employer: The federal government, but the amount of peripheral employment that has grown up here is also staggering.
Certainly there may be a bump in the market road, but the population will only expand...and I know plenty of people who are hedging their bets by investing in the real estate market.

[Eva]

We owned a house in Chadds Ford once. We only got to stay for six months, though, before being transferred back to California. We made 10,000 in six months on it.

[arete]

now that the GSEs make the S&Ls seem like sober Quaker bankers

Give me another 2 or 3 points on the upside on FNM and I'm shorting it. Oh baby, what a mess that is going to be.

Richard W.

[isthisnickcool]

Here is a nice little bread and butter house in Foster City, California, located about 10 miles south of the San Francisco Airport. It lists for $995,000. It has 1800 square feet.

Gads! That's not a heck of a lot bigger than my garage.

South of Houston in the NASA/Clear Lake area you could purchase something like this on the water, have almost 6,000 sq. ft. and keep $100K+ in your pocket.

[Torie]

That is one damn ugly house. Only in Texas could such an atrocity be built, or perhaps by Iranians in Los Angeles. Nice yard though. LOL.