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Will the economy ever make a come back?!

Buy if you can afford to buy.

This isn't meant as if you can you should. It is meant as, if there is something you like and can afford it then you should buy it.
 
KG said:
diversify has always been the answer to investment... but do you think now's the right time to buy a home? or should someone rent if they have the option to buy?
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It depends on too many factors, including intangibles like desire, for anyone to say what is "right" for another person. The market has dropped a lot but it's not done dropping.

But my view on universal homeownership has changed since the bubble.
 
I've posted pics on here, but don't know how to go back and bring them all into one thread.
Also, we have a city lot and 1/2. You have all seen pics of the back yard, but again, I'm not that computer wizzy enough to bring everything to thread.

Sorry.

But, "IF" we go thru a realtor, I can post the link. I say IF, because some of the neighbors are interested, and we would sell 'by owner', and save money by not using a realtor.


our house2.jpgclickpic


Not much from the outside!! Very pretty on the inside, 4 bdrm. & full bath upstairs, Kitchen, Pantry, Liv.rm, 2 Dining rm....1 formal, 1 not....office,,,used to be 5th bdrm. 1/2 bath and grand foyer.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.
 
mama22angels said:
The economy getting better seems to be taking much longer than "reported". Personally, I think many more things will crash before it will get better. number 1 being the dollar. Not meaning the next thing... meaning once the dollar crashes, things will get better. unsure how many things will crash before but the dollar will... IMO
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The dollar has already de-valued more than 25 percent since 2007. It cost me a lot more to send money to my parents!
 
A house you are going to live in is not an investment, there is no positive cash flow from it, it's a liability because there is a negative outflow i.e. repairs, maintainance, property taxes etc.
 
icoupon2 said:
Real estate and stocks have this in common....most of the time you are talking about an unrealized loss. You've only "lost" money in the stock market when your shares are worth less than you paid for them AND you sell them. If you paid $3,000 for shares and once upon a time they were worth $10,000 and now they are worth $4,000 that is not a "loss". If you paid $3,000 and got out because the value dropped to $2,000 THAT is a loss.

The same is true for the "value" of your house. What it currently appraises at really only matters if you sell it right now. If you have been paying $1,000 a month on your $200,000 mortgage and your house was REALLY worth $200K in a realistic market you have only "lost" money on your house if you sell it.
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That's what's killing me. Not the fictional $20K extra our house was "worth" at one point. The $40K I scrimped and saved for over 2 years to put down on this house that has totally vanished.

I am grateful we were able to re-fi in 2010, saving $200 a month (didn't take out any additional). And hugely grateful that we have always been careful with money and will be able to tap our emergency fund for home repairs, money to bring to closing, living expenses while DH studies for the bar, and moving expenses, without taking on additional debt.
 
Did some more scouring and found that the house we share a wall with (townhome), vacant for more than a year, flooded basement now with mold, is listed at $59K.

Granted, it needs a lot of work to be liveable because of the basement mold. Who knows when it will ever sell......BofA sends contractors to check on it but wont approve them to do any work except a few people have worked on the yard.
 
Michelle, we have similar issues. The house across the street from us (same floorplan) sold for $108,000, we paid $180,000

One on the street behind us (same floorplan) just sold for $43k.

It's mentally stressful, but at this point I now just consider it rent.

With the mold issue, are you saying the village you live in won't make the bank do anything? That is a health hazard. You can also call the health dept.
 
the house down the street from me, same floorplan, was for sale for 80k recently, cash sale only. it was a foreclosure. There was roof damage, a raccoon had gotten into the attic and the bank would not pay to remove the raccoon, so the animal(s) took up residence and did some serious damage to the house. There are now broken windows and who knows what inside.

But that doesn't mean my house is worth 80k. those foreclosures that need a lot of work are for different kinds of buyers than would buy your well-maintained property, generally they're sold as-is, the bank requires a cash sale and there are no disclosures or inspections. Yes, foreclosures and short sales bring down the average but look at true comparables or even get a comparative market analysis before assessing the value of your house. And like icoupon2 said, the value only matters if you're selling right now.
 
In certain areas, there are no true comparables. The house that sold for $43k was not damaged in anyway. At worst it needed yard work.

The housing market is also highly individual. It's like trying to sell something esoteric like record albums or carnival glass - IF you have exactly what that one or two people are looking for, and if they are looking for it when you want to sell, then the stars align and a sale is made.

I work in the industry and (at least in my area) there is no predictability with pricing or length on the market, etc. Everybody's pretty much winging it. If they can sell and eat the loss or have cash to bring, they do, if they don't, they quick-quit and call it a day, and then it's on the street behind me selling for $43k.

Those able to sell their homes right now at all are usually just benefiting from luck (except in recession proof hot areas like where Steve is, but the allure of that neighborhood is also lucky/subjective). It has little to do with how good the "investment" was back when it was purchased.
 
KG said:
But that doesn't mean my house is worth 80k. those foreclosures that need a lot of work are for different kinds of buyers than would buy your well-maintained property, generally they're sold as-is, the bank requires a cash sale and there are no disclosures or inspections. Yes, foreclosures and short sales bring down the average but look at true comparables or even get a comparative market analysis before assessing the value of your house. And like icoupon2 said, the value only matters if you're selling right now.
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Unfortunately, not only are the regular for-sale homes that are on the market competition, foreclosures and short sales beccome everyones competition. My ex-neighbor sold her house last year (after having it on the market for 3 years). Her real estate agent told her that her competition was all of the above and did indeed drag down the price of her house. (She wound up selling it for $78,000 less than her original asking price.) In addition, because this is a buyers market, she wound up putting an additional $15,000 (approximately) worth of repairs that were requested by the buyer but unnecessary. She had several deals fall through at the last minute (because of financing issues) and the person who purchased it was the only buyer on the horizon. Unfortunately it appears that buyers compare apples to oranges and not apples to apples (foreclosures and short sales to regular for-sale homes) rather than foreclosures and short sales to foreclosures and short sales and regular for-sale homes to regular for-sale homes.
 
skincarekathy said:
In certain areas, there are no true comparables. The house that sold for $43k was not damaged in anyway. At worst it needed yard work.

The housing market is also highly individual. It's like trying to sell something esoteric like record albums or carnival glass - IF you have exactly what that one or two people are looking for, and if they are looking for it when you want to sell, then the stars align and a sale is made.
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I totally agree with the bolded.

Was the $43k house part of an estate? short sale? foreclosure? Did the owner need to dump it for some reason?
 
They wanted to move (retire out of state, they did not live in the unit), owed taxes on it, so it went to sheriff sale. Then the lender foreclosed (on the only about 20k worth of mortgage left).

People just don't care. This was a RE agent that owned the house (and used it for a rental for many years).

Typical or historical motivations are not driving the market right now, for buyers or sellers.

Half of the homes in our neighborhood (54 duplex buildings, so 108 homes) are either in active foreclosure or are empty (having been through foreclosure). 2/3 of the remaining occupied homes are rentals. Every once in a while a unit comes on the market, but they are mostly HUD owned, and HUD is suppressing their "inventory" because they are waiting for the federal govt to allow HUD to offer their inventory as section 8 rentals. Our HOA is poised to sue/injunct when/if that happens, but it is not an unusual situation for any neighborhood in IL, Michigan, Ohio, Las Vegas, Florida, etc.
 
FrugalSandy said:
Unfortunately, not only are the regular for-sale homes that are on the market competition, foreclosures and short sales beccome everyones competition. My ex-neighbor sold her house last year (after having it on the market for 3 years). Her real estate agent told her that her competition was all of the above and did indeed drag down the price of her house. (She wound up selling it for $78,000 less than her original asking price.) In addition, because this is a buyers market, she wound up putting an additional $15,000 (approximately) worth of repairs that were requested by the buyer but unnecessary. She had several deals fall through at the last minute (because of financing issues) and the person who purchased it was the only buyer on the horizon. Unfortunately it appears that buyers compare apples to oranges and not apples to apples (foreclosures and short sales to regular for-sale homes) rather than foreclosures and short sales to foreclosures and short sales and regular for-sale homes to regular for-sale homes.
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if she had to reduce her price by that much, it sounds like she was unrealistic about how much she was going to get for her house to begin with. Did she have to sell? In this market, where people sometimes haven't come to terms with the depressed prices, sometimes shady realtors will tell a seller their house is worth more than it is, just to get the listing. they let it sit on the market for months, reducing the price over and over until it's finally somewhat close to what someone is willing to pay.

For me it's a choice, whether to sell at the lower prices or not. I understand that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay. I would not sell my house for 80k. I'd stay here for 30 more years if that ends up being the best offer we get. We are lucky to have that choice.
 
skincarekathy said:
They wanted to move (retire out of state, they did not live in the unit), owed taxes on it, so it went to sheriff sale. Then the lender foreclosed (on the only about 20k worth of mortgage left).

People just don't care. This was a RE agent that owned the house (and used it for a rental for many years).

Typical or historical motivations are not driving the market right now, for buyers or sellers.

Half of the homes in our neighborhood (54 duplex buildings, so 108 homes) are either in active foreclosure or are empty (having been through foreclosure). 2/3 of the remaining occupied homes are rentals. Every once in a while a unit comes on the market, but they are mostly HUD owned, and HUD is suppressing their "inventory" becausethey are waiting for the federal govt to allow HUD to offer their inventory as section 8 rentals. Our HOA is poised to sue/injunct when/if that happens, but it is not an unusual situation for any neighborhood in IL, Michigan, Ohio, Las Vegas, Florida, etc.
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:eek: wow!
 
KG said:
if she had to reduce her price by that much, it sounds like she was unrealistic about how much she was going to get for her house to begin with. Did she have to sell? In this market, where people sometimes haven't come to terms with the depressed prices, sometimes shady realtors will tell a seller their house is worth more than it is, just to get the listing. they let it sit on the market for months, reducing the price over and over until it's finally somewhat close to what someone is willing to pay.

For me it's a choice, whether to sell at the lower prices or not. I understand that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay. I would not sell my house for 80k. I'd stay here for 30 more years if that ends up being the best offer we get. We are lucky to have that choice.
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She had already purchased a build-to-suit house in another state. Her thinking was that she would put her house up for sale here when the house in the other state was finished. Unfortunately, she got caught at both ends - she paid at the top of the market for the house out of town and the market turned soft just as she put the house here on the market. Her RE agent was NOT shady and her asking price was NOT unrealistic. I agree that everyone has a choice but everyone's circumstances are different. She was very reluctant to sell her house at the price she did but how long can someone support 2 houses? And how long does someone want to go back and forth? Personally, the way that she did it would not have been the way DH and I would have done it, but that's irrelevant. I would have sold the house here and then bought in the other state. Because the financing restrictions got so tight so quickly, many people who otherwise would have qualified for a mortage, did not, so that some (or many) people were excluded from purchasing a house altogether.
 
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