Just wondering what your local real estate market is looking like. I'm currently in Idaho and it's stable out here and still appreciating, but back home in Northern California it's declining and nothing is selling. Family has even phoned me and told me of friends who are brokers looking at the reality of closing their business's. It's not a pretty situation out there. Glad I was able to get out before it took a dive!

 

Colorado is in the dumps right now......market sucks and nothing is selling right now. I wanna move back to the country and haven't been able to find much to buy cuz nobody wants to sell right now. Plus neither do I, I would actually like to make a nice profit on my house rather than eat it.


~Nick

 

houses aren't selling like hot cakes any more but the market seems to be holding steady.i havn't seen declining prices yet but houses are staying on the market longer.

 

Out here, one of the best investments is still real estate. It's off from previous highs, but it's bottomed out and prices are starting to turn upward again.

 

FLAT!

The days of seeing 15% appreciation in your first year of ownership are looooong gone for the Mid Atlantic.

We do blind solicitation for PMI removal jobs. You'd be surprised at how much houses have leveled out in the last year or so here.

I bought one in 2001 for 189K sold it in February this year for 450K, bought a townhouse in Aug. of 2004 for 107K, sold it for 156K last week. I pity the fools that are trying to market anything other than a straight up "first time homebuyers" house around me, they're ALL sitting.

Now, mind you I am used to the 2002-2005 era,(ancient history) were you put your house on the market and had 3 offers in the first 8 days (one of them over the asking price with a 30 day settlement!) So I might be over reacting about how slow it has become.

 

The bubble had to burst sometime. Way to many people out there have bought way more house than they can afford. Betting on the fact that it would go up in value and they could sell it in 3 years for a huge profit. Lot's of people with interest only loans or ARM's, little or no money down. Some of the programs on TV just promote bad home buying decisions. I spent $185,000 to build a 3700 sq. ft home. I only borrowed $134,000. The rest I had the money for down payment. No PMI for me. Even at that, I hate to make payments. When I pay this thing off it will be the last time I go into debt for anything. . Housing is kind of flat around here. Still a lot of homes going up because of interest rates. But a lot of the old homes sitting for a long time. There are still a lot of affordable homes for sale out there. Around here you can buy a pretty decent place to live for under $50,000. Nothing fancy, but decent schools, neighborhoods, and not bad crime. You can get some pretty nice homes for $100-150,000. Man you have got to love the midwest.

 

I was just talking to a loan officer today who traveled out to Iowa for something. She was saying what you can buy out there, it's really fun to look at RE papers from other parts of the country. You can buy a decent 3 BR 2 BA rancher on an acre out there where she was staying for just over $100K, same that you will spend on a LOT here (no well, septic or driveway mind you, either)

I get a kick out of it.
Both of us were just thinking, "What is so great about here, that housing is so un-affordable? Proximity to the cities I guess?

 

That to me would make them worth less. I prefer to be like I am. 1-1/2 from St. Louis, 2-1/2 hr from Indy. 4 hrs from Chicago. that's plenty close for me. I have a Sister-In-Law that lives in St. Louis, She says she likes it because of all the stuff to do. While she has lived there. I have been to more ballgames there. More times to the Zoo. More times to Six Flags. More times too the Arch. She pays more for a home. Worse Neighborhood, more crime, worse traffic. She says she makes more money there. But I guarantee that she has to spend it all on housing and other higher priced items. Oh well, if everyone moved to the country/ rural areas it wouldn't be near as good here. So forget all that stuff I just said. It's much better in the city. Stay in the city, stay in the city.

 

here in Tuscaloosa the market is slow but thats not anything that is new. But on the positive side the price of houses is still rising here.

 

You know what they say (LLL).

I like where I'm at, about 45 minutes north of Baltimore, 50 minutes South of Filthadelphia. They call our area "suburban" but when you can see a tractor on the road waiting at a red light, you are pretty much Rural!

I gotta have room to stretch out. I can do what I want out here without anyone whinning, or biatching.

 

In my neibourhood houses on the market are lasting a day to maybe a week getting asking price or over

Bought my 3br rancher 70X 170 lot 6 years ago for 158 000 same thing not as nice as mine down the street sold for 360 000 asking price in 2 hours

 

100k for a home... Im in deep where I am.

 

Out here in Idaho $175,000 buys you a real nice 4 bed 2 bath home on 1/2 an acre. Back home in Northern California that same house would be about $450,000 +....

Back home we have a tax most of you probably haven't heard of.....The Sunshine Tax!...Boy is it expensive!

 

Southern California .. MY houses have leveled out in price and are not gaining in value.. Dtill very expensive to live here.. Both on mine are about 950 sq ft. 2 bed 1 bath.. each one is valued around 700K..

Alot of homes here are sitting on the market and not selling fast.. Last year you would get 50K over asking and people were fighting to get your house..

Rents are through the roof.. I have good tennants in my rental and I havn't raised the rent for 3 years.. I get 1800 a month but it is worth 2100 right now.. But They pay every month and don't bother me eveyr month about BS.. I keep the house up and it is nice..

Gerry

 

Still good here in the Houston area - we're in the suburbs NW of Houston near Compaq's (now HP's) campus. Our next-door neighbor put his house on the market this summer and had 2 contract offers at his asking price within 3 weeks. Existing housing is going for around $60-$70/sq ft, but the bulldozers are knocking down the trees and they're throwing up housing developments all over this area which tends to hold prices down somewhat by creating an oversupply situation.

We'll be retiring in 4 years or so, selling and moving to the country to build where we've bought land between Victoria and Cuero - gotta get out of the Houston area property taxes, insurance rates, etc.

Rusty