Post Local Housing Market Observations Here!
What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Builder incentives? “The $99,000 amount is an approximate incentive for homes available to close escrow by December 24, 2006.Vacation Getaway is limited to select locations. The prize will be forfeited if certificate is not claimed by the winner at Pulte Homes offices in Pleasanton, CA within 30 days after notification.”
From Hawaii. “‘Local Realtors observe that speculators are gone, while potential buy-and-hold customers are waiting, watching prices closely,’ according to the report. Construction is still booming, but economist Leroy Laney said people in the industry ’see emerging signs of some cooling off in the future.’”
From Illinois. “Carbondale, Illinois never participated in the housing bubble, but the current market pull back seems to be hitting it hard nonetheless. The Eatons aren’t laughing. They’ve dropped the price twice already and have yet to attract a serious offer. The Eatons originally set the price at $425,000 last year.”
“‘We had someone make an offer of $275,000,’ says Judy Eaton. ‘I didn’t even counteroffer. ‘The most I’ll come down is $10,000.’”
The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. “This is Sydney’s cheapest unit. The one-bedroom unit in Cabramatta sold at auction last week for $95,000. In November 2003 it cost $262,500.”
“Elliott Shiner First National real-estate principal Angela Elliott said:’Everything that is selling now is selling for $40,000 to $50,000 less than it was in 2003. Properties have dropped by a good 30 per cent in value. You can pick up properties in the Mount Druitt area for $180,000 to $200,000. There are real bargains to be had, but where are the buyers?’”
We had our first couple of short sales go on the MLS this week. A broker looked at one and the guy is seriously underwater. He’s a flipper that bought in 2005. It has a first and a second lien, along with a HELOC. I understand the place is not in good shape and will be lucky to cover the primary note. Congratulations Countrywide!
We seem to have a pickup in the number of short-sales here in SD, judging from a random glance at ziprealty listings. These tend to be in the low end of the price range for comparable housing, suggesting that short sales may be leading the market down.
The language used to advertise these is quite a far cry from last year’s snobby-sounding leader: “Seller will entertain offers between $X,XXX,XXX and $Y,YYY,YYY.”
Here is an actual example of the new-style San Diego sales pitch:
“Short sale!!! Reduced price!!! Lender to review and approve all offers. Please call agent 24 hrs prior to show.”
Here’s a twist on the old formula. Same arrogant languange but on the way down. It’s from a Burbank zip listing.
http://tinyurl.com/melkq
Price: $769,000
Description: Seller will entertain offers between 749,000 - 769,000.
Oh, and they bought on 09/27/2004. Indicated sale price $479,504.
I believe I’ll entertain myself by submiting a sub-lowball offer on this one. Hehehehehe….
Be careful. It won’t seem so funny when he accepts.
Ten cents on the dollar? I doubt it!
I’ll outbid you! $99k!
Strange days in San Diego - this morning in University Heights AND along Pacific Beach, I spotted a low-flying plane towing a McMillan Realty banner. Usually on the weekends you see a Bud or Coors banner, but I guess McMillan Kool-Aid will get the attention of beach-goers as well.
This must have been one of the stupid people Mr. Mizzolo spoke of!?!?
Sorry meant to say IDIOTS!!
_______________________________________________
“‘What we’re finding out is that they’re pretty smart,’ Mozilo said. ‘It’s like voters: Individually they’re sort of idiots, but collectively they seem to make the right decisions.’”
“but collectively they seem to make the right decisions.’”
Uh, you mean like Lemmings going off a cliff ?
some asking for how much in carbondale, illinois? its a joke, right.
flippers need to be burned!
More ‘for sale’ sings than last week. Same houses have been on the market in neighborhood for more than 7 months. Some have been taken off the market.
“Carbondale, Illinois never participated in the housing bubble, but the current market pull back seems to be hitting it hard nonetheless. The Eatons aren’t laughing. They’ve dropped the price twice already and have yet to attract a serious offer. The Eatons originally set the price at $425,000 last year.”
“‘We had someone make an offer of $275,000,’ says Judy Eaton. ‘I didn’t even counteroffer. ‘The most I’ll come down is $10,000.’”
STUPID!!!! The Eatons will eat it….. They should have taken the offer and got out. They will have this property until it is taken for taxes or the bank takes it back.
- “Carbondale, Illinois —–never participated ——in the housing bubble, but the current market pull back seems to be hitting it hard nonetheless.
How did a home ever reach the 425k range if there was no speculation there? What an ass Ms. Eaton is.
The nations psychology has changed from ‘nowhere to go but up’ to ‘nowhere to come but down’. All markets will feel the wrath of the housing bubble. Most (intelligent) people know it would be foolish to buy a home right now.
The trouble is, intelligent people are about 1% of the population. The herd instinct still rules.
That’s the thing about bubbles and manias. It doesn’t require intelligence for it to come crashing down.
Read the story before you comment. This appears to be a high quality house:
“The current asking price - $358,000 - is only about twice as much as the house cost to build in 1968, about $175,000, which, adjusted for inflation, would be more than $1 million in 2006 dollars.”
Typical that short-sighted Americans prefer one of these low-quality match-stick-n-OSB-Toll-Brother homes because they are “new”.
It also shows that real estate is not always a goldmine…… It’s been a nice place to live in and I am sure that they have gotten there money’s worth but don’t expect to “cash out”.
“adjusted for inflation”
So what ? If my salary was adjusted for inflation maybe I’d be able to afford it but thats just a nice mental exercise that doesn’t reflect reality.
I read the whole story somewhere. It is probably the nicest house in Carbondale, a place where no one has any money. I think it is paid for, and the sellers want to move to another town in Illinois where they can participate in card games. They already bought another house in the other town (Belleville?), and one of their adult children is living in it. I am from this general area, and there just are very few people who can afford a large house like this.
The house is easily found on the realtor.com site. It is stunning.
And as any OLD SCHOOL real estate professional will tell you, you never want to own the best house in the neighborhood, you’ll never get the money and appreciation you would if it was a median house for the neighborhood.
Anybody that is married knows that women are not rational about buying or selling properties. I love my wife but we have sold two homes and both times it was not pretty. To her it was, “I’m not giving my house away”. To me it was, “let’s price it right and get out”. Sorry ladies but you should recuse yourself when it comes to selling your residence.
So true, but dude, you better starting running for cover. The Sisterhood is going to be gunning for you!
That’s okay. If I can save even one husband from what I went through then any epithets or curse words that are hurled in my direction will be worth it. I would hope the ladies wouldn’t do their Muslim impersonation and treat me like Pope Benedict.
lol
“Muslims have condemned Pope Benedict for quoting an Emporer who called Islam violent”
“In other news, security has been stepped up around the Pope to protect against increased concerns over a violent attack.”
Now that’s funny. “How dare you say we’re violent? I should kill you for that.”
And then the Moslems shoot a nun in the back as she works in a charity hospital in Mogadishu… naw, they are not violent or inhuman.
Over the last several years my wife has been pushing me hard to buy a house. She noticed I was on thehousingbubbleblog and read some it of herself. No more pushing.
These Eatons need to stay in Carbondale and take an Economics 101 course at the university. Where does this woman get off thinking her house is worth more than the market will bear. What an idiot.
Tampa Florida,
Just went to realtor.com and looked around first time in a while.
Saw a condo I put a full price offer on in 2002 for $55,000(walked when they countered and took out the inspection contigency). Watched it soar to $186,000, and here today, there is one listed for $115,000.
More from Tampa;
A townhome I almost bought in 2003(foreclosure) for $60,000, watched it soar to 190,000’s now on like it is listed for $152,000.
Another condo I had a contract for in Dec. 2003(condo conversion) for $130,000. Watched it soar to $180,000’s. Now one like it is listed for $149,000.
To this day my feet are still cold.
Jannifl — that’s interesting. Assuming we are talking about a standar Florida munti-story condo, one of the things that sets them apart from houses is that you risk relatively little by foregoing an inspection. That’s because you are on the hook, personally, for so little — the fixtures, the a/c system ($5K for a good one), the appliances. You can tell if the cabinets and flooring are OK. There should be very little wrong in a condo that you could not spot yourself with the possible exception of mold and in that case, the condo association might be responsible for the fix. Nevertheless, with patience you could well be able to buy in there again for not much more than that original price.
Personally, if I were lowballing a condo in Florida, I would make it all-cash, no contingencies, no repairs and fast closing. You can save a lot of money that way.
But it would NEVER be a condo conversion.
On the first condo priced at $55,000, the 2000-2001 prices were around $35,000 to $40,000. The inspecton contingency and the counteroffer just gave me an out, cause I got cold feet. I thought there was a housing bubble in 2002.
How quickly my perspective changed in this bubble from $55,000 is too high to thinking $200,000 is a bargain, luckily I memorized my area, the prices and square footages etc, in 2001-2003 so I remember what things went for. That has protected me from jumping in again during the peaks.
Forgot to say, you are right about buying “all cash”. I won’t buy anything in the future unless I have the cash, even if I get less.
When it get down to $72,ooo, it’s probably a reasonably buy.
If you really want one, offer them something in that range.
I am waiting for more desperation and fear as people who buy multiple units can’t make the payment schedule.
All around Tampa, more for sale signs are turning to for rent signs as over-extended “investors” are getting their comeuppance.
‘The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia. “This is Sydney’s cheapest unit. The one-bedroom unit in Cabramatta sold at auction last week for $95,000. In November 2003 it cost $262,500.”’
Wow — that would be a 64% haircut. I thought that OZ’s market had hit a permanently high price plateau? Can’t wait for the 64% discounts on downtown San Diego luxury condos…
GS…….
The Australian market is just starting to get interesting. I made an offer of $180,000 on a block of land 2 months ago that originally sold for $300,000 in 2004. At the time the agent was reluctant to submit it……of course the offer was refused. Just this week had a call from the same agent asking if I was still prepared to pay $180,000 for it. I told him seeing as prices were now falling further My offer is now $150,000…….cash 30 day settlement. The owner is considering it. Will be a nice pick up if he accepts.
That is encouraging news. Can’t wait until SD homesellers feel compelled to “entertain” offers at 50% the 2005 price…
I think we are approaching cherry picking time in Australia now…………..bargains are starting to appear ………it’s a matter of watching and waiting for the monkeys to fall out of the trees
You guys peaked in late 2004. If this holds true for us - we should be seeing this same activity in Summer 2007!
No Australia peaked by the end of 2003, maybe early 2004.
I would appreciate if one of the Australians reading this would comment on the effects to the local economy. Clearly Australia is ahead the rest of the bubble countries and usefull insight could be had from their experiences.
I know, this isn’t the first housing slump the world has seen, but this is one of the few without clear economical triggers that started the housing slump. To me it looks like this time it might be the other way around, now the housing price crash may start the recession. Plus the amount of housing debt to GDP hasn’t been quite this high in many places before.
I too would be interested to here about the bubble’s impact on Australia’s economy.
One comment: When the US economy deflates, its going to hit everyone’s economy.
According to the cia world factbook
http://www.cia.gov (look for world factbook on the left)
Australia’s GNP: $640.1 Billion USD on PPP
US GNP: $12,360 Billion USD (no need to PPP, its already USD).
Also, Australia’s trade deficit isn’t great. But they export 90% of the USD value of what they import. The USA is trying to get down to the value of exports being 50% of what we import! (We’re so close its scary…) So Australia has a lot more “cushion” than the US will have.
Lightsaber
But as a percentage of GDP the Australian Current Account Deficit is even higher than the US.
So far, there hasn’t been much impact except for the suburbs right at the margins in Sydney and Melbourne. Where I live, in Canberra, prices for SFH’s have even started to edge up again (condos are still flat, however).
(I may get flamed for this comment. Canberra is the Australian equivalent of Washington DC, and gets the same “full of overpaid, underworked government employees” tirades.)
Oh, and for anyone who doesn’t know Sydney, Cabramatta and Mount Druitt are not generally regarded as prime suburbs. Cabramatta used to be known as ‘Vietnamatta’ during the 80’s and 90’s, when a lot of boat people fleeing Vietnam went there. I think the nickname has since changed to ‘Little Beirut’, reflecting the latest low-income immigrant demographic going where the accomodation is cheap.
Oh, by the way, at 95,000 that Cabramatta REO was bought by an investor at 168 months estimated rent.
RE-ligion is really, really strong here in Australia.
It’s interesting how deep some properties fall in the down cycle while the median looks acceptable. That’s why some of the low end stuff that goes wild in the bubble %-wise gets hit badly in the downturn. I documented the low end of my area (McLean-Tysons, VA) down nearly 30% from the peak if and when it sells. But these units went up 275% since 2000. That’s why any such price increase should be shunned immediately. You are better off speculating in the higher end with only 100-150% increase if you have enough capital.
1. Called a gutter installer for estimate. Within the hour he was on the site installing same.
2. Called sheetrock sub on Tue. Wed. got estimate. Thursday job loaded. Friday installed. Today first coat finished by 8:30.
Both of the above used to require a 2 week wait for the first return call.
3. Realtors just leaving their phone #’s at local open houses to be called in the event somebody actually shows up.
Waaahoo — good, useful information. Where (specific or general) is this?
New Jersey. And big developments just starting road work right down the street. Don’t know what they are thiking as sales are tanking.
Big developments have years of lead time.
The RE market looked hot when this was a gleam in some shark’s eye.
Now? Sucks to be him. So sad.
This is worthy of a topic in its own right; how have building tradespeople’s attitudes/scheduling changed?
That’s often a better indicator than any talking head on the business channels.
Waahoo, are you a tradesperson or was this work on private property?
I’ve been suggesting to my husband that we wait until next year to do any work on the yard or home as I’m expecting prices (on labor and materials) to drop when people start getting desperate/commodity prices tank.
I’m wondering if others here think prices will be lower next year or is that just wishful thinking on my part?
For lack of a better definition I am a general contractor. People will be hungry, I think you would be wise to wait. Then do what I do. Get some quotes. Knock something off them, and when the guy you want to dod the work shows up just show him what he has to beat. Get that price first and then ask him how much less for cash.
Don’t forget to report this income to the IRS.
Went to get a latte this morning. Chatted with the barista (in her mid 20’s) about the local housing market. I was happy to learn that, while she is not a homeowner or potential buyer at this time, she has been keeping a pulse on the market around here (Gig Harbor, WA area). She talked about how ridiculous prices are and that all she hears from people trying to sell is that “Nobody is buying anymore.” Washington is no different. Even though we were a little late to the party, I believe we are actually closing the gap quite quickly.
OT, but I was blown away when I read what this SD mortgage broker was reporting on the SDCIA web site. Here is what he had to say and the link. I apologize in advance if you have seen this already. http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/sdcia/vpost?id=1382618
P.S. This confirms the worst fears of what many have been talking about on this board with regards to lending standards…enjoy.
From the thread:
I think that the “experts” should just spend one week in my office observing the financial profiles of our refinance applicants. I believe their outlook would be much different.
Most people simply cannot believe the profiles that we see.
I am the sales manager of a branch office of a top-10 national lender.
My office of 7 loan officers takes +/- 100 loan applications per week, 90% of that coming from cold calls.
Of the last 100, I have taken some simple statistics and have found the following:
68/100 had LTV’s over 80% at time of application
16/100 had LTV’s over 100% at time of application
78/100 had back end DTI’s over 55%
31/100 had back end DTI’s over 70%
23/100 had FICO’s under 500
81/100 had credit card debt above $10,000
54/100 had credit card debt above $20,000
18/100 had credit card debt above $50,000
66/100 had Pay-option ARMs
27/100 had Pay-option ARMs and mortgage lates
22/100 were either in forbearance or had been in forbearance within the past 12 months
We took 14 applications today and we cannot qualify a single borrower for any type of loan. We are sub-prime, in fact, sometimes I say we are sub-sub-prime. We can qualify almost anyone for a loan. Not today.
Let me tell you about just one borrower from today:
Husband and wife
Husband on fixed income military retirement $1800/mo
Wife makes $9500/mo as a registered nurse
5 properties with $3,400,000 in mortgages
All mortgages currently have prepays
8 interest-only mortgages
1 option ARM deferring $3500/mo
3 in Chula Vista and 2 in Escondido
No more than $75,000 equity in any of the homes (verified by comp checks with 3 appraisers)
All properties with front end LTV over 90%
$65,000 credit card debt $672 Mercedes payment
One property had 3 mortgages, one of them hard money
621 mid FICO
2×30 in the past 12 months
Not a dime in the bank
They have been making mortgage payments with their credit cards and refinancing to pay off the credit cards. They are at the end of their rope, but refuse to throw in the towel.
This is not even an “extreme” example. I could show you dozens of these every single week.
I just wish the experts would see what I see. I think the statistics released would be different.
Granted, I only see applications from San Diego and Imperial Counties, but this is just getting out of hand.
Do you have a colleague here in Silicon Valley? We would love to figure out how to get such info locally on a regular basis!
WOW. They will drag us all down.
Another snippet from this same broker…this is ugly…
“I have no idea what the general public is like. I only know that this is what I see each day. We certainly do see our share of 800 FICOs and 25% LTV’s, but it is the exception, and not the rule.
Most applicants are desperate to lower their payments, not realizing that they cannot lower a payment when they currently have the option arm.
Others are desperate for debt consolidation. When their mortgage payment went from $3000 to $1000 (fixed or ARM to option ARM) they found other things to do with the cash flow. Mostly toys.
We generally pitch up to 4 strategies:
Debt consolidation - most common
Max cash - a close 2nd to debt consolidation
Max cash same payment - almost never possible
Term reduction - hardly ever fits DTI
We do not sell Option ARMS. We hardly ever sell interest-only. The bread and butter of my office is selling people out of option arms and IO and back into a “real payment.”
The broker office next door simply can’t believe that we stay in business without an option arm to sell.
I will say this without any hesitation: 9/10 borrowers who currently have Option ARMs have no real understanding of what their loan is doing. I have had more than a few old ladies cry in my office when I show them the amount of deferred interest on their loan.
They were careless enough to sign a bad loan (ultimately the responsibility of the borrower to read the docs before signing), but it doesn’t help that every hack broker out there is pitching the option arm just because the rebate is so high.
Almost daily I see 70-year-old+ borrowers who used to owe $50k on their home now owing $600k on option arms.
Very soboring. Thanks for re-posting here, Dukes. These unscrupulous mortage brokers are sowing the seeds of their own demise.
The lenders are by far the most responsible for this bubble. One only needs to look in the smaller markets in western Washington to realize this. Homes which sold for 40 and 50k within the past 5 years are now selling for 200k and more. You take a look at the local economies (or lack thereof) and are left wondering how the locals could even afford this stuff. It is readily apparent the only people buying in these remote areas are either speculators, or uneducated locals both of whom are using ARM’s and other exotics pushed hard by these vultures. I find the whole thing absolutely repulsive.
“I will say this without any hesitation: 9/10 borrowers who currently have Option ARMs have no real understanding of what their loan is doing.”
SO TURE.
I know three persons (one frinend, two co-workers) who bought houses on 2005, 100%financing, Option ARM in Murrieta , CA. After one year teaser monthly payment based on 1% rate expired and all of them refinanced with another Option ARM, but of course balance on the new loans are about $20K bigger than the first loan due to negative amortization.
I told them that they are like a person who has cancer but keep taking morphine for the pain, and do not realize that their illness is something much more serious.
Most people in America are financially illitrate. We have a big catastrophe comming in 2007/08.
Most people in America are financially illitrate. We have a big catastrophe comming in 2007/08.
You’re not one to talk about literacy, my friend.
Ha ha ! So “ture”
You guys are fu*king killing me! LOL.
wawawa — it pains me to say this, because I hit “enter” with my share of typographical errors, but when you refer to illiteracy in a post, it kinda’ follows that it is a really great time to have used spell-check (in your WP, outside the blog) before posting. There’s just something really incongruous about grammar and spelling errors in such a moment of piety. Just FWIW — not a slam.
finacially illiterate illiterate.
They aren’t like cancer patients, they are just like common junkies. They got their first hit and now they want/need more. Morphine is just like that. It gives you a nice warm feeling, really pleasent actually, untill the side-effects come. At the end of the day you’ll end up ruined both financially and mentally. Don’t ever take option-ARMs (or morphine) unless you really, REALLY know what you are doing.
New definition for the term diversification: Hiding cash in different places in your house. Usage: “I have got to hide my money in places other than under the mattress”.
LOL. About twenty years ago I remember seeing, for sale, super-heavy-duty plastic tubes with about an 8″ diameter and a screw-top cap, purportedly for this purpose.
For those of us not in the biz, what is a “back end DTI”?
DTI, if I am not mistaken means: Debt to Income, as in Debt to Income ratio…
Yes. A DTI ratio is a debt-to-income ratio. Not in the business, but from what I understand, a front-end ratio is the mortgage debt (believe it’s PITI payments) to income. You used to have around 28% front-end DTI ratios to qualify. If you had a (gross) monthly income of $10,000, your monthly housing payments could not equal more than $2,800.
A back-end ratio is the DTI ratio when taking into account ALL debts (credit cards, car pmts, housing pmts, etc.) to income. Traditionally, these were about 33% or so. If you had gross monthly income of $10,000, you could qualify for a TOTAL of $3,300 in payments (house, car, CCs, etc.).
More here:
http://homebuying.about.com/cs/mortgagearticles/a/debt_to_income.htm
Damn that is pretty amazing. I don’t know what shocked me the most…
a. the 23% w/ Ficos below 500
b. the 54% w/ debt > $20k
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…maybe both. I’m just glad I’m not mired in such a dire financial situation.
thanks for the story.
Dukes — thanks. Wow, is that a horror story. Yet the way the fellow tells it, you can believe that there are many cases like this.
(Didn’t know nurses earn so much — you’d think they’d be more pleasant. Maybe their RE “investments” keep them distracted.)
Thank you for that!
Despite the bulls’ insistence we are somehow insulated from the laws of economics here in Silicon Valley, listings continue to go up while prices are drifting down. Santa Clara Co. shows -$47K on median resales over the last 5 weeks (updated Sept.16).
(http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id125.html)
In the next week or so, we will re-publish
“All RE is local” (http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id253.html) &
“The last 30 days” (http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id252.html)
to update the local numbers.
Stay tuned!
Despite the bulls’ insistence we are somehow insulated from the laws of economics here in Silicon Valley, listings continue to go up while prices are drifting down. Santa Clara Co. shows -$47K on median resales over the last 5 weeks (updated Sept.16).
(http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id125.html)
In the next week or so, we will re-publish
“All RE is local” (http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id253.html) &
“The last 30 days” (http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id252.html)
to update the local numbers.
Stay tuned!
The “for sale” sign for the house across the street from me fell over a week ago. It’s still laying in the yard. The house has been for sale since last Thanksgiving. I’ve made two offers on it. Both rejected. Another sale fell through last month.
Keep lowering your offer, then maybe they’ll get the hint and bite.
I agree!
try xmas eve 07
dress in a J Montgomery Burns suit
offer cash
today only
“Carbondale, Illinois never participated in the housing bubble, but the current market pull back seems to be hitting it hard nonetheless.”
Oh? So there is no Bank of America, Countrywide, Option One in Illinois? Maybe Carbondale was supposed to decline steadily in price and this mild appreciation is their massive bubble. This is not the War between the States where the landed gentry observed the bloodshed from the heights. This is WW-III where anyone within the blast radius is dead and everyone else is downwind.
Love it!!!!!……..too good
Option ARMs = neutron bombs of mortgage financing (leaves homes standing but kills occupants, at least financially)
Robert, That’s because there are no flippers in Carbondale, Il. There’s no one to flip it to….There is also no massive new building.
“Carbondale” itself is a spooky premonition of sorts. Isn’t carbon about all that is left after the nuke goes off?
I think carbondale is just a euphomism for “coal valley”
The subdivision we live in near Boise covers about four blocks. Currently we have 15 houses for sale: 5 are new construction and the 9 others are “used”, but less than a year old. Since we moved in last June, only one home has sold. Two new construction houses just changed RE companies; two other homes changed RE agents and dropped the prices by 10K. I haven’t seen an open house in the neighborhood in a few weeks—its like agents have given up.
Driving to the post office today, I noticed for sale signs posted at every side street—sometimes four to five. The bottom line is that houses are for sale everywhere, 6,600 in the Boise MSA according to the housing tracker—a 71% increase in just four months. New construction sales in August are down 35% vs. August 2005. Curiously, the median home price is still holding steady. I think it’s because sellers are still trying to get last years prices. I think when prices begin to drop, it’s going to be ugly. How can the market absorb a 71% increase in inventory and a sharp drop in sales without a nasty correction in prices?
SD Zip is showing some interesting developments:
1) Number of listings is stuck just north of 23K
2) But lots of new listings are still coming in — for example, there are over 200 listings new since yesterday.
3) The percentage marked “price reduced” is still increasing slowly-but-surely. With 23,052 listings for greater SD, and 9,476 marked “price reduced,” we are now up to over 41% in that category (last time I checked a couple of weeks ago, it was under 40%).
Spotted a realtor’s sign on Grand Ave this afternoon (crappy area of Pacific Beach - San Diego) - half of the sign had fallen off and was lying in the dirt yard of the house. The part of the sign that was still hanging had plastic strapping tape all over it - indicating a previous “fix.”
How can anyone seriously think about buying a house from an agent who can’t even keep a respectable sign up? Half of the phone number was on the ground.
I posted earlier on this topic, but I also read on another blog about a husband/wife sales team that have seen their sales go from 24 last year to only 12 so far this year. They mentioned the last house was reduced to just less than 500k. Sad, but at 6% they are still knocking down over $360,000 so far this year. That’s still enough to make them put off that extra trip across town to check that property that hasn’t sold yet. Problem is, they’re not hungry enough yet to go that extra mile.
As I understand it, the commission is usually split 1.5% to the listing agent, 1.5% to the buyer’s agent, and 1.5% each to the brokerages which provide the agents with office space and support various supporting functions. It sounds like this team may have their own brokerage, and so may be getting 3%, but if so are then also paying for all the advertising and overhead of running a small business. If so, their take-home is probably little more than they could get from two corporate jobs.
Forgive my ignorance, but what does a buyers agent actually do? We very rarely use them in the UK.
Mostly, a buyers agent drives you around in a very nice leased vehicle to look at 10 to 12 overpriced homes. Then you’ll talk with the agent and finally get down to a neighborhood you really like and use the agent to help purchase the house.
In my opinion, a scam. 2/3rds of buyers end up finding the home they’re going to buy on their own. There are a growing number of “refunds” offered by discount buyers agents. The difference? One uses the interenet to find the home and arranges to view the house with the selling agent.
I believe buyer’s agents are going to go away in the USA. But maybe I’m too nieve…
Neil
Funny you bring up the topic of worn-out signs in San Diego. Just yesterday my wife mentioned that she noticed one of the signs operated by a local human directional (sign twirler) was showing evidence of severe wear and tear. Apparently two letters in the name of the condo-conversion-complex are worn out to the point where they are no longer visible. Seeing a sign that has been twirled to the point of dilapidation must really make the buyers want to hurry up and outbid one another on those overpriced condopartments.
Recovering Homeowner — do you have a digicam? That would be a great photo addition to Ben’s HBB Photo Gallery.
Speaking of For-Sale signs… I often get phone calls by agents asking where they can post For-Sale signs. I tell them on private property with the owner’s permission as per the City’s municipal code - please do not post signs on telephone poles or in the landscape medians - I would personally remove them myself. Most of them simply respond by saying the City’s rules are stupid… anyway, I have little sympathy for them.
GS - I’ve been watching the same thing and trying to make sense of #2. So with 200 new listings, are others expiring? Are these really *new* listings or are they just being relisted? I’m trying to figure out the general feeling/behavior of a seller in SD and derive what is to come from there. A big question is how many people think the market will pick up next spring? If we really see inventory spike in the spring, things will get interesting. Historically speaking, what happened to inventory during a normal market over the fall/winter months?
same thing in manhattan! it seems about 10-20% of all listings in nytimes are new listings. yet the overall inventory just drifts up (about 10% in last month, after dropping about 20% at the beginning of the summer).
I’m definitely seeing more homes being pulled off the market and listed for rent. They are hoping for the 2007 “Spring Selling Season!!”
This is going to be fun!
The realtors are trying to reduce inventory by trying to get people to rent and wait for a more favorable market . I hope they can rent and wait for 10 years .
“A big question is how many people think the market will pick up next spring?”
Bearnanke — if you’re polling Ben’s bloggers — as one, I do not think the market will pick up at all next Spring. Sure, the MSM will zoom in on Dick and Jane who scarf up the home of their dreams because its price dropped by, Gasp!, 15-20%, but follow the active listings and you will see a continuation of the inexorable climb that began about a year ago. Who knows when the FB’s Last Stand will be — I suspect that late 2007-to-Summer 2008 is a good time to watch for great deals relative to maximizing selection and price. I believe that the entrepreneurial spirit of this country will before then spawn services that help us see through the maze, whether it be Web sites that help us buy REOs without stupid exposure to a pig in a poke (read: inspection vs. none) or others that merely point out, as instantly as an electronic ticker, belly-up FBs.
There are good times a-comin’ for vulture capitalists and that term includes most of us, I think, though mostly on a very small scale.
Pensacola, Florida
According to a local RE agent website:
July YOY median price decline (2.40%)
August YOY median price decline (7.10%)
Inventory change: unknown
The RE playbook from the big cities has finally arrived in P’cola with a number of listings referencing an appraisal report:
“Current Appraisal in file for WELL OVER listed price!”;
“See our $590,000 June 21, 2006 MAI CCIM Appraisal!” (for a home with a $560,000 list price);
“Seller will consider paying up to 2 payments for buyer with acceptable offer!”
I have noticed list price reductions of 7% on attractive properties that have been on the market for 6 months or so. Still WAYYYYY over priced!
I don’t get how offering to pay the buyers first two payments is going to entice a buyer! All that says to me is that your house is over priced! As a buyer, I don’t want you to make my payments, I just want your house at a reasonable and FAIR price!
I’m seeing so much of this weird foreclosure stuff. This is in Prince William County, VA (D.C. exurb).
This is one example, and I’ve seen others. A house here, now in foreclosure, was sold the previous year (2005) for an exhorbitant sum over their purchase price a year earlier. (The sales price was also 500K over the PW County appraisal - that doesn’t happen much).
In this case, the prior owners are local agents: http://www.harmonhomes.com/emailseller.php?14006300,AOB
$1,400,000 12/13/2005 AZIZ IHAB V
$800,974 11/3/2004 ATTWA MARK & MONER SURV BB
http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/rfs/207631086.html
That Craigslist one — the “8,000 square feet” for sure includes a basement, so assume 5,300 feet if the garage wasn’t included. The photos of the kitchen, the dining room and bedroom are not of rooms in an 8,000 a/c sq.ft. house. I remember Manassas from the War for Southern Independence and it is not “close in” to Washington. Finally, the photo shows the house to be on a McMansion lot with the neighbor pretty darned close. $800K seems mighty high to me.
Last time I saw a house like this, it being in Florida, it was foreclosed on following a sale-and-mortgage scam of Mafia-scale dimension. I suspect there is a lot of mortgage fraud involving houses like this one, just because so much money can be stolen in a single transaction. Why steal a U-Haul truck when the same guy/team can steal an 80′ semi?
Update from Bozeman, MT MLS listings:
Now holding steady at 930 listings +/-, seems we are starting to see some sellers give up and pull out of the market.
A 10% sample of MLS (every 10th listing sorted by price) yielded the following:
3% under contract
16% with contingent offers
By price point:
Price Range No. Cont. Contract
For some reason my data table were cut off the previous message…
Price Range No. Cont. Contract
Last Try
land class No. Cont. Contract
condo 28 25.0% 7.1%
Okay, I’ve got a story. Posted about this couple a few times before & here’s the update. A couple in the LA area (broker/realtor couple) have lost their jobs due to lack of work (duh!). They have two houses with mortgages totalling over $1.2 MILLION!!! They **might** have equity of about $75,000 IF they are lucky and manage to sell at peak prices. They have both homes up for sale, and think the most expensive one will be sold to a friend (also a flipper — let’s see if they actually qualify/don’t back out). The other house has been listed for months, and has not had a single offer.
Here’s the funny part: the wife and I were talking about unexpected expenses (like car repair) and she said, “like who can afford to pay for that…it’s not like people actually have a thousand dollars in their bank accounts or anything.”
So, how did these people qualify for over $1.2 MILLION in morgage loans when they don’t even have $1,000 on hand for emergencies (BTW they don’t have CDs, retirement or anything else, either)??????? I think this example is more the rule than the exception lately. It’s why this bubble deflation has such a long, long way to go, folks. Be patient. We have lots of time (many years) before it’s a true “buyer’s market”.
So when banking bear holds them upside-down and shakes them, all that falls free are the house keys.
Sounds like a perfect BK setup. No recourse to be had by the lender.
Totally
Unprepared
Realtor
Needing
Immediate
Protection
Haha! A Turnip! I think that’s the perfect acronym for FB Realtors!
Nicely done.
Thanks for that…it’s that kind of telling observation that doesn’t make it into the news stories!
Yes, this IS the rule. There seems to be 2 camps here in LA realting to housing : all in or all out.
Thanks for posting that. I have been waiting for news of the RE agents having to sell their properties. I know for a FACT, all the agents and broker’s involved in this game have been first string participants, themselves. The slowing volume will be squeezing the profits used to afford these crazy purchases.
Here in Vegas, reality is still being fiercely resisted: http://manhattanization.com/
Of course, many of the manhattanizing projects are being cancelled before ground is broken. How long will the charade last?
A link there brings back some very old memories, from when I was a kid. I remember the Stardust, which is about to go away. We stayed at the Flamingo and the Riviera on separate loooong trips, by car from Florida on two-lane roads, enroute to visiting family in LA. Still have a toy pot-metal slot machine from back then.
Starting to see the first signs of desperation on Craiglist here in ‘we are different’ Bend, OR.
http://bend.craigslist.org/rfs/207527159.html
Although, I bet this is just a sales pitch.
It should be easy enough to get the tax records to prove what they paid — either directly on the Web or from the wisher (title courtesy Robert Cote). Then all you have to do is figure out how much pain you want to inflict on the wisher.
I really don’t even care what they paid.
The real question is: what are lots worth in BFEE (Bend), compared to lots in places with lasting proven value, or to other undeveloped remote places. There are plenty of hills and lakes and trees in Oregon and elsewhere.
Compare it to the listings in this other part of Oregon, for example:
http://www.rural-homes.com/
Or for less than $1M, there are 5+ acre lots in Malibu.
Bend? Gimme a break.
$570,000 for a lot in Bend? 1/2 acre lots in Maui, with beautiful views, can be had for $500k. (Of course, those same lots could have been had 3 years ago for just $250k. At the time, I thought even 250k was outrageous, so I now find myself doubly displeasured.)
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/091606/nen_5020334.shtml
Good article about the appraisal/tax conundrum situation for beach areas north of here. Local businesses seem to be the most aggressive about raising hell on the tax/insurance situation here in Jacksonville, especially at the beaches, where the tourist season hasn’t been very good. NE Fla. is westernmost beach on the Atlantic (Jax is actually slightly WEST of Orlando) and because of that the area from Daytona north all the way to Savannah is pretty well insulated from powerful hurricane strikes, but insurance seems to be painting with a fairly broad brush right now - perhaps some refiniements will come later.
Local in-town economy is still humming along (port, navy, hospitals, finance, trucking, and corporate HQ of such luminaries as Stein Mart, Winn-Dixie, and St. Joe’s). The real bubble is at the beaches, and one thing I’ve noticed is that the higher prices have gotten, the more people are moving in with each other. So there’s all this new condo construction cheek by jowl with cottages and apartments for sale and for rent, and then you see little stretches, especially on the roads a few blocks off the beach, with five cars in front of every little place where you can hardly get through. And of course boats all over people’s yards with For Sale signs on ‘em, but I suppose that’s nothing new.
But the people moving in with each other thing could end up being a national trend, and could make the housing glut even worse before it gets better.
’s .
Paul — nice post and very nice documentation, via your link, of the property tax problem there. I especially like your (or another Paul’s, of not you) use of the increase percentages as would be applied to your menu prices — very, very effective. These slugs need to get off the dime very quickly and reduce millage, or they are going to kill the goose that fed them.
In San Diego there seems to be a much higher concentration of for sale by owners….FSBO”S. In some clusters of for sale signs 50% are FSBO’s. I have been paying attention to the local market since 1990. Usually a for sale by owner is fairly rare sight.
I think some of these sellers today doing FSBO can not afford the commission or fear they can’t because market price isn’t what they hoped for. Just one element of dynamic tension building on the default line.
Another observation from MLS….neighborhoods with faster declines in prices seem to have more escrows per listing. Makes me think that there is a absolute refusal to buy unless the price is lower than what it would have been in recent past. That is the pschycology of a falling market if there ever was one.
From other recent threads on this blog you can see that the appraisers expect themselves or are expected to write appraisals by the lenders that feed them that are lower than what the property would have sold for in the recent past. The lenders pushed the market up and now they are helping pushing it down. Its funny because the lenders will be causing their own pain …but they have to try to get things real somehow now that the “ponzi scheme” is over.
“the default line”
Good one.
In Maine, I am living in an unsold “spec” house. The builder started it 2 1/2 years ago. Although it’s just a little over 2000 square feet, the living room goes up through the 2nd and 3rd floors to the cupola, so there is a feeling of great expanse. It’s on the Maine waterfront, but the trees need thinning if one is to see much water. The banks are eating the builder for lunch. He has had it on the market at $575,000 for a while — maybe higher before — and actually lots of people are looking, but nobody is making offers. He is paying almost $3,000 a month in interest, partly to banks, partly from maxing out his credit cards. He has to spend his full time working on other people’s projects to get the money to service his debt. I am paying only $1,000 a month, which is all the money you can get for non-summer months in Maine coastal areas. Because the builder has to spend his time servicing his debt, he is unable to put in any door-sills, shower rods, bathroom cabinets, etc. Who is going to buy the unfinished house? However spectacular it is, he is going to be lucky to find someone to get him out of his debt.
az_lender,
where in maine are you renting? I have been watching prices in the rockport/camden/St. george peninsula area and the pile up of houses is just sitting…but not much in price reductions either, though the maintenance costs of a house in Maine in winter are not small either. I have been expecting to see some reductions as the summer rental season is ending. By the way, if your builder has waterfront, he is probably getting hit with heavy property taxes as well, Maine is known for that. The saltwater farm I rent for a week or two runs about 2500 a week in season–in winter about a 1,000 a month. Though I would love to buy a place, the numbers just don’t work for a vacation home you can use only a few weeks of the year, as I live in NYC. High weekly rentals are a bargain compared with owning a place outright.
“High weekly rentals are a bargain compared with owning a place outright.”
Ditto for a boat, a plane and, often, a bunk-buddy. Best snapp-line credit derivatives for that go to Sunsetbeachguy.
Gee, AZ Lender, I’m gonna have to forward your post to my in-laws who are paying $800 to stay in Pemaquid Point this week. Seems like maybe they’re getting snowed.
Austin, TX market is, if you read the hype and listen to the BS, hot…hot…hot. Just received two emails from agent saying each would kick in $25k in upgrades; no stips, just sign and tell them what I want. Countered w/question if they would knock off the price in lieu of upgrades. Agent responded “they might be receptive….”
Listings on MLS beginning to include “seller will…” comments.
I am studying the MLS and other stats on that area and it is one SCREWY market.
The game is afoot!
“The game is afoot!”
And a great time to stand aside and watch.
Northern Virginia - Patriot Homes, a divsion of Lennar, had an ad in Saturday’s Post advertising the clearance of 50 of their homes at ‘builder’s cost.’ Here is the copy:
“No mark-ups. Patriot is offering unheard of savings!”
“YOUR PRICE IS OUR COST!”
“50 HOMES TO BE SOLD AT BUILDER’S COST”
I’ve seen plenty of ‘free finished basement,’ ‘$100,000 off,’ and ‘6 months of mortgage payments on us’ ads by the big home builders lately, but this one takes the cake.
Things must be really bad when the builder offers to sell their homes at cost without mark-up.
(This is on page F9 in case anyone wants to see it themselves.)
And by the way, “Offer expires Sept. 30, 2006.”
(Gotta clear out that inventory in time for the quarterly financial reports.)
Now we’re getting somewhere. Some of us here, and I’ve no clue as to the percentage, believe that builders will sell at cost for a lot longer than would seem reasonable, simply because they want to feed their subcontractors and ensure that they are loyal and available to the builders when the storm has passed. This naturally would refer only to those builders who care about the quality of their product.
“Cost” includes the cost of the land on which the house is built. Generally, those land prices have started declining, as have prices for lumber, cement and in many areas, labor. So the total cost to build that one particular house tomorrow most likely will be less than the cost basis of the home being dumped today. Connect the dots.
sounds like $1 over invoice= BS
Screwed up my post….forgot to say the upgrade offer the agent forwarded was from two different builders in Austin.
Apologies
Does anyone know if the Yahoo Real Estate entry “listed on” days reset for any other reason than the brokers are screwing with them? I see homes on Yahoo! that say Sep 1 as listing date, but I know for a fact the house has been on the market for 6+ months.
Yahoo real estate has been, IMHO, a near-total failure, though I don’t know why. I won’t be surpirsed if they bail on the endeavor. I listed my place with them in 2005 and found that other listings shown as current/active had been sold many months earlier. Now, as I fish for deals on my next house, I find that Yahoo does not have accurate active listings relative to those on realtor.com and realestatebook.com. Too bad — I love Yahoo, but RE advertising does not appear to be its finest subproduct.
Thanks, Chip. You confirmed my suspiscions. I have found realtor.com to be static in my zip code. I cannot believe homes have not come and gone more quickly than weeks of no inventory increase or decrease.
More open houses here in Phoenix Ahwatukee area. Prices reduced and sellers are eager for an offer. Things are different now thats for sure.
I think this counts as a market observation.
Was chatting with my next door neighbor — they’ve had an addition to their home stalled for the better part of the year, now finishing - it looks like they will, anyway. Confided in me that they’ve had multiple calls to the city complaining about them…now, true, a year is a long time to have that blue construction condom stuff up on an unfinished addition, but they were quite neat and kept up a nice yard/curb appeal, with the addition at the rear of the house.
I reassured the neighbor that we weren’t annoyed (we rent, anyway), and we’d had our own visit from city inspectors for letting the grass get a bit long over a rainy period. (Mea culpa, and no, I don’t mean “the cat ran into the grass and now I can’t see it” long. The sheepish inspector who visited openly doubted that it was quite past code allowances, but still there had been calls.)
3 houses on our block for sale, one directly across the street. Several on adjoining blocks have been on sale all through the summer and continue into fall. But no bubble here; it’s all over the news how nice and toasty the RE market remains, as recent snowbirds eschew Florida and the other likely coastal suspects for warm weather inland “value”. Last week’s edition of the Memphis Business Journal touted the growing interest of RE investment firms from both coasts in our area’s choicer “bargains”.
http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2006/09/11/story7.html
Hot damn. I’d just about given up on getting to see a real bubble up close.
Can’t access the whole article but the teaser is hysterical. It’s like they have been living in a another universe…and just got plopped into ours but with 2 year old news.
——-
Out-of-state investors buying ‘undervalued’ residential property in Memphis market
Memphis Business Journal - September 8, 2006 by Christopher Sheffield
Residential real estate in Memphis is apparently so cheap that investors from as far away as California and New York are scouring neighborhoods picking up what they believe to be cheap but solid investments for their portfolios.
Helping them scout for those properties is the new Memphis-based franchise office of Weichert Realtors, opened by Amy Chapman in January. Weichert Realtors is a full-service real estate company that specializes in corporate housing, property management and investment properties, both single-family residential and multi-family. The company, with 440 company-owned and franchised sales offices, has had a presence in Tennessee for several years in Middle and East Tennessee, but never Memphis.
Now there’s a true Southerner. Only we say, “Hot damn!”
Well, here’s another bit from the article, with a few of my own typos thrown in for free:
For the first time in nine years, Nassau County’s closed median home prices dropped over the last year, leaving experts to wonder whether the housing market’s downturn could be more significant — and longer-lasting — than first thought.
Adding fuel to the debate, median prices for homes under contract fell in both Nassau and Suffolk counties last month, according to data released Friday by the Long Island Multiple Listing Service. Nassau County’s median home price stood at $495,000, 1 percent below last year’s .median of $500,000. It’s a minor dip, to be sure, but it’s still relatively early in the market’s shift, .sources said.
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzhome0916,0,2667192.story
While walking the dog today, I went over to a new subdivision a few blocks from my house in Meridian Idaho. I counted 14 homes for sale with another 10 or so under construction. The sub had approx. 20 lots left to build on. I couldn’t believe all the places for sale when just past winter houses were selling within days. when I got home, I looked up the sub on the MLS- there are 32 home in the sub on the market ranging from 225k-489k.
This sub is indicative of the Boise area market: rampant home construction based on last years artificial bubble demand that has left a lot of unsold new construction on the market. Combine this with “investors” beginning to dump their properties on the market. The Sundance sub down the street is a great example. The sub is a year old and just closed out the last of the new construction; now 19 homes in the sub are on the market as a resale.
In the “we’re different up here market” of Seattle, today’s Sunday paper was interesting. The headlines on the Real Estate section were:
“Extreme Commuters” (an LA times thread about Bay Area workers flying in from Nevada)
“Real Estate Cool-Down Sends Chill Through Appraisers” (syndicated column)
“Rising Mortgage Rates Push Up Foreclosures”
and a big inside-page headline:
“Experts See Home-price Slide Continuing For Possibly 2 Years” (Bloomberg thread)
Hmmm…not such a happy paper for Seattle today.
The most telling thing to me about the Sunday RE supplement (besides the fact that it’s been split into 2 sections now) is this:
They’ve been running national “negative” RE news for months. But they’ve ALWAYS juxtaposed it with local “RE still hot here!!” stories.
This is the first week there are NO local stories frantically pointing to differences between Seattle and the rest of America.
It’s the “If you can’t say something nice, say nothing at all “principle that we all learned as wee tykes.
Today at a shopping mall near me (Ballston Mall in Arlington VA) they are now selling homes at a shop stand in the food court. Nope, no problem here.
Today I saw my first “why buy when you can rent?” ad in the Wash. Post.
That’s big! A sign of things to come.
There are so many rentals now. It’ll be a great line for LL’s to use when the battle between sellers and landlords ensues.
That battle is just around the corner I think. LL’s and sellers don’t seem to realize it quite yet. This guy or gal in MD. is ahead of the curve.
Can you imagine if these two classes of desperate people get into it with each other?
The fight about the benefits of renting vs. owning would TRULY be brought into the public eye then.
Pretty easy to see who’d win that one. If I were a lanldord looking for tenants right now, I’d definitrly use that angle.
Phase 2 of the bubble: Lax lending standards brought to light and the battle between property owners begins!
Non property owners sit on the sidelines and watch them duke it out.
Seattle Times Sunday RE supplement has been split into 2 sections as of this week.
Although total # of pages has not grown by THAT much (since doubling a couple months ago!), it appears that they are gearing up for another increase in listings.
Frankly, I think it’s a pretty clever strategy. Maybe we really ARE smarter here in Seattle, as Seattleites love to brag. At any rate, we know our realtors are positively brilliant!
“Comment by NYCityBoy
That’s okay. If I can save even one husband from what I went through”
Was this you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubsd-tWYmZw
(Hey, it was time to to repost it…it’s a hosuing bubble classic)
For the last year, I’ve been tracking inventory in Charlottesville, VA, simply by hitting the realtor.com site every 48 hours and recording what the number it comes up with. Kinda low-tech, but it works.
Charlottesville is about 2 hours south of DC. About 30 minutes north of us is a “commuter” suburb of DC (Culpeper) that has had sales drop 60 percent YOY. Still waiting for something to happen here. So far, not much on the price front.
Things looked really juicy going up to June, with inventory 80 percent higher in June 06 than in Jan 06, although sales were strong. Then, over the summer, nothing changed in inventory and closings stayed strong. No inventory increases between June and early Sept. A real headscratcher. The only slightly promising news was that July “Pending” sales were down 23 percent from previous year, even though YTD 2006 sales were about the same as 2005.
Then, a funny thing happend after Labor Day. Over a 10 day period, inventory shot up 10 percent. Wow!
So, now I am waiting to see what happens over the fall. I think we are about 8-12 months behind DC for various reasons - strong local employment, relative isolation from major markets, etc.
Here’s the other interesting tidbit in my numbers. I tracked two sets of inventories via realtor.com; the first was just everything listed, and the second was the $400 - $550 price range. While overall inventory shot up 10 pct as previously noted, the inventory in upper range actually dropped 20 pct over the summer. Though I have no firm stats to support it, I finally figured it out - there are a whole lot of homes that used to be over $400k that are now relisted at $399 or less, hence dropping out of my upper range. So, some evidence that sellers are starting to ask lower prices….
FYI, Charlottesville is very bubbly for a small town, with prices easily doubling in 5 years.
Doc
Doc — just wait until all the ARMs start re-setting there. You might be amazed at how many of your neighbors and colleagues have taken out toxic loans in the past few years, whether through re-fi or HELOC. Personally, I think this will be the single biggest “Holy Cow!” to hit the MSM in 2007. Shucks, they didn’t know, neither. Just reportin’ the news.
Long Beach, CA update.
Out of 2600+ total listed units for sale om MLS, approximately 40% are showing reduced prices. This is from ziprealty. Of course this ddosen,t mean squat if the sellers are reducing prices by $1000-$5000. Median prices in LB still around $400,000 in the crap areas, $550,000-$700,000+ in the better parts in Eastside LB.
Was shopping at Wal-mart Sat 16(very slow) and a local realtor put her dumb glossy newsletter on all the parked auto windshields. This is as low a RE gimmick as all those eyesore RE signs you see on weekends. The thing now is for Realtors to pin muiltiple colored flags and banners all over the house. Should complain to the city of LB about possible code violations but the city authorities are a bunch of dimwitted knuckleheads not worth wasting a phone call on.
THIS VIDEO SAYS IT ALL ABOUT THE UK HOME PRICE CRASH
Definitely. That video was posted here some months ago & I saved it to favorites.
**IT’S A MUST-SEE FOR BUBBLEHEADS!!!!**