Homeowners “Are Devastated, But This Is The Real World”
The Union Tribune reports from California. “Nationally and locally, home prices are trending downward for the first time in years, as buyers drive tougher bargains and some sellers, desperate to move, accept a cutback in their hoped-for windfall profits. ‘I think it’s safe to say that prices are not going up anymore,’ said Charlie Ahern, president of the Coronado Association of Realtors.”
“DataQuick’s price reports back to January 2004 show that all except three ZIP codes in San Diego County have backed off their all-time high median prices. Among neighborhoods with at least 10 resale-home transactions, Coronado is off the most, down by 63.4 percent – from a high of $3.2 million in February to the most current figure, $1.17 million in September.”
“Ahern said such a steep pullback as reported by DataQuick is not indicative of a sharp across-the-board decline in prices for the bayfront and seaside community. ‘It would take quite a bit more data before we got a 50 percent drop,’ he said.”
“As for sellers, according to Carolyn Crane in Ahern’s Coronado office, attitudes toward pricing can range from the practical to wishful thinking. One of her clients wants to sell her 813-square-foot family home for nearly $1.2 million, but there have been no favorable offers since it was listed Aug. 1.”
“‘I told her it’s not going to happen (at that price),’ Crane said. ‘She’s waiting for one person to stumble in and fall in love with the house. She needs to make an adjustment.’”
“‘People who own homes are devastated, but this is the real world,’ she said. ‘You had to stop somewhere, and this is not a stop – it’s more of a correction of the market. . . . As an agent, I’m glad to see the market correcting itself.’”
“Jeffrey Morelock, who does loans, appraisals and sales, said thousands of condo conversions, coupled with new condo construction and sales of existing condos, has prompted lenders to tighten their underwriting standards and buyers to negotiate hard for lowered prices.”
“‘We’ve seen, generally, a 20 to 30 percent discount,’ he said. ‘If someone’s going to sell, that’s what they are going to get.’ No one should be surprised, he added: ‘Condos are the last to go up and the last to come back up.’”
The North County Times. “A slowing North County housing market could be more than Shelly Trisler can handle. The recent drop in North County housing sales and new housing construction has cost her $850,000 in residential flooring business since January, a 35 percent decline in sales compared to the same period last year.”
“‘We haven’t seen it this bad in 10 years,’ she said. ‘This business is for sale. Shelly is done.’”
“Other, similar business have been hurt financially as customers chose less expensive products to meet their home improvement needs. ‘Everybody is feeling it,’ said Cees Molenaar, executive vice president for the California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors’ San Diego chapter.”
“An Encinitas home decorations store owner, who didn’t want to be named, said store traffic has dropped from about 500 people per day three years ago to 10 today. ‘People are scaling down,’ the owner said. ‘We aren’t the first thing on their list.’”
The Orange County Register. “More stress is on the way for the mortgage industry, said Irvine’s New Century Financial, one of the nation’s largest lenders for people with risky credit profiles. The real estate investment trust, in its third-quarter report, said industry loan volume should decline 10 percent next year.”
“And lenders will continue to sell a chunk of loans at a loss as investors scrutinize loan purchases for problems, New Century said. It said more borrowers are missing early payments, forcing the company to buy back more loans that it sold to investors.”
“Patti Dodge, who is transitioning from chief financial officer to head of investor relations, said the company has kept staff levels flat since 2005. ‘However, we will continue to manage headcount in accordance with our productivity metrics,’ she said in a statement.”
The Sacramento Bee. “To some readers, reporter Jim Wasserman is a home wrecker. That’s what happens when you chronicle the downturn in what was previously the hottest thing going: the go-go residential real estate market.”
“The market has tanked. Prices continue to slide, inventories of homes for sale are at or near record levels and new home construction has stalled. The industry, from real estate agents and developers to home sellers and mortgage lenders, is spooked.”
“‘I’m trying to sell my home and your articles are not helping (us) sellers,’ one woman said in an e-mail. ‘Thanks for eating away a large portion of my equity!!!’”
“One new home builder told Wasserman that buyers have come into his company’s sales offices, newspaper in hand, and cancelled their purchase contracts, pointing to a Wasserman story about the housing slump.”
“Wasserman and editor Wayne Davis find it amusing that at the height of the housing boom, no one called to complain about the coverage. ‘Those people who blame us today,’ said Davis, ‘they didn’t call a year and a half ago to tell us we were driving up the market.’”
The Desert Sun. “With real estate prices leveling off, it’s unfortunate that the tax code does not provide relief in the event you have to sell your home at a loss. In this current market, we are beginning to see people selling for less than they originally paid for their property.”
“These are mostly the people who used variable-interest rate mortgages or mortgages with very low initial interest rates - known as teasers, to get into a home they could not otherwise afford. Now their monthly mortgage payments have increased substantially and they find they cannot meet the added financial burden.”
“One of the sad truths about our tax system is that…a loss on the sale of your principal residence is never deductible!”
“One of the sad truths about our tax system is that…a loss on the sale of your principal residence is never deductible!”
Hmmm…maybe they should have taxed the capital gains on the way up? Does that count as a “sad truth”?
Should gambling losses be tax deductible too? What about lottery tickets?
Gambling losses are tax deductible.
Is there any chance that the equity loss on the sale of a recently-purchased coastal California home might somehow qualify as a gambling loss? I personally don’t see why it should not…
“Gambling losses are tax deductible.”
That’s because gains are taxable.
They’re only deductable up to winnings. If you win $200 in a trip to vegas and then spend $100 in the same year on lottery tickets you can deduct $100. If you buy $100 in scratch offs and win $5, than you can only deduct $5.
You may deduct gambling losses only if you itemize deductions. Claim your gambling losses as a miscellaneous deduction on Form 1040, Schedule A (PDF). However, the amount of losses you deduct may not be more than the amount of gambling income you have reported on your return.
http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc419.html
Neat trick by the IRS - most people loose small amounts that they can’t deduct, but a few people win big amounts which the IRS almost certainly taxes.
If you sell your automobile at a loss, should that also be tax deductible?
The good sense of not deducting capital loss on home sales is connected with the assumption that houses depreciate. Which they do. The growing exemption of home sales from capital gain taxes is surely part of what created this bubble. Dumb move, completely driven by sentimental politics.
So if you own a home for 10 years and its value stays constant with inflation (but its “real” value doesn’t change) you should pay taxes on mere inflationary gains?
I’m not keen on taxing anything but taxing inflation produced nominal increases in anything is hardly “fair”. Tax the increases over inflation, improvements and major repairs (new roof, new siding) fine, those increases might be game for taxation. But taxing inflation produced gains is “dumb”.
It’s my understanding that improvements (but not maintenance, like a new roof) were deducted from your cost basis when figuring capital gains on a house.
Actually you might want to check the latest IRS publications for a list of improvements and repairs that can be used to increase your cost basis. Its been years since I had to do this, and this list might have changed since then, but I do remember the list included some things that surprised me and allowed me to save more than I thought I could. It pays to check, anyway.
How is this different from buying a stock that goes up 3.5% a year? You’re still taxed on the gain when you sell in spite of the fact there’s been no real gain, instead it has only kept up with inflation.
Be aware that commercial/rental property is treated differently but part of the pay off for not being able to deduct losses on your home is getting the $250,000/$500,000 exemption if home held more than two years. I think most people would rather have the gains not taxed than the losses deducted since people usually do make money on their home even if just inflation. And yes, major repairs and renovations are added into the cost of the basis. If you put a new roof on the home the cost is added. If you paint a room - well that is routine maintenance and is not added.
What will the day laborers do now?
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061105/NEWS0102/61105001/1075
One of these relief agencies should schedule a free bus to Miami, and from there, a free one-way air ticket to Merida Yucatan. Game over.
“‘I’m trying to sell my home and your articles are not helping (us) sellers,’ one woman said in an e-mail. ‘Thanks for eating away a large portion of my equity!!!’”
LOL. What an idiot.
This is the entitlement mentality we live with these days. Gimme mine and I don’t care about anyone else. They’re “devastated” but they don’t care how “devastated” others were who got priced out by their greed and stupidity.
Exactly. Sickening, greedy, self-centered idiots. I had a go round on the Reno Gazette website with one of these types. My blowing the lid off the ridiculous prices was hurting her and the husbands prospects of selling their two homes in order to move up into their “dream home”. The fact that hard working families couldn’t even come close to buying was of no concern to her. I couldn’t care less if these types go bankrupt and are never able to buy again.
While you couldn’t care less if they go bankrupt. I actually hope they do. This nation needs a fiscal enema.
Yes, I feel the same way. I want them to go bellyup. All of them.
I will third that motion.
Fiscal enema!!
That was a screen sprayer if I ever read one. No more drinking at the computer. You guys are too much. And, of course, I completely agree. Lance these carbuncles so working stiffs can once again buy a shack without suicide loans.
“I will third that motion.”
“motion” as in some kind of “movement” I would presume.
I have actually been thinking lately that, while I do feel extremely good in the fact that I did not buy at the top (or at all), that it is really sort of sad the misery that is going to come about with the people who were sold these loans. The sad fact is that, while there were many folks who were greed seekers and deserve to get taken out, there are many simple minded folks out there that don’t have the wisdom or intelligence to discern fact from fiction, eventually listeded to the NAR, LA Times, etc, and bought THINKING they were doing what intelligent people do. These people we should feel sorry for, because their whole family will pay the price.
Like in Saving Private Ryan when they burned the bunker. Don’t shoot! Let them burn!
These a-holes deserve to be homeless!
I don’t feel sorry for any of them. Try talking sense to these “simple minded” worthless wastes of oxygen and all you’ll hear is ‘Renting is throwing your money away’ ‘Real estate only goes up’ ‘Now’s the time to buy’
I will enjoy watching them crash and burn.
Actually I’ve found it very easy to convice people of their impending doom if they purchase now. Thanks to this website and the links to others its become a no brainer.
The problem is many people get their advice from RE agents, lawyers and, the media.
Well said txchick57…the bubble hurts just about EVERYONE except for those few who got in/out at the right time. But even then….it is “blood money” (made at the expense of others and society as a whole) and that has bad karma written all over it.
The speed that whole thing is happening is amazing…long live the bubble blogs!!
How’s Seattle Eric doing? I’d look myself but it’s too close to dinnertime.
I hope he is like the monkey with the hand in the jar of marbles and hung on too long and now his “investments” are under water. I have zero mercy for such a brazen flipper!
Oh, Seattle Eric you say? He is dying a slow death. He has reduced west Seattle to $599,000 (a $50k haircut), and Seaview to $599,000 (a $30k haircut). Bottom line, these prices are still WAY too high, and he cannot reduce enough as he would have to bring cash to the table. His only hope is a rich relative…or maybe those cash flow gems in Buffalo? Bahahahahahaha!!!
Maybe he and Casey should hook up.
Now I’m making myself laugh.
I was thinking Jeff “I manage taco bell and bought 20 houses” is more his type.
Seattle Eric is unusually quiet. He has not posted for about a month. Some time ago he turned off comments, and discontinued another blog after a very few days after getting roasted alive with neg comments. I am sure he has got to be hurting.
His two Seattle properties have been on the market for more than six weeks, no takers, and he admitted that he’ll be taking a loss even if he gets his asking prices. He’s the poster boy for greedy morons who quit respectable jobs to chase an illusion.
Maybe he, Casey and Jeff can start their own support group; they’ll have no problem recruiting new members.
“blood money” (made at the expense of others and society as a whole) and that has bad karma written all over it.
You’re a mind reader.
There are only individuals; societies come and go and can be ignored if one is rich or smart enough.
I look forward to the end of the middle class clowns who support taxation and government and foreign wars.
mark, you are a minority here. somalia doesn’t have ny government and taxes probably.
I just read in the paper that Somalia (or the capital at least) has a new Muslim thugocracy.
Anyway, don’t worry about Mark; his own statement is contradictory: first he denies societies exist, then he says you can ignore them if you are rich enough.
“But even then….it is “blood money” (made at the expense of others and society as a whole) and that has bad karma written all over it.”
This is a complete Horsesh#t statement. When I bought a house in 1991 and it turned out to be a difficult and financially trying situation of me, I never once thought the “seller” did something “bad” to me, and had “karma” to work through as a result. Do you think TexasChick has “karma” to work off every time she ends up on the right side of a stock trade? Are her profits “blood money”?
If that’s the case there is nothing BUT “blood money” in this world. (Of course we all are on the Karmic wheel, so this could be true!)
Well said.
It’s just that these greedy investors were taking houses from people who really wanted to live in them ,pricing them out of the market or running up prices .
Come on , a investor buys a house for 200k ,(with nothing down ,) and they want 300k for it in 6 months or a year without doing anything but making 6 to 12 payments .Or how about the clowns buying a luxury condo for 500K and expecting 1.2 million for it within a year simply because of the hype .
These speculators sorts are the ones I don’t like even more than the fear-based owner-occupied buyer who
thought they were going to get priced out forever if they didn’t buy . Of course you had alot of owner occupied buyers that were just wanting to get into the uptick market who took on crazy loans they couldn’t afford out of greed and they were gambling .
And the greedy investors thought that all these priced out people and rich baby boomers where going to be the people that where going to give them these amazing easy profits ,(and for a time they did ),until they could do it no more .
Both good Karma and bad Karma exist, but knowing proper action, that’s the key. Anyway, here is a quote from Sri Ramakrishna that’s appropraiate for the phuked buyer “Be in the world even as a maid-servant in a rich man’s house. for all intents and purposes she claims her master’s children and property as her own. But at the core of her heart she knows that they do not belong to her and she remains firm in that attitude. Seemingly own worldy things; but have no attachment to them. As the maid-servant can with ease relinquish her assumed ownership of the master’s property, be prepared for separation from earthly possessions”.
It’s really surreal watching amateur buddists work out the karma of housing prices.
is there any other kind of buddhist?
bad karma? you must be dreaming. most of the ultra rich today had their ancestors done the same thing and probably got the same wish. it sure didn’t work for most.
It’s all timing, and who’da thought when we bought a house in RPV, in April of 2001, somebody would pay us about double what we paid, a little over 4 years later. Add in a cool Half Million $ capitol gains tax exemption and it was like a low hanging piece of perfectly ripe fruit, that all we had to do was, reach over and pick it off. It was that easy. When the market was in heat, a year and a half ago, I remember remarking to a friend, that virtually everybody that owned a house in el lay for the past 5 years, was sitting on $200k profit minimum, to millions of $’s and it was like being up a bunch gambling, but still sticking around the casino, (your house) the only way to win, being to sell your house and move somewhere cheaper (er, 90% of america) or sell and wait for the market to crash. Good read that i’m sure somebody has mentioned before on here, is the 1858? “Extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds” book on financial bubbles, by MacKay. Check it out~
Your obviously understood the “rising tide floats all boats” aspect of the bubble. What always blew my mind was how many people thought that just because their house in Culver City had gone up from $350,000 to $700,000, they were a genius (was it the pergo flooring that did the trick?). In fact, as has been noted on this board, a s**thole in Watts also went up from $100,000 to $400,000 during the same time. No one stopped to ask if it was the bars on the window that had done the trick.
Have these people no idea what is going on in Sacramento?? I have kept watch over the market since 2000, watching the bubble grow and grow. At some point, there are no people who can afford the entry home prices, so they cant buy your house so you can move up. No matter what, the only way for the first time homebuyer to be able to afford their house, the prices have to come down.
And dont even get me going on condos. I work in the design side of construction and have some incredible condo stories to tell.
I would love to read some of those stories… if you have the time.
People in Sacramento are in complete denial. They have houses here priced all over the map. It is like comps mean nothing to them.
” …..as he makes the case for a collapse in housing prices starting as early as the beginning of next year. I am not as bearish as Gary, but I agree that housing prices have come nowhere close to their final resting place. Gary ultimately sees a 25% drop in housing prices.”
a good read from john Mauldins site…
http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/
As most spikes are symmetrical ,I see a reversion to mean in the next few years…check out the graph mid-article…
Just doing a little clean-up duty for Eastofwest:
John Mauldin states that if you quote him (you did),
you have to provide his email address:
John@FrontlineThoughts.com (BFD? sorry.)
You’re welcome. And we’ve only just begun.
“Weve only just begun, to cry…
Where have the buyers gone,
now it’s time kiss our a$s goodbye,
cause it’s only just begun…..
(bridge)
Sharing this pain that is new to us,
Seeing our cash all drift away
hating each other, that’s what it do to us
we’ll be divorcing any day
divorcing…….,
divorcing…….,
And when the sheriff comes, we sigh
so much more pain ahead
wave at the house and say, bye bye
Cause it’s only begun….
The hits just keep coming; 25% price drops and and we’re not even at the end of ‘06. These people who think they’re hurting now are going to discover later that this is just a flesh wound. Wait till the gangrene sets in.
I remember the debates here this same time last year. The two camps were the decline would be faster than people think, or it would be a steady drip-drip-drip. I still think it will be fast and brutal, followed by years of little (if any) appreciation.
I’m with the fast and brutal camp also .IMO this year will take the first big chunk and next year will take the next ,followed by zero appreciation for a number of years with some aareas still going down .
Of course if the NAR get a bubble rally going with the 40 mil. ad dollars it might postpone the correction if combined with a major interest rate decrease by the feds to cause 3% fixed rates .
Can’t see it happening
“I’m with the fast and brutal camp also .IMO this year will take the first big chunk and next year will take the next ,followed by zero appreciation for a number of years with some aareas still going down .”
Spot on Wizard….
Fast and Brutal! I am looking for dot.com crash right around Jan 15, 2007. These arm resets will double peoples payments, and the 4 month old listings that didn’t see and can only be rented for half the mortgage will put the nail in the coffin. The dot.com bubble didn’t end slowly and neither will real estate.
“What goes up, Must come down, Spinning Wheels go round and round”
Dah wheels on the bus go around and around and around and around Dah wheels on the bus go around and around and around and around so early in the housing bubble.
Maybe round and round. You get the point.
$40 million to tell the world “There has never been a better time to buy.” The NAR faces a conundrum: Anyone stupid enough to buy their stopped-clock ad message has already bought!
I also thought it would be fast and brutal, but it’s already exceeding my expectations as I thought we would have to wait until ‘07 to see what we’re already seeing. To think there are a few trillion $ in ARMs on the verge of adjusting…oh boy, this is going to get ugly.
Fast & Brutal here too.
My numerous years of public school education tells me so.
Too many people too overstretched to hold out long. Look at Florida, the place is already sounding like something out of a Mad Max movie.
I see from the comments above that the S & M School of Correction is out in full force this eve. Well I’m no party pooper count me in! “Oh Brutality, Brutality Rules the Waves!” (wave tankard here…) Burb…
Fast and furious, then drip, drip, drip
Fast and brutal? Most certainly. How could it be any other way? Any spectator of our capitalist system could tell years ago that the spikes will keep getting higher - and the “troughs” lower - until the vicous cycle eventually shakes itself apart and something worse than a “recession” comes along. In a nation of RE hucksters the only plausible scenario is that this will be like nothing anyone born in post-war America has ever seen. Why should anyone expect anything less?
“Wait till the gangrene sets in.”
Prices are not falling; they are getting amputated.
I’ll have to use that one later this week.
Do 25% price drops qualify as “sticky on the way down”?
“Do 25% price drops qualify as “sticky on the way down”?”
Lots of funny stuff here, but that one, LOL.
The top of the pole is greased. The rest of if has splinters. It can be a painful slide.
“One of the sad truths about our tax system is that…a loss on the sale of your principal residence is never deductible!”
So housing is a double-down bet: if you win, the winnings are tax free, but if you lose you really take it on the chin. (And, IIRC, any loan forgiven by a bank is taxed as real income!)
Well, having sold my house for a hefty tax-free profit, I guess I can’t advocate changing things now. But this little detail of the tax code has served to amplify things on the way up, and will now amplify the downswing.
is there still the requirement that the proceeds of the house sale have to be used to buy a house within a certain time period
(to avoid capital gain tax)
question mark …?
That requirement is gone. What has replaced it is $250K single | $500K couple tax free profit every two years (double check on this I am not an accountant). While this seems great in fact it isn’t that great if you are single and owned the house a long time. Inflation alone eats up a lot of that “profit”. I almost got temporarily “married” for a few months to get that xtra $250K tax deductible.
Just kidding! I am not THAT greedy! Well, ok, I’m a little greedy but not that greedy especially in a community property state.
That’s right. The IRS press release is here: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=105042,00.html
I am to lazy to read the press release, what happens if a single or married sells a house, exceeds tax free amounts, and then buys a more expensive house?
You pay capital gains on the excess above the exempted amount. It is irrelevant whether you purchase another house and what it costs if you did.
I am to lazy to read the press release, what happens if [...]
Oh my, too lazy to read. This is what’s getting a lot of unlucky borrowers in trouble as well, when they don’t read their mortgage documents about the margin rate and other important things. Yikes!
We’ll give you a break, though, and assume you’re asking a rhetorical question, and not that you are actually going to sell a house and rely on second hand information from us instead of reading the IRS docs themselves.
In that vein, note that the capital gains taxes you pay are (1) the full, painful tax rate on short term gains if you held the house less than a year, or (2) long term capital gains at a better rate if you held over a year. Add state taxes, if applicable, to that.
“Some sellers are surprised by this break, especially if they’ve been in their homes for a while. That’s because before May 7, 1997, the only way you could avoid paying taxes on your home-sale profit was to use the money to buy another, more-expensive house within two years. Sellers age 55 or older had one other option. They could take a once-in-a-lifetime tax exemption of up to $125,000 in profits. And in all instances, there was tax paperwork (Form 2119) to fill out to show that you followed the rules.”
nope.
Nice.
then it’s true that no one really “has to buy” a house.
And I can continue to wait though I may be making my roommate crazy.
TY for reply tom and gekko
With real estate prices leveling off, it’s unfortunate that the tax code does not provide relief in the event you have to sell your home at a loss.
Um, it actually does.
Explain this. Most of us are under the impression that a loss on the sale of your home is not deductible.
It’s not, and never has been for as long as the 25 years I’ve been practicing. If I had to guess, I’d say that it’s NEVER been deductible.
THAT IS CORRECT, LOSS ON SALE OF PERSONAL RESIDENCE IS CLASSIFIED AS A PERSONAL LOSS AND PERSONAL LOSSES HAVE NEVER BEEN DEDUCTIBLE UNDER THE INTERNAL REVENUE CODE, AND I MEAN NEVER.
You mean they shouldn’t have said the flipped home was their primary residence? Let them try to explain why they told their lender they’d live there, but tell the IRS it was a business investment.
You’re right. That’ll come up in BK court when they try to get out of the deficiency judgment from the foreclosure (the lying on the loan app).
I predict that there will be plenty of lawyers hanging around BK court and doint this on a contengency basis.
And now, the trick may be to get the heck out of your “investment” (if currently being lived-in to capture the 2/5 rule).
10.4 Capital Gains, Losses/Sale of Home: Losses (Homes, Stocks, Other Property)
Is the loss on the sale of your home deductible?
The loss on the sale of a personal residence is a nondeductible personal loss.
http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq-kw140.html
Conceptually, I have a hard time differentiating between the loss on a recently-purchased California home and a gambling loss. How does the IRS parse the distinction, or do they just decree that gambling losses are “different” if the gamble is buying an overpriced house?
ok, my bad, I always thought it counted as a capital loss
passthebubbly — thanks for that. Keep your credibility intact.
Respect. There is nothing wrong with being wrong.
not to pee on anyone’s wheaties, but with a new democratic congress, you can expect a revision to the tax code to benefit all of these poor victims of the real estate debacle. imho.
Yes, i have previously predicted on this blog that Hillary would propose deducting capital loss on sale of Little White Houses.
Granting that it is yho, I’ll just say that neither party has a monopoly on short-sighted, counter-productive tax provisions to garner sentiment from the dull (and greedy) tools in the shed. In California, our fearless leader inaugurated his tenure with a cut to the car tax despite a serious budget shortfall that required floating bonds for general expenses (I believe) the first time in CA history. The question is not which party is acting out of some notion of the greater public good, but which constituents are favored by each political party. The dems may have some fluffy poverty programs, but I don’t know that they do a better job “protecting” the middle class. That is my 2 cents.
Coronado is off the most, down by 63.4 percent – from a high of $3.2 million in February to the most current figure, $1.17 million in September.”
I have to call foul here these numbers are definately misleading. If you read the full article you find this -
“For example, Coronado’s $3 million-plus record took place when all other months reported prices that were much lower – ranging from about $900,000 to $1.8 million”
The current September median is well withing the normal range. If anything this just points out one of the many problems with using the median as an indicator of market health.
Look on the bright side — at least other SD zip codes have not reported losses from the peak exceeding 50% — just yet
yeah, I thought that was funny as well
‘I think it’s safe to say that prices are not going up anymore,’ said Charlie Ahern, president of the Coronado Association of Realtors.”
. . the situation has developed not necessarily to our advantage.”
Emperor Hirohito
Radio Broadcast Announcing Japan’s Surrender
August 15, 1945
On behalf of the Ben’s Blogging Academy, it is my privilege and honor to present you with the Honorary Hirohito 1945 Understatement Award. (Music up, Kill his microphone, and lead him off the stage… drag if necessary)
Not that the whole world hasn’t, but I’ve been out on Coronado. It is too small a place from which to extrapolate averages or trends from just a sale or two. There just are not that many individual properties there. That said, it’s an awesome “island,” if you can afford to live on it.
Chip –
In all honesty, you are 100% correct about this. The big drop in median for Coronado was definitely a statistical blip, a fact that was apparently lost on the writer of the article. They made a much bigger deal about the 63% drop in Coronado prices than of what was clearly the much more significant piece of statistical information in the article:
“DataQuick’s price reports back to January 2004 show that not only are single-family home prices down countywide on a year-over-year basis, but all except three (out of 96) ZIP codes in San Diego County have backed off their all-time high median prices.”
In other words, San Diego prices have pretty much fallen across the board. I don’t believe this was the case last time there was a So Cal bust — that is, I believe some zip codes were holding their ground while others fell — but please correct me if you (actually!) know better.
Well, I keep looking for a pin in Coronado, but it hasn’t appeared yet. So the Island must be doing somewhat better than the rest of the county.
A lot of the green ones have morphed into reds & blues, though.
http://www.sanmarcoshills.com/page.cfm?page=InfoForeclosureMap
‘I think it’s safe to say that prices are not going up anymore,’ said Charlie Ahern, president of the Coronado Association of Realtors.”
Charlie…….you are just brilliant……..no wonder your the president.
op’s, your=you’re
“…as buyers drive tougher bargains and some sellers, desperate to move, accept a cutback in their hoped-for windfall profits.”
Cutback = reduction. They’re stil making a profit and likely more than would have occurred via non-bubble inflation. We’re not there yet. But we’re makin’ good progress.
“some sellers, desperate to move,”
Please refer all such “sellers” to earlier thread on “Fiscal enema” above. ∆
I suppose you could burn it down and write it off as an uninsured loss. Of course, this approach could also get you 20 years free room and board.
Actually, less than 2000 a year ever see jail as a result of tax fraud, and most of these are really being prosecuted for other unprovable crimes such as drug dealing.
That said, I do believe that second only to the school loan police, the IRS can and does make life very tough on many tax debtors.
I expect a lot of “mysterious fires” as this whole thing unwinds. It would interesting to plot insurance claims of home “destroyed by fire” against a plot of falling RE prices.
Anyone with a nose for fraud (e.g. police/insurance companies) should already be doing this.
You want a better motive?
-
I’m pretty sure insurance companies pay to rebuild your house. You can’t just walk away with the check.
We’ve been through this. Burn the house down? You have to keep making the loan payments while the insurance co. drags it’s feet building another one.
I knew people who had their Townhouses knocked off their foundations during the 1994 northridge earthquake. Couldn’t sell, had to pay for an apartment while the insurance co dragged it feet. TOOK THREE YEARS! Making payments and renting.
People arson business not personal homes.
Some people have insurance that will pay for the rental or hotel arrangements a homeowner has while the house is being re-built ,but often times the coverage has a limit on how many days the insurance company pays for .
Anybody who would think that they could get out of their
up-side down property by destroying it is nuts and will end up in jail instead .
“often times the coverage has a limit on how many days the insurance company pays for .”
Exactly. Get into it with insurance companies? Your b@lls will be handed to you! Talk about deep pockets! Their favorite tactic? Wait you out… (more like starve you out) Homeowners in FLA facing future hurricane loss, take note.
It was lawyers and the whole nine yards. Luckily the tide in southern Cali was against the Insurers. My associates entire complex was eventually bulldozed. He lost easily 100k out of pocket even though he and the complex a, were well insured.
Not sure if anyone cares about the eastern end of Long Island (NY) but it is starting to slow down big time. The same greed that drove prices up is now driving them down. The lucky ones got out last year and the next luckiest got out this summer without having to sell too far below the highs. Now amidst all the broker B.S. the area is sinking fast. I can’t feel too sorry for these people though.
OF COURSE I CARE. A GOOD DISASTER STORY IS ALWAYS FUN READING. GIVE ME MORE. I’M A SPONGE FOR THIS KIND OF SELF-INFLICTED DAMAGE.
See the following:
http://www.suffolkresearch.com/SouthamptonWesthamptonResPrice.htm
http://www.suffolkresearch.com/EastHamptonVillResPrice.htm
People went for the rentals this year rather than buy and 2007 will see more of this, which will be evident by the end of January. What you see on the two links is just the beginning. Prices went up crazily there and now it’s gravity’s turn.
Remember, what drives the East End is greed and trendiness. Once it dawns on the average overextended Manhattan must-follow-the tend weekender out there that prices move down as well as up, just watch the lemming like rush off the bluffs. Nobody wants to be the last to get out. It’s just not trendy.
Everyone else can just watch the spectacle unfold.
I care because my area is in a squeeze play between NYC and DC.
Any price erosion in those places will spillover to Phila. and exacerbate current and future price rollbacks in this metro.
Amen, phillygal - and we need those rollbacks!
Wes, you are absolutely wrong. A few weeks ago I was speaking to somebody that owns in Long Island. The prices have gone down a little but they are done declining. It is different there. They have solid neighborhoods, a limited amount of buildable land, yaddi yadda yadda. You see, Long Island is immune. Thank god.
This is almost certainly the stunningly beautiful, charming $1.2 million dollar cottage mentioned. Click the link.
I’m gonna beat all you suckers by making an offer of at least $1.35 million. You renters will be so jealous.
Anyone want to start a bidding war?
http://tinyurl.com/yhxegx
Good Lord! I Cr@p bigger than that!
That is one of the most ridiculously overpriced POS’s I have EVER seen in my life. Not only is the seller delusional, but the realtor as well. Laughable, and an absolutely perfect representation of the greed that constitutes this bubble.
875 square feet? FFS, my dinky San Francisco apartment is bigger than that.
That’s putrid.
We’ve a bubble here, but at least some semblance of sanity.
http://www.mlsfinder.com/nj_trend/kwsouth/index.cfm?action=email_listing_detail&property_id=4805939
A friend of mines grandmother owned 10 of those little shacks on Coronado. When Grandma died they had to sell 8 of the houses to pay the taxes.
I like the way they stretched the jpeg image to make the property appear bigger. That’s a wide-a$$ back door if ya ask me.
Hello, I’m a millionaire and this is my home.
-
Outrageous! it’s funny - the realtwore in her photo almost looks to have an embarrassed look on her face. she should but they have no shame.
I don’t get it… I’m an east coaster but have been to SanFran recently but this Coronado place….. does gold and oil just spring up out of the ground at your whim or something to make a flaming pile of crap worth 1.2MM? I mean, sure the NJ weather sucks, but for 1.2MM here you’d STILL get a really nice house with a big yard and could travel into NYC every day for dinner if you wanted to. On the other hand, in Coronado apparently, I’d have to exhale to allow someone else into the room.
Well, that’s about the size of my house, although I have a basement which sort of doubles the square footage. Of course I paid an order of magnitude less. I can’t CONCEIVE of paying 10 times as much for that.
I do cleaning for some property management out in Coronado. I get to see lots of stuff. Coronado is a good place, unlikely to ever get a gang problem, but you share the island with a massive military base (actually, more than one). I wouldn’t want to live there. Some of the million + homes I’ve done were laughable.
Losses on the sale of a personal residence are not deductable. The only way to deduct a loss would be to first convert the home into a rental. After a period of time you could then sell at a loss and deduct the loss. Of course only $3,000 net loss per year is allowed. So a $100,000 loss would be spread out for 30 years.
actually, I believe the loss on a rental would be controlled by Sec. 1231 allowing any net loss in a year as ordinary.
Good idea. Rent a place out yourself, then rent this for a year if you can, then sell for a loss.. hmmmm you may be on to something.
Wouldn’t that loss be capped at 25K under passive income loss rules or are you assuming the taxpayer qualifies under “real estate professional” rules? I’m not familiar with sec 1231.
the passive activity loss rules do not apply to dispositions. sec 1231 determines the nature of a gain or loss on the sale of property held for investment or the production of income. rental real estate is sec 1250 property and thus comes under the control of sec 1231. net losses are ordinary, while net gains are afforded long-term cap gain benefits. the trick is renting the property out long enuf to change the character from personal to investment. renting out for a few months won’t cut it. a real problem for those with shallow pockets.
In the WSJ, they had an article a while back that said any loss that occurred before converting a personal residence to a rental would not be deductible. So, while people may try it, the IRS may have something to say about the conversion date value being a lot lower than the taxpayer thinks or payed for the house.
Create a corporation or entity and sell to them for the higher price. They rent it out for a year and the business eats the loss.
test?
This is almost certainly the stunningly beautiful, charming $1.2 million dollar cottage mentioned. Click the link.
I’m gonna beat all you suckers by making an offer of at least $1.35 million. You renters will be so jealous.
Anyone want to start a bidding war?
http://tinyurl.com/yhxegx
(reposting)
Well heck, yes — built in 1912, no less. That’s just before my dad was born, nearby. Ought to count for something, though. I’m thinking $300K — probably too low for that type seller, right?
I’d rather live in a FEMA trailer. Did you look at that kitchen. looks like somebody tried to clean, then just gave up and abandoned the place.
Did anyone else notice that on Zillow this house was previously sold in 1987 for 178k ?
I wish the seller all the worst life has to offer.
That’s probably what it will finally sell for in 2008, or whenever the seller is brought back down to reality.
That is just too funny.
I am truely in awe. That’s over 22x per sq ft what I paid for my home a couple years back. What sort of person earns 22x what I make? Rather, who do the sellers think is going to buy it? I guess that’s CEO housing out there…..
That to me is the poster boy for the coastal areas/heartland disconnect in prices to incomes.
Gee… the lot is smaller than my house… Must be great for kids.
You know I really have to comment on this again. I wonder how long it’s going to take for Californians to shake off this moronic stupidity. I just don’t get it and I’m a native. I don’t care where that property is how could anyone in there right mind spend more then 50 to 60k for that if that much. How much dope are you smoking to even entertain the thought of spending more than 100k for that. Even 50 to 100k is insanity. What has made that shack go from 187k (insanity) to over a million bucks. I just don’t get it. I wouldn’t spend that for my house which has close to 6 times the lot and 4 times the house and I have a view of the ocean and the city. What are these people f****** smoking nowhere in California is that nice to pay that amount of money for an 800 sqft house on a postage stamp size lot. What is the seller on to ask that?, what is the agent on to list that at that price?. If I went on a listing appointment for that I wouldn’t be able to suppress hysterical laughter.
No one wants a house that bad. What inherent benefit does California have to ask for or justify that sort of premium. Insanity. People better start asking themselves the hard questions. That’s just insane. I can’t believe that. Unbelievable.
I have a theory on this (maybe a bit far-fetched mind you). As I see it, California is full of people who have kept moving west looking for easier pickings. It is the classic frontier mentality, and, to some extent, has delivered pretty well. Of course, now that the LA basin and SF Bay Area are built out, the Central Valley has been cleared and is being farmed, the coastal wetlands have been dredged and turned into harbors, the oil has been extracted (and there was a lot of it in the past century), and the timberlands are on the third or fourth cut, there isn’t a lot of unexploited profit waiting to be picked up. People here just haven’t recognized what life is like in a stable economy where free resources aren’t sitting around. And the mentality of the people who understand this rubs off on the j6p’s who have no clue about history (but still live as though a windfall is just around the corner). I just hope California learns its lesson at some point that you can’t continue peeing in your own bathwater and then taking the profit to a new bathtub. Ain’t no more bathtubs.
My post on the North County Times article. The gloves are off.
“Sorry, no sympathy here for FBs and GFs. You clowns (FBs) leveraged yourselves to the hilt without considering who you would sell to later on when affordibilty became ridiculous even when considering exotic I/O and Neg AM loans. You think it’s bad now? Wait until the builders begin to lower their prices, instead of offering incentives, so they can keep paying their overhead through the downturn and stay alive. They will undercut the existing homeowners (debtors) by a wide margin. Why? Because they can and that has been their strategy all along. I have cash and I have time. What do you have besides a mountain of debt??”
“What do you have besides a mountain of debt??”
High hopes for higher future inflation?
A sea of misery?
JWM — sic ‘em. You’ll get a great deal, for your cash.
JWM
You gave them a right sharp kick to the nards.
FB’s got nards!
I was ready for some really nasty responses to that comment…but instead, there was just some one liner, barely literate responses. They’re out of ammunition. This might be getting too easy.
Do you feel bad at all now, kicking ‘em when they are down?
I don’t.
“Do you feel bad at all now, kicking ‘em when they are down?”
Of course not. It just wasn’t as fun as it used to be.
” One of her clients wants to sell her 813-square-foot family home for nearly $1.2 million, but there have been no favorable offers since it was listed Aug. 1.”
Did I read that right? Almost $1500 per sq/ft???
Somehow I doubt it is a particularly desirable or special dwelling. Must have gold-plated floor tiles.
– shakes head –
Blew me away too. Of course, Coronado IS desireable, but ….
MLS 060066323
http://www.realtor.com/Prop/1065673985
Here i am, drunk again
The Ravens win, Cincy loses
So many houses for me to choses
Price cut Price cut, i feel my butt fart
Nutin eva gonna make this jumpstart
here i am drunk again….
‘You had to stop somewhere, and this is not a stop – it’s more of a correction of the market. . . ‘
So she is saying the real stop is yet to come?
Right, the real stop is when some state or county realtors assn reports a 100% yoy decline in sales volume! Any bets when this will happen?
Rich guys won’t buy when it is obvious that prices are rapidly dropping. That leaves oblivious buyers who don’t realize that prices are falling, and lenders willing to loan them money; how many such folks are still out there?
“‘I’m trying to sell my home and your articles are not helping (us) sellers,’ one woman said in an e-mail. ‘Thanks for eating away a large portion of my equity!!!’”
How about the role of builders in creating the all-time record inventory of new homes on the market, or of flippers and the lenders who loaned them the money in driving prices to record levels of affordability, or the Realtors (TM) and the industry cheerleaders who convinced a new generation of GFs that real estate always goes up, or the lending industry regulators who turned a blind eye to rampant appraisal fraud?
Go ahead and kill the messenger if the facts are too painful to acknowledge.
It really does look like “shoot the messenger”
I hope these leaking ‘Equity Vapors” are Explosive and the Whole damned Balloon Ignites and takes down the Real Estate Mafia for Good !
Arghhhh! The ‘Hindenberg’ of housing…!!
Ha! Speaking of Sacramento idiots, Casey has basically admitted what I thought all along! He’s been using that blog trying to get people to “invest” in his “enterprise” to bail himself out. And of course, he’s been caught lying again. This guy is a true piece of work.
***************************************************************
Second… this one is more recent…
Ramit Sethi and the 24% return “scam”…
Here is the explanation I already left on Ramit’s I Will Teach You To Be Rich blog:
Ramit, thanks for a fair writup.
To everybody…..
Yes I DID send out that email to try to find some private lenders who want to put their money to work with me.
I wanted to use the money to bail out the properties, sell them and pay the lenders back. I wanted to also use the money for buying new properties. I was going to explain everything to a private lender once we meet.
To make it safe, I was going to secure the lender’s money by a trust deed against my properties.
This strategy was tought at one of the seminars I went to. They said to go to your friends/family and see if anybody wants to be a private lender.
What I did wrong was to make it seem like my business was going great when really I was in trouble.
The right thing to do when you approach somebody to borrow money is to be upfront with your financial health so that the private lender can make a smart decision.
However, I was desperate and sent out that first email.
Then I realized that it was wrong to hide the fact that I’m really facing foreclosure, so then I send another email to make sure everybody understands my situation.
So again, I apologize for not being upfront. I’m learning a big lesson through all this stuff.
Keep in mind that being a private lender on RE deals is NOT a scam. Its actually a great way to get a nice return.
Just make sure you know the strength of the borrower and make sure you get your money secured by real estate with some equity in it.
Casey Serin
http://www.IamFacingForeclosure.com
Yeah….good luck with that Casey. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
Hey, Casey there is a Church in Colorado looking for a fallen leader!!
Now all I have to hear is Casey got a massage from a male prostitutute and paid for some drugs, but threw them away before he used them. Mia Culpa!
Thanks for the good research. Keep it up.
Here lies the infamous CA Equity Locust
May ye burn in hell
2000-2006
I want this turp Casey to go to jail .He doesn’t have any remorse about his cr-p as far as I can see . Casey is so self-centered that he can’t really see how his actions affect other people . Why would a private lender want to bail out his up-side down properties and become a up-side -down lender ? Casey just looks at other people like stupid marks and all he has to do is lie and they will fall for it . Well I guess alot of people did fall for his lies in order for him to buy a bunch of property and get sellers to give him cash back and lenders to give him 100% loans .
What a joke , at his age he talks like hes learning lessons you usually learn in the sandbox in kindergarden . It’s all a con .
Spot on Wiz spot on
i’m trying to commit that morelock quote to memory, “condos are the last go up and the last to come back up”. brilliant. wtf. shouldn’t it be “condos are the last to go up and the first to come down.” now i get it. he has seen this happen many times before and is sharing his vast knowledge, afterall, he is a jack of all trades. sales, appraisals, & loan brokerage. why, he’s, he’s mr. walmart.
“condos are the last go up and the last to come back up”
I know. I had to read that sentence a few times in stupified awe, trying to make sense of its sheer tortured stupidity. All you can say is: WTF.
So if I’m way underwater on my house, what’s to stop me from creating some sort of investment corporation, selling my house to my wholly-owned investment corporation at a break-even price, then move out, put it up for sale and rent it during the interim. Then when the house sells for a loss, the entire loss is realized by the investment corporation and is not declared as a personal property.
I’m sure the IRS has boundaries around that sort of activity. But if you are in a collapsing market and not likely to sell anytime soon it might work.
These people don’t own their houses outright. They need to get a loan for the investment corporation to buy the house. Plus, the new loan will require an appraisal.
You are probably right in that most of the uninformed “wanna be playaa’s” most likely owned the flipper home personally, by lying on the loan app and stating “owner-occupied’. If they had been astute and actually spoken with an attorney/CPA, they may have been able to buy the property through an LLC with themselves being the loan guarantor. Then if they didn’t successfully flip the property and had to rent at a loss, then they may have been able to take the loss against other income. But most of these people just got their advice from “The Donald” or Kiyosaki and they didn’t want to spring for the $250+ per hour consultation.
Trust me, I have seen more clients (of our CPA firm even) who don’t listen and just put the property in their personal name, with no liability protection, even when buying the property to rent out. Most of these people have no brains - just see dollar signs and “bling bling”.
Sometimes, however, even if you place into an LLC the banks will require a PG (personal guarantee). Which takes away some of the liability protection.
I however do recommend to those clients I have to use an LLC and try to do the financing without the PG.
Yes I mentioned that they would have to be the loan guarantor. Thanks.
What you are suggesting requires last I checked 25% down without a a PG. See the problem?
It is a shame, IMO, that these days the word “conscience” never seems to enter the discussion.
From the North County Times article, “As sales declined, area housing prices declined with them. The median price for an existing North County single-family detached home dropped $5,000, to $620,000, from prices in January, according to the association. Although it is only a 1 percent decrease, it comes after year-end home price increases of more than 3 percent in 2005 and 16 percent in 2004.”
Awesome. So after a 6% Realtor take, anybody who bought in 2004 with a 0 down I/O needs to bring 4% to the table to escape. 4% of $620K is $25K. Looks like sane prices will be returning fairly quickly to North County.
Good point.
When this thing finally shakes out, people could find themselves $100,000 underwater, and if they decide to hang on, they could be that way for many years…….very depressing thought
100,000??? Oh no my friend, they will not get off that easy. More like several hundred thousand off as this whole mess reverts back to the mean over the next several years. $1Trillion in resets coming…can’t wait…let fun begin.
I posted this before, but some acquaintances in Las Vegas (another ground zero for the current implosion), purchased a primary residence in North L.V. for $550,000. A K.B. Homes POS in early 2005 (I used to work for KB so I know that their stuff is sub-par at best). They have already given the home back, plus the other home ($500,000 plus)they purchased to flip, with the equity from the first. He is in insurance, just starting out. She doesn’t work. They are living in one of my friend’s condo’s and borrowing another friend’s used suv to get around. I would say they are at least in the hole for $400,000 ($200k each by the time the bank actually pawns the homes off on someone else). So either a deficiency judgment for both homes and one that may not be discharged through BK, since it was non-owner occupied. Or they may get a 1099 for the second home, which they can’t afford the tax on either.
What amazes me is that people obviously don’t read the newspaper. TxChic or someone else from Texas porbably has more info on this than I, but here goes: A few years ago, K.B. homes built some homes on what used to be a military artillery range. When one of the homeowners later found unspent artillery, the homeowners complained and asked for money back (maybe filed a lawsuit). Anyhow, K.B. actually printed the names of homeowners who had personal issues, like criminal backgrounds etc., in an effort to stop them from going forward with a lawsuit. K.B. Homes wouldn’t pony up any money. i dont actually know what ever happened. But I had the opportunity to purchase a home in O.C. or Corona, Ca, before 1999 for 30% below list (because I worked there), but because they were so crappy, I backed out.
So with the K.B. reputation, i cant understand why anybdy would pay $550,000 for a home from them.
http://www.kbhomestink.org/default.asp
KB Homes will give a whole new meaning to the term “depreciation”.
It reminds me of the old saying about new cars: they lose 20% of their value the moment you drive them off the dealer’s lot.
Should be good for CAT stock, though. It will take a lot of bulldozers to clear this junk in a few years.
I need an update on your abbreviations.
GF?
REIC?
Any others? I already know FB.
My reading of these is “greater fool” and
“real estate industrial complex”. Anybody disagree?
No, you’re correct. Ben needs a bubble speak glossary
GF: greater fool, see the greater fool theory of speculation. Closely related to FBs, as most are also GFs and believers in the GF theory of specualtion.
REIC: real estate industrial complex. Interestingly, unlike prior bubbles, most in the REIC are also GFs and FBs this time.
Question: What do Americans understand a trillion to be?
Is it this…………….1,000,000,000,000 ?
Yup, that’s it footie.
I trust you’re in one of the Empire’s other countries?
Australia
It is much more soberly understood as a thousand billion, IMO.
Yes, that’s the American trillion.
Who is the REIC? I see we have the FBs and the GFs. I take it the idiot agents and the moronic brokers are also in. I would assume the banks and lendors are involved. Oh ya, the builders. I am sure there are many others. Care to add?
REIC: Fannie Mae (aka FNMA, and also a GSE, government sponsored entity), the FED (the Federal Reserve), the home builders (aka HBs), Wall Street (aka WS), Banks, mortgage originators, insurance companies, credit agencies, appraisal firms, lawyers, major funds — any and all with an interest in keeping the bubble going.
NAR?
National Association of Realtors.
More REIC alphabet soupt:
MBA = Mortgage Banker’s Association
NAHB = National Association of Home Builders
CAR = California Association of Realtors
SDCIA = Seriously Demented California Investors Anonymous (just kidding
— it is the San Diego Creative Investors Association)
Um, I said “GF” earlier. I meant “girlfriend.”
same thing…
LOL. Ouch.
Real estate always goes up:
http://bakersfieldbubble.blogspot.com
RE always goes up, always… if you hold for 15+ years.
Real estate has made many rich, and it will continue to make many rich, if it is done right. The smart money has already sold a good percent of their re holdings. And I would also assume the smart money has tied in fixed rates and kept a low LTV. Basically if you don’t over leverge yourself you should do fine over the next 5 years.
As long as you don’t count opportunity cost.
Agree. Brazil govt 12% bonds seem more attractive than RE and less risky. Probably no more inflation in B than here.
“As long as you don’t count opportunity cost.”
Yes. This is a tough one for the sheeple to grasp.
Did you go to my link? I am a regular hear and was stating that I beleive this - just that on my blog someone else made this claim.
Thanks
*not stating
I went to your link, then went to the OP by golfnut. He is crazy. Only re agents babel like that. Buying now is foolish.
Agree!!!!
I wouldn’t say smart money, maybe lucky money
-
yes. never confuse luck with skill.
Smart or luck the only thing that matters is they sold. I sold 5 properties over the last 18 months and I don’t care what you call me.
-
it’s better to be lucky than smart.
I’m trying to remember, those who bought Miami property in 1926 had to wait what is it 70 years until nominal prices returned to the ones that they bought at.
Google “Suffolk Research” and look at Westhampton and Southampton’s residential charts. It’s beginning to unravel.
Also see Westhampton’s charts - it’s just the beginning of the slide:
http://www.suffolkresearch.com/SouthamptonWesthamptonResPrice.htm
“One new home builder told Wasserman that buyers have come into his company’s sales offices, newspaper in hand, and cancelled their purchase contracts, pointing to a Wasserman story about the housing slump.”
Freedom of speech axx hole!!!!! Try selling your stucco crap boxes to someone who can’t read. Oh by the way if I come by your sales office and do not see peanut butter cookies I am going to go beserk. You better have peanut butter cookies or lemon wedges. One or the other, but at least one of those two choices. If you have just chocolate chip then you can go fuxx yourself, you stucco box selling con artist.
lol
“‘People who own homes are devastated, but this is the real world,”
No , people that actually OWN their own homes don’t have one bit of worry .
In our case we can easily come up with the 150.00 a month for property taxes and insurance because we didn’t trade up or take out heloc’s .
Of couse we’ve been called stupid for not putting all that equity to work but that’s OK .
Being California natives , residents AND boomers we get called all kinds of names .
It could be worse …we could be living or investing in Texas .
“It could be worse …we could be living or investing in Texas .”
Thank you, sir. Somebody gets it!
And to all a good night.
>“‘We’ve seen, generally, a 20 to 30 percent discount,’ he said. ‘If someone’s going to sell, that’s what they are going to get.’ No one should be surprised, he added: ‘Condos are the last to go up and the last to come back up.’”
20-30% Discount already?
-
this one takes the cake:
FREE TICKLE ELMO W/ SALES ARGEEMENT
——————————————————————————–
Reply to: hous-230675150@craigslist.org
Date: 2006-11-05, 9:27PM EST
FREE TICLE ME ELMO W/ EVERY SALES AGREEMENT SIGNED IN NOVEMBERI am giving away a free tickle me emlo to every one who signs a sales agreement to buy a home in the month of november.
If your buying a home you should get a a real estate professional to help and recieve the hotest christmas toy for chosing me to represent you.
while supplies last.
http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/rfs/230675150.html
they’re going to have to tickle a lot more than imploder’s “elmo” to get imploder to sign. And imploder kindly request a female agent.
Start with imploder’s “Elmo” work on down to imploder’s “Barneys” and then finish off on imploder’s “Erector Set”.
imploder won’t buy, but you have “made imploder your friend! imploder will be back next week for another “sales session”
Imploder has problem. Imploder should not play with toys.
Imploder very funny
Imploder …..Are you a computer program that they put into blogs to make comments . I ask this because I find your statements to be interesting to say the least .
Housing Wizard. Why on earth would you say that? In all honesty. Just because I like to make “incredibly witty sarcasms and brilliant juxtapositional absurdities?” (and yes, that was a joke)
Now that whole sequence was just too damn funny
That’s our one and only imploder#&8482;
Damn……what’s that code again?
luvs_footie
In all honesty. If you can give me a reference that I can tract I would like to respond. I put that number into ben’s search and didn’t get anything. What did I (or not) do now?
tract=track
I’m trying to do the TM bit……….so what’s the go?
In all complete honesty. Your are loosing me. I remember telling others to use option 2 to make a tm. but I may not use the same operating system as some. Did I say indicate something rude or worse? Complete honesty on my side.
option 2 makes a TM for me: ™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™™
p.s. if this is some kind of “code insult” I swear I don’t know it” I run programs but know zero about code. Complete honesty.
I prefer to insult people on purpose. Never on accident. If I did insult on accident I am honesty sorry.
The ‘code’ was an attempt to make a ™, by using the HTML method. He probably doesn’t have a Mac.
Sure I do……I use it every time it rains…….hahaha
Comment by Housing Wizard
“2006-11-05 20:24:56
Imploder …..Are you a computer program that they put into blogs to make comments . I ask this because I find your statements to be interesting to say the least .”
You can’t believe anyone could be as “smart” as me? I’M A DUNCE. You should be so luckly… Dipsh#t.
Sorry many people think and feel on more than one level. Sorry people don’t talk and think exactly as those in Santa Barbara require. After long and careful review of your post my response is: go fUnk yourself you sanctimonious tweet.
PS this is the height of sanctimony…
“interesting to say the least .”
Test post - please ignore/delete
™
xxx
™
lmao
Laughing Elmo is the perfect gift for the buyers (suckers) to remember
their RE agents, their loan brokers, and their sellers. They are rolling
and laughing at you, Mr. Buyer.
I just heard that the lady who is selling the 800 square footer for 1.2 million will throw in her 8 year old Honda for a paltry $125k.
What a steal!
But the Honda has a parking space on Coronado. They aren’t making any more parking…
what’s the big deal about Honda………..Have had 4 of them…….Great new, but a pain in the butt as they age.
Hey… Waddya want for $125k?
hehe
Been seeing some strange behaviors in Southern California. In my neighborhood, there is a beautiful 3900 sq ft home on 9000 sq ft lot asking for $1.486M, and it has been market for a while. Spoke to the seller’s agent about the highest non-contingent offer received so far (all of them rejected), and she said $1.4M. Either the seller is stupid or the agent is lying… I’m not sure which.
Probably both
How can you tell a Realtor is lying?
If I remember correctly, the response is when their lips are moving.
look…….if we were in a normal down cycle in real estate -1/3 is the go. I think it is worse than that……don’t even think about an offer for a couple of years. It ain’t going to suddenly spike up, the residential real estate thing is over for probably a decade. Move on to other more productive things and pick up any real estate bargains as and when they appear, as they surely will. Real estate agents are going to be eating the wallpaper off the walls, and good agents will ultimately become an asset in this downturn. Hey, in the upswing they support the seller, when the downturn comes they know the buyer is king. FWIW
Imploder…..I’m sorry if I pissed you off . I was really just making a little joke, because you are very interesting . I guess it was a bad way for me to try to find out more about you .
Oh….. right then.
nevermind.