“In A Soft Market, You Need Gimmicks”: Massachusetts
The Boston Globe reports from Massachusetts. “When Stephanie Ward-Wilson put her Norwell home on the market for $820,000 last January, she never dreamed she’d have to go through more than one cold dark winter with a ‘for sale’ sign on her front lawn.”
“‘It was a very slow winter last year, especially the part of the winter that our house was on the market,’ she said. ‘We’ll leave the house on the market as long as we continue to have activity. If not, we’ll have to take it off. We have hit rock bottom on our price.’”
“The coming winter threatens to deliver another blow to home sellers who are struggling through a slow real estate market. Buyers for the most part seem to hibernate during this period. Just the uncertainty surrounding the status of the house, the financial worry and dread that looms over an anxious seller, risks disturbing an otherwise cheery holiday period.”
“Despite well-attended open houses, Ward-Wilson has not had a single offer on her four-bedroom Colonial. She acknowledged the house was ‘way overpriced’ initially, but has since lowered it nearly 15 percent, to $699,000.”
“‘I think a lot of buyers have been sitting back and watching to see how low the prices could go. Well, this is it,’ she said. ‘Hopefully, they’ll see that this is actually a great time to buy.’”
“Maybe so. But brokers said that sellers also have to make the most of this period, and, if they haven’t already, reprice their homes to reflect the lower adjustments in the market.”
“But a big obstacle in the current market is that many potential buyers are themselves also sellers, and so may be reluctant to purchase a new home if they fear they can’t sell their old one.”
“That did not stop Amy Green from purchasing her ‘dream home’ in Kingston recently. Now she is putting her current home, also in Kingston, on the market this month. She is planning to meet with her realtor and said she will ‘price it to sell,’ since she wants to move into her new home in January.”
“‘Of course there is always the risk — even if the house is well-priced — that it won’t sell as fast as you want it to during the holiday season,’ said Green. ‘For me, it was such a great time to buy that I didn’t want to miss out. It was a risk worth taking.’”
“Mike Spinelli has already moved out of his Windham, N.H., home, which is for sale for $899,000, but is confident the sprawling six-bedroom property will sell before the deep freeze sets in. ‘First, this house is worth well over a million dollars and everyone knows it,’ he said. ‘Second, I’m planning on offering the buyer $10,000 cash — more or less — depending upon the final sale price. In a soft market, you need gimmicks.’”
The Patriot Ledger. “Fetching a seven-figure price in a housing downturn takes more than just hiring a real estate agent and scheduling an open house. Some sellers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on renovations and hiring ‘home stagers’ to make their properties more attractive to potential buyers.”
“‘You have to go the extra mile in this market,’ said (realtor) Gail Bell in Hingham. ‘The home has to be priced perfectly, and it has to show perfectly.’”
“After originally listing the property at $1.6 million, developer John Nestel has shaved his asking price to $1.2 million in a nod to the local competition among luxury properties. There are 35 $1 million-plus listings on the market in Cohasset. ‘Two years ago, this house would have flown off the market at $1.6 million,’ Bell said.”
The Eagle Tribune. “Isabel Frias thought she was buying a home. Instead, she found herself saddled with a $3,000-a-month mortgage she could not pay working for $9 an hour. Eventually, Frias was forced into foreclosure on the three-family house on Andover Street.”
“‘It was a dream to buy a house in the U.S.,’ Frias told a group of bankers, state legislators and city and state officials.”
“She is not alone. So far this year, 236 buildings, mostly homes, have gone into foreclosure in the city. That’s up 20 percent from last year. As recently as 2003, only 56 foreclosures were filed in the city.”
“‘We’ve created a monster,’ said Peter Milewski, director of the mortgage insurance fund for MassHousing. ‘Credit is now readily available, but at what cost and what consequence?’”
“Juan Bonilla, a home ownership counselor for Lawrence Community Works, said many of the people he works with, who are unable to pay their mortgage, had no concept of what they were signing up for. ‘The common theme is, ‘I didn’t realize that I had an adjustable-rate mortgage. I didn’t even know what an adjustable-rate mortgage was. I didn’t realize I had an interest-only loan,’ Bonilla said.”
‘The number of mortgage foreclosures has doubled in the last year in New Hampshire. There were 653 foreclosures from January through September, up from 332 for the same period in 2005. In 2004, there were 299 foreclosures from January through September. ‘I’ve never seen this before,’ said George Bridgeman, who works for the federal Housing and Urban Development program. ‘Foreclosures are increasing dramatically.’
‘What’s worse, Bridgeman said, is that many people have relied on so-called “exotic” mortgages like interest-only loans, or variable rate notes that skyrocket after a certain number of years, to get into homes they really couldn’t afford to begin with. ‘Interest-only and exotic mortgages get people into a house,’ Bridgeman said, ‘but when they accelerate after a few years, people realize they’re in trouble.’ Bridgeman said he’s been working for HUD since 1991 and hasn’t witnessed a phenomenon like the current foreclosure climate.’
I have a golfing buddy who freelances for a title company. In ‘05 he traveled to the town of Greenfield,Ca, a small 95% Hispanic agricultural town 50 miles south of Monterey stradling Hyw 101. He helped the F’d borrowers sign loan docs and escrow for their purchase of new homes. He told me they had no concept of property taxes, insurance or the type of I/O or neg/Arm they were getting. Only that they could ‘buy’ a house. They were given 2nds so they could pay the coming taxes and one year of their insurance. Keep a watch on the foreclosures in this town in late ‘07 and ‘08.
Ben how does that fc rates compare to 1990 ?
that would be interesting
How in the world do you not know the terms of your mortgage? Come on here people. You are makeing the biggest purchase in your life and you don’t understand the payments and terms on your loan? This all sounds like people are trying to blame the lenders for their financial problems.As usual no one wants any repsonsibility and they play stupid when times get tough. I have no sympathy for the incompetence.
Have you ever talked to the mumbojumbo speaking realtors and mortage brokers? Unless you have prior knowlege about basics in RE transactions and understand some of the terminology all you will get is YOU CAN DO THIS.
susanne researched it, after all
I’m quite sure these same idiots don’t know the terms of the warranty on the HD big screen TV they rolled into the mortgage either. They are financially illiterate.
Exactly!
The truth is that most people are morons. The buyers were buying because other morons were buying also. It’s fundemental mass psychology. Don’t overestimate the intelligence of people. I remember a certain bubble market in internet stocks in 2000. People are naturally stupid.
I’m not sure I agree. They are naturally trusting that the law and government is there to protect their best interests. They are naturally reticent about looking stupid, so when presented with complex things they don’t understand, they trust the professionals who seem so nice.
These loans are unnatural and complex. I wonder how many thought, ‘This nice broker and banker would never put me into a position where I couldn’t pay them back.’ It never occurs to them that these nice people are preying on them and their simplicity.
I would term it naturally naive. This certainly does not excuse them from their bad decisions. To buy something that will consume 50% of their income without researching the risks it a bad decision.
Let’s recap:
Trust gov & law = Stupid
Trust brokers and agents = Stupid
Don’t ask questions about what you don’t understand = Stupid
Sign complex document without help = Stupid
Skip risk analysis on big purchase = Stupid
Make compound bad decisions = Stupid
OK, I’ve convinced myself. They are naturally stupid.
Marc,
“People are nuts” is the one basic assumption that has never failed me.
Recently sold a glass top table for slightly below the new on sale price. People who bought it were an hour or more away. I told them how big the GLASS table top was. They show up with a small suv that cannot possibly hold it. They have no padding, no straps, no clue as to how they are going to get this to the next state over.
” It’s fundemental mass psychology”
I think it’s better classified as mass hysteria. All chasing a quick buck that gullible chumps heard at some family gathering - Their dumbass uncle Harry managed to snatch up $400K… Could of be at the lunchroom, a party, Time magazine article.
Easy money. Just not guaranteed easy $$$$…
It’s mass greed - these people aren’t just stupid - they’re greedy. Because they are too stupid to be worth more than $9 to any employer and can’t stand the thought of living the lifestyle $9 an hour affords, they will sign anything that promises them that they too can be live like the ‘rich, beautiful and famous.’
Now that they find their ugly, stupid, no account a$$es out in the street, I don’t expect them to accept any blame.
If you are financially set, it is time to start keeping a low profile. These type people will be very upset when they realize that they will NEVER have the lifestyle they so ‘deserve.’
Mass psychology is mass hysteria. There is no difference.
I think the message got lost in translation - now “it’s easier to be stupid than sorry.”
speaking of foreclosures, Ben, check out this find in the Aliente development in North Las Vegas. 9 homes foreclosing on two streets and one small cul de sac.
OMG, those are the ugliest houses I’ve ever seen!
OMG, those are the ugliest houses I’ve ever seen!
Lots and lots of bad ideas and projects sloshin’ around in this bust.
It really is “different this time”.
In french “cul de sac” means dead end. It’s a methaphor that you caught in the bag. Most owners and buyers will end up dead strangled by their mortgage. Mortgage comes from french. It means ” un gage mort”.
Litterally it means in french a dead asset ! Strange indeed. Investors in the US and the UK, in Australia, should study more closely the ethymology of the english language and learn french.
“Gage” means pledge in French, not asset.
“Mike Spinelli has already moved out of his Windham, N.H., home, which is for sale for $899,000, but is confident the sprawling six-bedroom property will sell before the deep freeze sets in. ‘First, this house is worth well over a million dollars and everyone knows it,’ he said. ‘Second, I’m planning on offering the buyer $10,000 cash — more or less — depending upon the final sale price. In a soft market, you need gimmicks.’
man, there’s gonna be a long line at this open house today.
‘First, this house is worth well over a million dollars and everyone knows it,’ he said.
I wonder if the local property tax assessors office is aware?
If you go to the Windham, NH tax assessment site: http://www.windhamnewhampshire.com/depts/assessrpts/2006AssmtsWebSite.pdf
there are two listings for Michael Spinelli: one for about $525k and another for about $300k.
The mindset of these people? He is selling a house for $900k and $10k cash back is about 1%. Why is this attractive? If you saw an advert from a car dealer selling a $30k car offering $300 “cash back” then you would laugh. Typically it is several thousand dollars cash back, e.g. 10+%.
Astounding mentality! Again it shows the disconnect between the every day reality of these people, how much they spend and earn, cars that they drive versus home prices, which are in a different twilight zone.
In my neighborhood in McLean you have new McMansions that go up for $2 million plus. Then someone moves in and you see very drab and average cars parked outside.
One $2 million plus house has a ~10 year old Ford Explorer parked outside with a for sale sticker on it. Why bother if you live in a multi million dollar house? Cash flow problems?
The millionaires that I know live in ordinary houses and drive ordinary cars. Well a few drive expensive sports cars but I doubt that any of them have houses in the million dollar range.
$300 to $450 K is more like it.
where’s that ?
500k gets a dog house here
This is Southern NH; not Boston. Windham
is a nice town but there is a real estate
slowdown here.
Skip ” I wonder if the local property tax assessors office is aware? ”
That was FUNNY! and quite snappy! Well done!
He is talking like the worth is the 2005 peak . The worth/market price is what a willing and able buyer will pay today . Enough of people saying that the value is really the 2005 peak price ,that was the mania peak price .
My pets.com stock is really worth $80/shr and everybody knows it.
…And ole Mike will be sitting on the curb out front in his bathrobe, drinking Thunderbird out of a brown paper bag and weeping as prospective buyers tell the realtor that “This house is worth way less than half a million dollars, and everyone knows it.”
Mogan Davis baby. Mad Dog MD.
“this house is worth well over a million dollars and everyone knows it,’ ”
“In a soft market, you need gimmicks.’”
Will the real Mike Spinelli please stand up?
Are they sure this guy’s last name isn’t really Spicoli?
Assuming for the sake of argument that Spinelli is correct on his pricing, why on earth does he think that someone who can actually buy a $1M property would be seriously motivated by $10K?
What it really shows is that he personally would be motivated by $10K and thus he assumes his buyers will feel the same way. Which just goes to show how little he understands both the market and the psychology of people who purchase million-dollar homes.
“Mike Spinelli has already moved out of his Windham, N.H., home, which is for sale for $899,000, but is confident the sprawling six-bedroom property will sell before the deep freeze sets in. ‘First, this house is worth well over a million dollars and everyone knows it,’
I think many people selling houses should take or re-take if they took in their youth a level one Economics course. If a house has the right exposure (everyone looking for that kind of house in that area knows it is for sale) the only variable is the price. And all the seller has to do is find the price….not believe he knows the price…but find the price. This is not that complicated.
Actually, he is doing something smart if the current comps for his house are around 1mill. Pricing 10% below the market is the way to sell right now and he should be applauding for trying to undercut, rather than chase down the mkt.
Maybe, but the way he talks about it makes me think he’s fooling himself. The $10k is a joke on a $800k price.
True…..I’m getting offers of $20k-$25k from builders on houses that list for less than $400k and that’s not enough…..for me.
… better make that $900k. Fell for the old “9/10ths of a cent per gallon of gas trick” eh, Ben ?:-)
I don’t think it’s a huge leap doubt is claim that comps are $1M, kind of a coincidence that he settled on $1M. The 10K “gimmick is hilarious as well. Kind of like saying, buy this product X for $100 and if you do it now, you will get the steal of a lifetime because I’ll give to $1 back. Hurry now.
Some of the thinking of sellers and buyers make me wonder how the hell they were able to buy a $1M house in the first place
He probably got 100% financing for $250K back in 2002 and now he thinks it’s worth a cool million
Hopefully, he’ll get his head handed to him on a platter for lunch.
if in 30 days no viewings =10% high
if they look and no offers 5% high
this time it’s different
“‘I think a lot of buyers have been sitting back and watching to see how low the prices could go. Well, this is it,’ she said. ‘Hopefully, they’ll see that this is actually a great time to buy.’”
Recently, whenever a bagholder tells me it’s a great time to buy I simply ask them “Then why are you selling?”
That’s a great comeback, thanks!
Yep, that shut up many of the bulls on the OC Register blog.
They would say, “Now is a great time to buy.”
My response would be that 17,000 plus sellers disagree with your forward looking assessment.
That’s why its a great time to buy AND sell. LOL.
You’re so good
Some of the brokers/agents are saying that even real bargins aren’t selling right now . It looks like people are really waiting to see what happens ,maybe people are expecting a interest rate decrease or more price cuts . The fear of catching a falling knife is worst than the fear of being priced out forever apparently .
I still think affordability is the main reason holding the buyers back ,
plus there is just way to much inventory .
‘Some of the brokers/agents are saying that even real bargins aren’t selling right now’
At first reading that would be an optimistic quote. Just hold on and wait for the lowering of prices. No, instead, it is blame the buyers. These are bargains, gosh darnit.
The “con” fidence game has ended. The party on the other side fears more from not joining than getting in on the deal of a lifetime.
I am still shocked at how quick this game ended. I wonder how long before it returns?
C&C –
You mean you don’t believe that high rates of inflation will return after prices bottom out next year? How do you know?
“‘It was a dream to buy a house in the U.S.,’ Frias told a group of bankers, state legislators and city and state officials.”
Fine live your dream, but don’t expect to be able to afford a 3K mortgage making 9/hr. Good God woman where the hell was your head? Couldn’t you have bought a house for 100K somewhere? You’d still be living the dream..instead of the nightmare. Serves you right for being an idiot.
This lady is out of her mind for sure. Her Debt to Income ratio is like 200% just on the front end. There is something unethical going on with that approval, like no-doc or something, or maybe it was an Option ARM and the article is quoting the 30-year payment but she was only scratching by on the deferred interest payment until she went into foreclosure. Unbelievable any way you slice it. At $9/hr she should of not borrowed more than a $85k. That’s probably at least 6-times less than what she really did borrow. Talk about over extending yourself. Whoever helped her do that is a crook.
The article says it was a three family… i.e. a triple decker tenament. I’m sure they qualified her using a percentage of the income from the other apartments. I’m sure they also qualified her with an IO adjustable or some such at a sub prime rate (hence the $3000/mo payment). She probably had nothing down so there is a 2nd at a higher rate there as well…
How good at arithmetic do you expect an adult making $9/hr could possibly be? Dopes like that are why lenders are supposed to be checking creditworthiness and assessing the likelihood that the borrower will be making payments on schedule.
Some people are not good candidates for loans - period. A lot of these loans are gonna follow the same path down the drain. Reckoning period is coming, and it won’t be long.
With 8 roommates ?
Not is Massachusetts. Entry level for a condo is $175K+ for a crap box apartment conversion in a former tenament in one of the urban(read poor) areas of Mass, like Springfield, Lowell, Worcester, Fall River, New Bedford, etc. Entry level SFH in Mass will run $250K+ in those same areas.
The suburbs are much higher, like $350K for a 70’s ranch that needs work (Westport). A good example of what we deal with here in regards to what should be affordable is my coworker. She placed her “updated” raised ranch in Dartmouth for sale at an “affordable” $425K. Who would want to pay a premium to live in a raised ranch? And my friends wonder why I continue to live in my multi…
BTW, that same community (Dartmouth) is looking at hitting residents with a $900/yr per child tax to take the bus to school to make up for a shortfall in revenue.
“She placed her “updated” raised ranch in Dartmouth for sale”
We’ve been looking in the Worcester area and have not found any raised ranches. In fact, there are NO raised ranches listed in the MLS that we could find. I reached a conclusion that there a NO raised ranches in MA, only “split entry”
Also, a well is really “private water” and a septic is a “private sewer”.
“Split entry” fixer-uppers from the ’70’s with ~1,100sf and 1-car were listed for $369K in Northboro/Westboro last Spring, sometimes with private water AND sewer… It was next to impossible to find a single listing
” She is planning to meet with her realtor and said she will ‘price it to sell, since she wants to move into her new home in January…. For me, it was such a great time to buy that I didn’t want to miss out. It was a risk worth taking.’”
How Wonderful for Ms Green, the high stakes gambler. She’ll be a lot poorer once this whole gamble plays out. She qualifies for the old poker line - “There’s always a sucker at every table. If you look around and don’t see one, the suck is YOU.”
Um, lady - if it’s a great time for you to buy, it’s also a bad time for you to sell your old house.
Didn’t that occur to you?
bold off
‘We’ll leave the house on the market as long as we continue to have activity. If not, we’ll have to take it off. We have hit rock bottom on our price.’”
Hope you enjoy your house because it looks like you will be spending your remaining days in it. entitlement stikes again.
Anybody know of any sites or blogs that track and comment on the Connecticut housing market? Thanks.
‘We’ll leave the house on the market as long as we continue to have activity.’
Why not just open a bed & breakfast? If you want people wandering through your house who aren’t buying it, you might as well let them rent a room!
I spoke with a woman I know at a party last night. She went into real estate brokering after being between jobs in her marketing career (she has an MBA). But she hasn’t been able to make money.
She says prices are down 15% in North Jersey, but are unlikely to go lower, so it’s a great time to buy. I asked if she and her husband could afford to buy her house today, at similar terms — 2 1/2 times their income, or even 3 since interest rates are lower. She said no way. How about the average person in town? He said three times the average income will get you a one-bedroom condo.
Her explanation? Income and housing prices are diverging long term (in addition to the bubble), and people will have to get used to higher multiples. That may be true in that people are chooseing to use more of their income to buy more house, though I expect that ridiculous cultural trend will reverse. But her house isn’t “more house” than when it was purchased a decade ago. It is the same house more than a decade older.
I offered a dollar bet the total decline would be 40% in real dollars, on average (some place more, some less).
Following up, this woman is a friend of mine, not someone out to screw me to get a commission. She’s smart, not stupid. And she’s capable of being cynical, not naiive. But she believes the “end to decline” idea, and not for the presumed reasons above.
I think what is going on is called “anchoring.” People get an idea in their head, and decide that is what something is worth, kind of like senior citizens who think they are being cheated because a haircut costs more than it used to, forgetting about inflation.
Perhaps we’re just anchored in a different year than the NAR, which seems to be starting with 2005 and talking about how prices have dropped, instead of looking at time and finding that they have risen.
WT Econ….how long has your friend been a RE broker? All due respect to you, but when you say “She’s smart, not stupid. And she’s capable of being cynical, not naiive.”, it makes me wonder just how “smart” she is if she thought she was going to make money as a broker in this market. Now if she chose to be a broker in 2000-2004, I can see her making the $$$ as a lot of sheople did the same thing (in different variations). But the handwriting was on the wall last summer. And regarding “tighter multiples”, has she forgotten the math of fundamentals? Housing costs have to be connected to salaries, rents, etc, or it won’t work…and, as we have seen, it hasn’t worked. She should know this. YOU should know this…you’re an economist (per your screen name) If she doesn’t, then shame on her.
And shame on her for assisting in convincing people that they can buy a home because they “have to get used to tighter multiples”. That’s a lot of BS, and that’s one of the reasons so many people are in financial trouble now. Just another example of a “mumbo jumbo speaking” RE professional (credit for this phrase to Say What in his/her post above).
BayQT~
Following up, this woman is a friend of mine, not someone out to screw me to get a commission.
Trust me, friendship ends and truth is relative when a real estate commission is on the line. XXX Don’t do real estate business with friends or expect to have a lot of former friends.
posted ” this woman is a friend of mine, not someone out to screw me to get a commission.”
Well? What the hell good is that?
Used a family-friend for a refinancing. Never again. Cost at least $2k more than I could have gotten, had I shopped. - “(
Posted ” kind of like senior citizens who think they are being cheated because a haircut costs more than it used to”
Not to worry plenty of real good “haircuts” comming up. Some so good you will not ever need another!
It is conceivable that longterm income and housing price ratios have changed in the past 5 years. Then again, during the Nasdaq bubble, stocks with unmeasurable P/E ratios were considered a steal if they dropped 10%.
Housing has changed dramatically in the past 25 years. Homes are bigger and people expect more. This rise in expectations (nicer kitchen, media room, separate bedroom for each kid, office, 2 car garage, etc.etc.) of buyer’s today vs. buyers of 25 years ago means that buyers today should be forking over more of their income than buyer’s of 25 years ago.
Bullsnit. The same houses that were built in 1980 and bought for $125K are now worth over $1 million. They don’t have anymore bedrooms or garages than when they were built. I guess that granite countertop did it huh?
Well, so have computers and cars. We have way more megahertz, and cars now have much more power and safety features and cool gizmos.
Are people spending that much a greater %age of their income on cars and computers? no, that’s a stupid idea.
People ARE spending a much greater %age of their incomes on education and health care, but few would say that they are getting something radically better than before.
DrC, I’ve been thinking about the same thing. Was wondering when the cost of education and health care basically hit their limits as well. Many speculative scenarios for how the market for those 2 goods plays out. Got a 1.6% raise at work while our medical insurance premiums went up > 10%. Eventually, the math just doesn’t work.
” Income and housing prices are diverging long term “. Did she have an explanation for the recent trend downward, towards actual historical norms? Did you mention that the recent spike might have been related to unsustainable nutty lending gimmicks?
This market will revert to the mean, after overshooting hard on the way back down - MEANLY.
One of the RE cheerleader blogs in Seattle is trying out the same argument - basically, that the “equity ladder” means that comparing house prices to incomes is irrelevant now. Not answered is the question of why anyone would spend 50-60% of their income servicing a toxic loan unless you expected really rapid appreciation in house prices.
There are other things I’d like to spend my income on besides housing, thanks…
Also, nothing is a clearer indication of a market top than people claiming that there are new, much higher valuation rules for an asset, and that the old rules of thumb for valuing that asset are now irrelevant.
Right. The clincher is when the cheerleaders start using the term “Paradigm shift”. That’s when the top was a long time ago, prices are one a 1-way trip straight down and they’re trying like hell to convince the last GFs that haven’t already jumped over the cliff smiling.
Income and housing prices are diverging long term (in addition to the bubble), and people will have to get used to higher multiples.
I call bull poop. Disproportionate multiples are not sustainable for anyone other than the very rich.
“Her explanation? Income and housing prices are diverging long term (in addition to the bubble), and people will have to get used to higher multiples.”
Oh Really. Well This some person will just say; Let Them Rot.
“‘It was a very slow winter last year, especially the part of the winter that our house was on the market,’ she said. ‘We’ll leave the house on the market as long as we continue to have activity. If not, we’ll have to take it off. We have hit rock bottom on our price.’”
Change your minds or get ready to join the mass of deperate would-be sellers for the next ten years.
“Some of the brokers/agents are saying that even real bargins aren’t selling right now .”
Real bargains? The Nasdaq looked like a bargain after it fell 30% in 2000, and people bought these “bargains”, actually causing the market to rise for a few months. Over the next year, it fell 54% more.
“She acknowledged the house was ‘way overpriced’ initially, but has since lowered it nearly 15 percent, to $699,000.”
Stephanie, your generosity is astounding.
15% off “way overpriced” is what?…
Yep, still way overpriced!
Survey finds percentage of first-time buyers down, single female buyers up
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:52 PM ET Nov 11, 2006
NEW ORLEANS (MarketWatch) — “Despite low mortgage interest rates, a smaller percentage of first-time home buyers are entering the market, according to an annual profile of buyers and sellers released by the National Association of Realtors on Saturday
During the year ending in June, 36% of all buyers who purchased a home were first-time buyers, according to the association’s annual profile of home buyers and sellers. That’s down from 40% a year ago. About 7,500 buyers and sellers were surveyed.”
http://tinyurl.com/ya24bk
This survey even from NAR, which might be suspect, shows there is an affordability problem and first time buyer can not afford today’s prices.
Ok we had financial education in my High School back in 1968, Home economics was manditory we were taught how to balance checkbooks, read apartment leases, and sales/ employment contracts figure out true interest rates …all with pencil and paper Math and reading were important in our school since it was mostly blue collar building trades HS in southern CT.
Very few of my neighbors had white collar jobs, I had Drafting, Print shop, Electronics and was assistant photographer of the yearbook.
The computer pre-college advanced classes were for the “smart” kids!
————————————————-
Many of the banking representatives at the meeting opposed mandatory financial education, but City Councilor Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez was given a better reception when she suggested the School Committee build financial education into the curriculum, educating young people on the dangers of predatory lending.
Way to go Amy Green now your officals 2 mortgage FB!
That did not stop Amy Green from purchasing her “dream home” in Kingston recently. Now she is putting her current home, also in Kingston, on the market this month. She is planning to meet with her realtor and said she will “price it to sell,” since she wants to move into her new home in January.
“Of course there is always the risk — even if the house is well-priced — that it won’t sell as fast as you want it to during the holiday season,” said Green. “For me, it was such a great time to buy that I didn’t want to miss out. It was a risk worth taking.”
boston, boston…sellers aren’t getting bids and need to discount each month: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=51443639&blogID=192167697&Mytoken=531F88C6-FB68-4066-8031840B9ABEF84825556380
Whatever, Amy.
I live in that area and Windham is a small NH border town. It also has several dozen empty McMansions that simply aren’t moving. Quite a few of these are never-lived-in spec houses. Mr. Spinelli should have received his $16,000 property tax bill for 2007 by now.
I also should mention that winter comes early in NH. (My furnace is running as I write this.) And it can cost $500 week to heat an empty McMansion to 50 degrees and hopefully keep the pipes from freezing. Spring is 6 months away…
john s, where u at? I have friends in the windham and have a $700K house that pay $6k a year on property taxes…if you are in Derry or Londonderry you are paying a boat load for pt…
Must have been before the lastest re-assessment. I’m in Derry and I pay $5,600 for a $210,000 house. (I think they assessed it at $260K, in this market I might sell it for $160,000.) I have relatives in Windham and they were paying $6,000 in taxes 18 years ago. I assume their $350K house is a million dallar home today.
Winter’s actually been pretty mild so far in
Southern New Hampshire. I remember 2000
and 2005 as being pretty cold in the Fall.
You can get an idea of temps by looking at
a 10-year chart of natural gas at stockcharts.com. Just use $natgas as the ticker.
I have a coworker that put his house up for
sale early summer and things are still slow. I think that he would have been better off dropping the price instead of paying carrying costs to now. It looks like Spring will hopefully be the next selling period. He’s renting another place for the school
district.
bold off
LOL. “Shaved”? Is that the new word for a 25% plunge in asking price?
“‘I think a lot of buyers have been sitting back and watching to see how low the prices could go. Well, this is it,’ she said. ‘Hopefully, they’ll see that this is actually a great time to buy.’”
This is what?, Miss Stephanie Ward-Wilson.
You overprice your house in the hope of procuring a sucker purchaser, and now that the effort fizzled, in your infinite biased homeowner “wisdom”, you now pronounce “this is it…it’s a great time to buy”…
Exactly by who’s measure? Yours?
Empty words appropriate for an empty open house.
You’re gonna be lookin’ at another $200k drop before this bust is all over.
However, look on the bright side.
At least your not the idiot in Kingston who gonna be carrryin’ two mortgages.
I am really enjoying reading comments from everyone who’s in the same boat as me, waiting on the sidelines for this bogus RE bubble to crash. Like many of us, I’ve experienced the arrogant realtor’s telling me not to try to chase the market 3 years ago here in Boston, prices “never go down”, you have to take advantage of the interest rates etc. Let’s not forget the arrogant homeowners who bought that BS from the realtors and think they are entitled to bogus evaluations.
Now that the market has finally turned, I find it amusing how desparate people have become. “I’m at rock bottom”, we’ve all heard that one right? Well… just because you bought too high, doesn’t mean we’ve got to share in your loss, I’m afraid you’re on your own cause I’m not buying an overpriced POS. Face the fact you made a bad decision and move on. Price the house at market value and it will sell. If not, you’re wating your time. Folks like myself have no problem waiting it out.
IMOHO, WE”RE JUST GETTIN STARTED! LET THE BUBBLE BURST! 30-40% decline in the next 12-18 Months. What do you think?