“In A Sea Of Sameness, It Takes Forever To Sell A House”
The Record Searchlight reports from California. “Jeff and Julie Cozzo are giving new meaning to a short sale. The couple, who split time between Redding and the San Francisco Bay area, plan to sell their Springer Drive home, an investment, Sunday night to the highest bidder. Bids will open at $199,500 for the 1,176-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath home.”
“Julie Cozzo explained that the auction is a gimmick, something different to create excitement. ‘When you put yourself in a sea of sameness, then it takes forever to sell a house, especially in a quiet market like now,’ Cozzo said.”
“The Cozzos bought the home in October 2005 for $249,500. They have put in new kitchen cabinets, tile countertops, new carpet, new paint inside and out, new appliances, and updated the bathrooms.”
“Redding Realtor Josh Barker said he’s heard of these auctions, but not many have been staged in the north state. ‘It probably benefits the seller as long as they get enough people in the house to bid it up,’ Barker said.”
“Barker wondered what happens if only one person makes a bid for $199,500. ‘Are (the sellers) really going to take that?’ he said.”
The Press Democrat. “Sonoma County home prices fell again in December, but the decline appears to be leveling off, concluding a year that saw sales hit a 10-year low and prices drop from record highs.”
“‘We still have a very large amount of the inventory that continues to adjust their prices. That tells me there’s a lot of sellers out there chasing the market instead of setting the market,’ broker Ross Liscum said.”
“Buyers remain cautious, reflected in the number of sales that fall through. In December, 27 percent of sales pending the end of November were not completed. The real estate industry average is about 20 percent.”
“‘This shows that buyers are in the market, but they expect repairs and concessions and if they don’t get it, they’re willing to walk and go down the street,’ said Rick Laws, Santa Rosa manager for Coldwell Banker.”
The Santa Maria Times. “In the survey, 38 percent of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers said home prices will decrease less than 5 percent this year in California, while 26 percent believe there will be an increase of up to 5 percent.”
“‘There has been a lot of press about how (home) prices have fallen, but I don’t know if they’ve fallen as much as they were overinflated,’ said Mike Hahlbeck, president of the association’s North Central Coast Chapter.”
The Desert Sun. “Developer Mayer Luce Companies has put its ambitious 505-acre, $1 billion Tuscan Hills development in Desert Hot Springs on hold until the valley’s sluggish housing market shows signs of rebounding.”
“Other valley developers are making similar adjustments, with even large builders such as KB Home and Lennar Corp. slimming down local operations. Builders marketing to entry-level and lower mid-price-range buyers have become particularly aggressive about downsizing to conserve cash, said Fred Bell, executive director of Palm Desert-based Desert chapter of the Building Industry Association.”
“‘They’ve seen what’s happening with sales and they’re doing two things: adjusting the overall scope and size of their operations and they’re managing their vertical inventory, - how much they’ve got left in the pipeline,’ Bell said.”
The LA Times. “Some of the decline in retail hiring reflected the housing slump. Hiring among dealers of building materials and supplies was down 2.5% in December compared with a year earlier. Construction remained the biggest drag on the economy, shedding 15,700 jobs in 2006, more than any other sector.”
“The question now is when the housing market will hit bottom. Many economists are projecting that the slump in home sales will be over by the end of the year.”
“That may be wishful thinking, said Chris Thornberg, a former UCLA economist. ‘I keep hearing that the real estate markets are going to turn around, and it never ceases to amaze me,” he said. ‘These cycles take two years, top to bottom, when they pop. We’re only a year into it. If anything, this is different because the bubble was so much larger.’”
The Orange County Register. “Orange County’s job growth continued at a slow, steady pace last month, according to state figures released Friday. The culprits in last year’s slowdown included sectors related to real estate.”
“In the 12 months through December, Orange County’s construction industry added jobs at a 0.7 percent annual rate, much slower than the industry’s 7.2 percent growth in 2005. The number of jobs in financial activities, a sector that includes mortgage firms and real estate brokerages, shrank by 1.4 percent in the 12 months through December. That compares with growth of 4.3 percent in 2005.”
The Union Tribune. “In San Diego County, construction firms shed 1,800 workers during December and real estate firms cut 500 positions, according to data released yesterday by the California Employment Development Department.”
“During 2006, construction firms in the county lost a total of 5,000 jobs, more than 5 percent of their work force. Statewide, construction firms have axed 15,300 workers, a 1.7 percent loss. And economists say the losses will probably continue.”
“‘I expect further contraction on single-family home construction,’ said Kenneth Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America. ‘It’s hard to say when that will end. It’s really a question regarding how long potential home buyers think they can hold on. Right now, home prices are still dropping and buyers are waiting to see when there will be a bottom of the market.’”
The Sacramento Bee. “The housing market downturn continues to soften up job growth in Sacramento and statewide. ‘You can isolate it to the housing slowdown,’ EDD labor market consultant David Lyons said. ‘It’s been kind of a drag on the economy. The positive spin is that it could have been worse.’”
“Housing-related employment accounted for roughly 40 percent of the Sacramento area’s new jobs during the boom. Economic consultant Chris Thornberg said the downturn is just ’starting to squeeze’ the economy as a whole.”
The Record.net. “Average apartment rents in San Joaquin County slipped by several dollars last quarter, pushed down by a slight decline in occupancy, according to RealFacts, which tracks the apartments industry. Throughout California, every metro market tracked by RealFacts saw occupancy slide.”
“Julie Cozzo explained that the auction is a gimmick”
Which is why it’s not really an auction. Probably not even binding.
I do not think that will make anyone interested. THere have been posts here on auctions. They are a stupid idea. She should drop her price.
It is a “short sale.” I’m guessing that the minimum bid is the lowest bid that the bank will accept. Let’s see how smart the banker is….
It’s funny how all these people who thought themselves so clever when buying their houses now feel just as clever for auctioning them off.
Julie has no clue — an auction is a standard way to sell almost anything, which quickly reveals the market price (or at least a close approximation thereto), provided the sale is advertised sufficiently in advance of the sale date to make sure all potential buyers are notified. If $199,500 is below the market value, then multiple bids will result, but if it is above market value, no bids will be forthcoming. (Which brings to mind the fact that all the auctions I have read about in the papers recently have had few to no sales — suggesting the wishing prices were above the market values of the homes they were trying to unload.)
It seems worth adding that it was only a year-or-so back when Redding was one of the markets with the highest percentage of second home buyers (flippers, long-term investors and retirement home buyers) in the whole country. So it seems noteworthy that you can no longer find buyers when you try to sell at auction…
Love how most of these articles think
“Whew that could have been a lot worse.” Refering to the overall housing market =)
To even imagine we are through this after only 6 months (give or take) is very funny!!
This appreciation should have stopped in 02′ and the talking heads (that should STFU and give head!) persist that we are out of the woods!!!!
Screw em all, anyone with sympathy for these stupid greedy people are quakers of the extreme sort. They have more compassion in their pinkies than I have in my entire overweight body!!!
Rant over, more RUM WOMEN!!!!
Julie Cozzo explained that the auction is a gimmick, something different to create excitement. ‘When you put yourself in a sea of sameness, then it takes forever to sell a house, especially in a quiet market like now,’ Cozzo said.”
Julie, dear. Your POS little shack is no more exciting than any other POS shack in Redding. It should be worth about $75,000. So drop it to that, then maybe someone will get excited. Of course, then you will be taking a big loss for being the greater fool. At least you can console yourself that you had lots of company.
You want excitement? Wait for the FORECLOSURE, now that’s EXCITEMENT! And it ain’t NO GIMMICK!
It is hotter than hell during the summer in redding.I worked in the forests up that way about 7 years ago.I remember an old quote from ex boss about a community college there:
“It is a high school with ashtrays”
The exciting part is when I show up and keep yelling $75K ! $75K ! until the goons chase me down the street.
Go, Mo! Wish you would do this!
“Developer Mayer Luce Companies has put its ambitious 505-acre, $1 billion Tuscan Hills development in Desert Hot Springs on hold until the valley’s sluggish housing market shows signs of rebounding.”
Huh…Yea, huh, thursday’s not good for me… mmmmm, how about “never”…. does “never” work for you?
Have you ever been to Desert Hot Springs.
300+ days per year of 30mph wind. It is just east of the largest windfarm in CA.
It is dusty and a desert and that wind transports that dust everywhere including inside the McMansion.
Not only that, it’s quite close to the San Andreas fault.
It’s got a sweet gold course though - Desert Springs.
“Desperate” Hot Springs
“It’s really a question regarding how long potential home buyers think they can hold on.”
Dude, it’s not like one of your cr@pboxes is needed for survival. What do you think they are all living in now? One of your cr@pboxes at a third the cost!
He doesn’t mean hold on, he means hold off, and the answer is forever.
no - a family of 4 does not really NEED more than 2000 sq ft. Lots of families grew up with much less 50 yrs ago and I do not think they are stunted in anyway by that . Only as moron wants 5000 sq ft (or more) and the utility bills and taxes to go with.
I remember having to share a room when I was younger.We had to rough it sometimes but we survived.I hear of a lot of people shutting and closeing up parts of these huge houses because they cannot afford to heat and cool them, go figure.
LMAO,
I remember when I was shoping for my first home. I made an offer $125k for a $140k listed home. BIG (to me) 2,200 sqft. 4/2 with big yard. The offer was accepted and I backe out buying something smallet for $100k on a canal with boat dock that can take me to SF bay and to the ocean.
My plan on the big house was to use two bedrooms of the rooms (or one and have a roomate in one, to old now for RM now) and seal the others with exterior weather stripping stuff and plug the CHA vents.
I just can not imagine paying the damn utilities on a 4,000sqft home!!!! Shit, my utilities run 2-300$ in my small place now, can’t even imagine the upkeep on a place 10 times larger!!!!
Wern’t there some twits trying for a class action on their builders in Texas because their utilities were over $600/mo!!!!
LMAO, I remember in my twenties my GF (wife now) would come over and be mad because I would be sitting in the living room with hunting jacket and pants on while sitting in the LR watching tv, you could see your breath in the house! I knew 20 years ago that everytime your flipped the switch on CH&A it costs you cheeseburger. I can’t even fathom the bills on a home 5 times larger than anything I have live in. Even being able to afford such things now doesn’t make them desirable, anyone paying the bills on such large homes with regular sized familes is literally playing with fire!!!
Untill Americans finally realize that “MORE” is not the answer our society at large will become more and more miserable.
Great post! My wife is a thermostat nazi too. If you are not shivering, the house is too warm. I have found a goof wool sweater can make a 60 degree room quite confortable.
I HATE the commercial where they show some onld dude looking pathetic saying his house is 60 degrees. THecommercial is for some kind of charity to give money to the “poor”.
I am not “poor” and 60 is FINE to me…..no need for a hunting jacket. A sweater is just fine - wear socks. At night you sleep a he11 of a lot better than at 70….
well said—I remember when we (5) moved into a 1600sq ft house when I was about 11. It was like WOW look at all this room! Up to that point, shared a bedroom w/bro, could get stuff out of the closet w/out getting out of the bunkbed!
The reality is that beyond a certain point the extra space is a waste, and people just end up filling it w/crapola they don’t need, then heat/cool/pay taxes on it. Specially here in SoCal w/the weather–I’d much rather be outside enjoying sunshine….see ya.
I agree with this totally.
Being the youngest of five I only got to finally sit on the couch or in a chair (other than at the dining room table) until the oldest three moved out
Seriously.
I hopefully look forward to the day when I can afford a 2/2 ranch w/basement, no more than 1300 square feet.
I’ve never met Mr. Right and have me and my parents to think about and as much as I miss being a mother, I’m blessed beyond belief just to live in this country with all of the opportunity here.
To be able to have such a house that is no more than 33% of my income would be a dream come true. Someone else can have the mcmansions.
I disdain McMansions too. Your post makes me wonder how strong the end user demand for McMansions really is, given that flippers armed with subprime have been snapping them up in recent years, artificially inflating the price. If we are lucky, the price of McMansions will settle over the used home market like the ashes of Vesuvius on Pompeii, smothering the prices of any older, smaller used homes (like the kind I would prefer to live in) as they correct. Because I am guessing that, for all their drawbacks, the large size and recent vintage of McMansions will make them more desirable in the average “super-size-me” Joe6pack’s mind.
I’ll not bore anyone with my upbringing but I have to admit I made the “mine’s bigger than yours” mistake. When I was in my 20’s, with wife and 2 kids, I bought a really nice 2k sq/ft house. We moved so it was time to “upgrade” to one twice as large……WTF was I thinking. Oh, it worked out financially for us but what a freakin’ waste. Now, I’ve retired so I’m looking to buy one….get this….smaller than my first house. Why did I do it….ego; pure and simple. Stupid decision but it’s one of those Life’s Lessons Learned…..
What gripes me about housing now is you cannot find a small QUALITY house. I’m not buying another McMansion and certainly not going to live in the small crackerjack POS I’ve looked at. Dunno, with all us boomers retiring w/money, you’d think the builders would figure out theres a market for what we want. Or…..maybe other folks are still trying to impress their friends and families.
During this search I’ve actually had one agent TELL me I had to change my criteria…..I told the SOB I buy what I want; not what some builder wants to sell…..what an idiot.
The McMansion crowd is getting killed by energy costs. My sister has a 3300sf, not quite McMansion-sized house, and they basicall shut off the entire 2nd floor because their energy bills were averaging $600/mo. I’m thinking a McMansion would come in at $800/mo or more.
Jerry –
You point to one of many dimensions of the overall cost of owning and maintaining a super-sized house which was somehow overlooked during the recent euphoria, when everyone was feeling rich to “move up” to twice as large a house as they had ever previously dreamed of living in, and which they could only afford to do in most cases because of the magical power of exotic lending to stretch the same income into buying a 40% more expensive house.
Now that the honeymoon has given way to the ongoing day-to-day drudgery of marriage to the McMansion, it is probably dawning on many owners that a home which is twice as large is also roughly twice as expensive to own and maintain.
Every comment on this thread is right on.
I swear I think these Mcmansions will end up divided just like the VIctorian giants did. I don’t want “extra” space. I want just enough and in the right configuration.
Waste of space, energy, money, etc., because you can, is poor citizenship and poor stewardship of the Earth. It goes against everything I believe we should be doing.
GetStucco:
Love your comments.
The house I live in, that I keep for my parents and myself is small and is more than enough.
I live in the DC metro area and I would put investment and retirement money on the line that condos and mcmansions will end up section 8 housing. It happened in NYC and Mass. in the last crash.
To the average homeowner or renter that means higher taxes. Having said that, I’ll take it, I’ll just be very careful about where I next buy for the ‘rents and me.
I’m not a boomer but close enough and when the bs regarding lenging standards and investors is weeded out of this market, 1300 SFH on a small lot will seem sane.
Another thing I don’t think people realize as an after-affect of this downturn is the upset of neighborhoods. Those that seemed safe to buy in in terms of saftey, etc. could now be in the well if the mcmansions built turn to the state and become ‘low income housing.’
This has been completely insane.
I direct people to this blog, but no one wants to hear it or even consder the reprucutions….
Ugly.
What about all the poor McMansion owners who need cheep illegal housekeepers, nannies, gardeners, landscapers, maintenance workers, etc. Things overgrow and fall apart very quickly down here, because of the weather in Florida. When the higher paid illegal construction workers leave the state due to less construction work, they take their housekeeper wives, and their extended family members doing this kind of cheaper work, with them.
What are all the McMansion owners to do? Take a look at Google Earth, and see for yourself, the enormous amount prime real estate there is in this state, that needs to be serviced by cheep illegals. Perhaps this is why the wealthy people lobby so hard to keep illegals flowing in this country. I feel sorry for them. NOT!
Yep, I’m intending to downsize for my retirement years. Where I live there’s pretty good weather all-year-round so I’m planning on lots of outdoorsy areas, adjacent to the house, where all I need is a blower to clean it off. Also thinking of doing most my cooking outside and the entertaining. Just have to design the house now
The Santa Maria Times. “In the survey, 38 percent of the California Association of Mortgage Broker survey said home prices will decrease less than 5 percent this year in California, while 26 percent believe there will be an increase of up to 5 percent.”
Obviously these 38% expecting a decline got a dilute batck of Kool-Aid. No worries, NAR will soon be sending these brokers extra-strong Kool-Aid soon. Real Estate prices are not ALLOWED to go down without NAR permission!
It’s the ones that are still employed.
“26 percent believe there will be an increase of up to 5 percent.”
They must have got the polling call while a GF, I mean, “client” was present.
The real nugget here is in what was only implicit in the text. One third of those surveyed thought there would be action greater than 5% either direction next year. I wonder what the distribution was for all responses.
“Throughout California, every metro market tracked by RealFacts saw occupancy slide.”
This I’ve been surprised by. Resistance to last years rent hikes through doubling up?
Most likely a mixture of doubling up, living with the folks why they save up to buy, and a quiet exodus out of the state.
This is going to get very ugly pretty soon. When? I don’t know. But I doubt the status quo will hold past June. But then I realize the status quo has been very resiliant.
Whatever anyone does, don’t be stupid enough to buy in 2007. Man… I’m so happy rents are dropping by recordable notches where me and my fiancee want to live for a year (or so). A whole bunch of new 2 and 3 bedroom “townhomes” (yea… right… not quite with that architecture…) were completed. They undercut the existing complex by $300/mo. Oh, the existing complex always had a resonable vacancy.
The Occupancy rate will slide throughout 2007 due to the shear number of apartments/townhomes being built in most areas.
Got popcorn?
Neil
We’ve had a massive residential construction boom w/o much in the way of monied influx. Eventually, rents will fall, although honestly I thought rents would bump up until final ownership of new units was determined.
I guess being tracked by RealFacts caused occupancy to slide, then?
Is this going to become common due to high cost of housing, upside mortgages, etc. Non-divorces? Loveless marriages? Just roommates?
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/SuddenlySingle/UnhappilyEverAfterTheNondivorce.aspx
This isn’t new.. Like the article says:
That’s a shift from decades past, when couples stayed together because divorce carried a social stigma or was forbidden by religious teachings.
There’s a reason divorce was forbidden or had a social stigma, and you’re seeing it in this article. Do it right the first time, or don’t do it.
“Do it right the first time, or don’t do it.”
Yeah, well, we can’t all be perfect like you.
Jeez.
Don’t have to be perfect - just have to be sure. Marriage is not something one should enter into via a leap of faith.
I know too many divorced women who spew hate at their ex hubbies (including my mom), never once admitting the obvious - that YOU married the jerk; and, no, he didn’t just become a jerk after the fact. You simply chose to overlook it.
“Do it right the first time, or don’t do it.”
That’s goddamn right. Quit being the typical American idiot. Quit blaming someone else for your own mistakes. Oh, and McD’s coffee is SUPPOSED to be hot.
I am not blaming anyone. Including my ex, who I have an amicable relationship with for the sake of our son. How can you preach about being sure when it’s human beings we’re talking about, not machines? Believe me, I am FAR from the typical American idiot.
You sound like you have a lot of pent up anger in you. That’s your problem, not mine.
The best laid plans of mice and men …. despite our best efforts to make the right choices sometimes things simply do not pan out the way we hoped. I thought I had a handle on life, then the handle broke.
As someone married more than 20 years, it’s tough to maintain all the goofiness of early marriage over a long period of time. It would be easy to fall into the type of relationship described in that article. I’d say you have to work hard to keep that from happening or it will naturally. Trust me, this is something I know
30+ years for me….and I agree.
That is a tough call, because there are countervailing effects at work in a housing bust. The strain of falling home prices and ARM payments reseting at a higher rate would tend to lead to an increase in marital friction and hence a higher divorce rate. But the reverse wealth effect implies that couples will have less wealth available to divide up and stretch across two household units. I expect a higher rate of spousal abuse, for certain…
“I expect a higher rate of spousal abuse,”
no doubt…suzanne researched this
Car + house = forever poverty? Now I know why my cars are older. But they are paid for and found an honest, knowledge mechanic to regularly check and repair them.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/TheRealReasonYoureBroke.aspx
I keep buying new cars every 6 to 10 years, but my net worth keeps going up! I never subscribed to the idea of buying only used cars. I just focus on accumulating money. New cars and luxury travel are rare indulgences compared to what I can (and do) save out of my annual income.
Now, this one is funny. Now, this would never happen, would it?
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/CaringForParents/ShouldYouBailOutSpendthriftParents.aspx
Wow I can relate to this story of the parents being the spendrifts. My mother supported several of my siblings for years (when they were adults even into middle age!) and then later she took out a reverse mortgage and started gambling away her home equity at the the Pacheco Casino in Temecula! Luckily (for me!) I was able to stop that behavior and get her back on a financially sound path. If I hadn’t, I would be supporting her now!
The latest snapshot of Silicon Valley y-o-y & y-o-2y prices & volume is now posted at:
http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id298.html.
Despite positive-sounding headlines, December revealed some surprising data –with “intertesting” implications for 2H06 & y-oy prices.
Thanks!
Too bad the writers at the Mercury News don’t pick up on your blog.
They tried to start a RE blog.
They led off by ripping this very blog as too extremist.
Needless to say, a few posters tore that reporter a new one and we haven’t heard hide nor hair from that blog again.
IIRC Robert Cote and Bubblebutt led that charge.
“They led off by ripping this very blog as too extremist.”
It is easy to flippantly label this blog or other sources you disagree with as extremist, but pretty hard to argue with data posted and commented on here which comes right out of MSM reports and official web sites. Also hard to convince others that your opinion is the undisputed truth when you have no argument and no data to back it up.
Jeff and Julie Cozzo are giving new meaning to a short sale. The couple, who split time between Redding and the San Francisco Bay area,
All those who think SF and Silicon Valley are immune, because owners can ride it out - wait till you find out how many “homeowners” from these places have “invested” all across Cal. and the US midwest/West.
Jeff & Julie are the norm in SF/Sili Valley. Wait till the “investments” start producing “returns”.
I love the smell of Equity Vapors in the morning !
“Average apartment rents in San Joaquin County slipped by several dollars last quarter, pushed down by a slight decline in occupancy, according to RealFacts, which tracks the apartments industry. Throughout California, every metro market tracked by RealFacts saw occupancy slide.”
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why rent an apartment when you can rent a flip flopped house for about the same price? the builders have done us all a great favor by overbuilding, ensuring that there will be low housing costs for all well into the future.
WOW - 20 flippers now at least $100K in the hole in Sacramento. The leader is $219K upsidedown. GO SAC! YOU ARE the KING! Check out the Sacramento Flippers in Trouble website. Great entertainment.
Time to buy Orville Redenbacher stock….
I think Sacramento will lead the charge for the central valley meltdown. Great entertainment, I bought a nice large stainless steel bowl to hold my popcorn in.
My #1 concern is the upcomming shortage of popcorn.
I mean, are they making ethanol out of it? Will we have enough?
My technique,
Cook in a stovetop pot with olive oil. It tastes like its buttered without being “heavy.”
Got popcorn?
Neil
Yep, then sprinkle trader joes parmesan cheeze on it! Who sayz food is expenxive!
I thought it’s time to buy Depends stock for all those Boomers
‘It probably benefits the seller as long as they get enough people in the house to bid it up,’ Barker said.”
Genius!! Thank God for realtors.
A look at Cali 60 years from now…
Central Valley = Dump
Poverty, crime, and massive lack of water
Only the wealthiest have pools and lawns
San Diego and Santa Barbara only spots that build their own desalination plant. I expect those 2 towns to be huge massive gated communities by then.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/07/CMG9HMMTIT12.DTL&hw=climate+change&sn=001&sc=1000
Poverty, crime, and massive lack of water
Ian, what is your hangup on water or lack of it in certain areas?
SF Chronicle article title: “Looking ahead to a post-global warming life in California, 60 years hence”
When I was in high school in the late seventies, all I heard about was the comming ice age. Now all the science community alarmists are screaming “Global Warming”. After a week and a half of sub freezing temperatures here in the San Joaquin Valley, I’m starting to believe the seventies scientists again!
Ah, the late seventies, when the world’s entire computational power was about equivalent to a single Playstation 3 today.
Anecdotes aside (e.g. NYC’s cherry trees when blossoming on Jan 1 this year,) I think our climate models and simulations have improved quite a bit in the last 30 years.
True, but when it comes to weather, ten, twenty, thirty, one hundred years does not a trend make.
yes, and today was another below normal cold day in Phoenix. Michael Chricton’s “State of Fear” puts my fears to rest. The theftocratic party has a huge interest and desire in controlling corporations and inventing worldwide emergencies to sever control from private individuals and give to the elitists (e.g. Hillary).
I’m starting to get sick at heart from all this, realizing the corruption and greed behind it and realizing how many people, no matter how blind and stupid they may be, have been or are going to be victimized and ruined for life. The de-stabilization is going to be massive. Having a “home” is becoming a joke. It can be jerked out from under you at any moment by some shell game. In Florida, even if you were prudent and own a modest home with a modest payment, you can get eaten alive and uprooted by the insurance hikes.
I’m telling you, it’s time for the pitchforks, tar and feathers. For real.
“…you can get eaten alive and uprooted by the insurance hikes.”
Or would you prefer to buy a California condo for $XXX,000, under the assumption that Prop 13 will protect you from outrageous tax hikes, only to see the ever-increasing condo association dues stealth tax plus I/O ARM reset drive your monthly payment through the roof?
only to see the ever-increasing condo association dues stealth tax plus I/O ARM reset drive your monthly payment through the roof?
Assessments, its assessments in California that will kill you!
State and City Gubments ALWAYS come after the homeowner cause they know you got some nickels to rub together and they know where to mail the bill.
It’s like the Mafia selling “insurance” to the store owner. It’s so easy.
Well, it takes forever to sell your house… unless you hire an ex UN diplomat to do so…
http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/rfs/265816591.html
anyone know what a high % of forclosures
1/2% ????
Fort Worth has foreclosures approaching 50% of sales.
“Jeff and Julie Cozzo are giving new meaning to a short sale. ”
I thought they were going to say they were midgets!
Right about now the FB’s are probably wondering if they’ll be able to auction, sell, rent, burn, give away or otherwise just plain old dispose of their recently acquired, shoddy construction before it falls down of its own accord. Good luck… you’ll need it. If you can just hang on to it through the next twenty-year megacycle, you might be able to make it work!
Comment by DAVID
2007-01-20 16:26:31
I think Sacramento will lead the charge for the central valley meltdown. Great entertainment, I bought a nice large stainless steel bowl to hold my popcorn in.
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I am just not seeing the meltdown in Sac… especially in Folsom. I am waiting…. but so far it seems sales that went through the last couple of months, sellers are getting pretty close to asking price…… I feel like Folsom has some shield around it. I can’t wait for these over-priced boxes to come down in price. I am getting sick of renting. I told you before, I sold my home and have been waiting patiently for the melt down…. I pray this summer Folsom see’s a dump of homes on the market…. Folsom is so unlike alot of other cities. 1. You have many people that have sold their home’s in S.F and paid cash for their home here…. 2. You have people that still have jobs here and no reason to move…. so they can wait out the housing slump.
hahahahahahaha
Yes, the classic “it’s different here” argument.
Housing prices will fall or they won’t. Currently, almost 99% of markets in the nation have some severe form of speculation in them. And they all have their reasons why they’re “different”
Yesterday some of our friends from St. Paul came to our house (in Minneapolis). As we drove to a movie (Pan’s Labrynth… very good but dark) they mentioned “wow, is all of uptown turning into condos now?”
And the answer: yes.
Just like in Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas, Chicago, South Florida, DC metro area, Charlotte, Boston, NYC.
Oh yeah, and Sacramento and Sonoma and Bakersfield and the Inland Empire and St. Louis and Salt Lake City/Lake George, and Boise Idaho and Helena Montana and Denver and Taos and Albequerque and Sedona and Santa Fe and San Antonio and Austin and Madison Wisconsin and Mepmphis and Talahassee and Dayton Florida and the entire north Florida and South Carolina and Vermont and Maine and Providence.
And maybe 150-200 other cities.
And every one of those cities has a reason why they’re “different” from all the others.
“Buyers remain cautious, reflected in the number of sales that fall through. In December, 27 percent of sales pending the end of November were not completed. The real estate industry average is about 20 percent.”
Did this strike anybody else as a bullsh!t number? When they say “real estate industry average”, are they trying to say that in non-bust times, 1 out of every 5 transactions fall through, ’cause that’s the way it sounds. I find that hard to believe and would think that the ratio would be much more like 1 out of 10-20, or more, in pre-bust times. What the article should say is “from 1970 - 2005, an average of 5% (or whatever) of all transations fell through”. That would put the 27% figure into its proper context, as opposed to comparing it to a 20% “average” that’s probably only been the case for the last 12 months.
Maybe I’m wrong — does anybody have a handle on historical “fall-through” rates? I’ve been involved in quite a few real estate transactions in the last 25 years, and there have not been many that went bust after the contract was signed, certainly less than 20%.
This is what 815K will get you in beautiful east Sherman Oaks (formerly known as Van Nuys), reduced recently from 859K (this is located on a street about as narrow as a driveway, with parking permitted on only one side, and it’s the corner property so pedestrians use the curved driveway to turn the corner instead of the sidewalk which doesn’t exist):
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListing.asp?snum=91&locallnk=yes&frm=bymap&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnprice=600000&mxprice=99999999&js=off&pgnum=10&fid=so&stype=&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=27555&poe=realtor&ct=Sherman+Oaks&st=CA&sbint=&vtsort=&sorttype=&typ=1&x=16&y=4&sid=07EE4C1E9C5DC&snumxlid=1074576523&lnksrc=00002
I’ve always wondered what a mcmansion is. Now here I see some actual numbers, in that 3000 ft/sq houses are deemed mcmansions.
This concerns me. This is by no means huge, and I’m sure people in them don’t confuse them with 4000 or 6000 or even larger houses that most people actually would call mansions.
So I now believe that the word ‘mcmansion’ is just a pejorative to refer to any house that is bigger than my own. And wonder whether the word’s use is more indicative of the state of mind of the speaker than it is of the dweller.
Here’s what Wikipedia says.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMansion
And here’s a great example of McMansions To Go from Toll Brothers. No wait real estate served up daily.
http://www.quickdeliveryhomes.com/