“Experiencing Both Extremes”
KARE 11 reports from Minnesota. “Over the last ten years, housing prices here increased 6 to12 percent a year, in one of the longest, most profitable runs of any boom market ever in history. But the Minnesota Realtors Association wants you to understand something, it was an anomaly.”
“Josh and Jen Reitan are trying to sell a great little starter home in northeast Minneapolis. When they bought it two years ago, they paid more than the asking price the day it hit the market. Today it’s a whole different market.”
“‘It’s terribly obvious,’ Josh says, ‘I think we’re experiencing this at both extremes.’”
“They’re asking $230,000, about 10 percent more than what they paid. $230,000 is the median price for a home in the Twin Cities, so it should involve the greatest number of potential buyers. But it’s been almost three months and the house hasn’t moved.”
“Josh and Jen are motivated sellers, they’ve already bought their next home.”
“There are 25,000 homes for sale in the Twin Cities metro this week. If you’re trying to unload a twin home or town home here, depending on price, you could be up against an 18-month supply or more.”
“Glenn Dorfman has been with the Minnesota Realtors Association for 24 years. He believes people need to think about their homes less as an ‘investment’ – and more as ‘a place to live.’ ‘If you’re selling your house, you won’t get what your neighbor got two years ago,’ he says.”
“The variables are endless. ‘Timing is the most important one,’ Dorfman says. If you bought in the last 2 to 3 years and you bought 100 percent equity or took equity out of your house, whatever, you’re going to lose money. If you buy and hold, you’re in good shape.”
The Lincoln Courier from Illinois. “Logan County forclosures in 2006 continued a steady increase, reaching triple digits for a third consecutive year.”
“Lincoln attorney Douglas Muck, who also was a bank director 22 years, offered reasons to why there has been such a steep increase. But there was one reason he wanted to make clear. ‘My opinion is that it is the change in lending systems,’ Muck said.”
“Muck said a lot of mortgages are sold to secondary investors, including banks and financial institutions that are not locally based. ‘They can be in California, New York, Florida; they can be anywhere,’ he said. ‘Home lending has become a different business in the last couple of years.’”
“Another reason is buyers simply get a loan for a house they can’t afford. ‘They are overpaying for the property they buy,’ Muck said. ‘They are using the car-buying mentality in saying, ‘Can I afford the payment?’”
The Hillsdale Daily News from Michigan. “It seems like you can’t take a step in Hillsdale County, without tripping over a ‘for sale’ sign. More homes on the market with no comparable rise in demand, perhaps even a decrease, means prices are pressured to drop.”
“Complication matters is the spike inforeclosures. are rapidly accelerating, dumping even more houses on the market. In 1999, there were 38 foreclosures carrying a value of $1.74 million. Last year, those numbers had soared to 194 and $16.7 million.”
“Anne Fike, president of the Hillsdale County Board of Realtors said today’s real estate market provides an opportunity for investors if they want to buy and hold until the market improves. ‘We have to make a positive out of a negative in order to move ahead,’ Fike said.”
“Long–time agent and broker Don Helton shakes his head at the status of the current market. ‘I’ve been through four recessions affecting real estate sales,’ said Helton, ‘and I’ve never seen one like this.’”
“But don’t get the idea lower real estate values will quickly translate into lower property taxes, according to Nick Wheeler, who oversees the county’s equalization office. ‘Sometimes, I have to tell a new owner his property taxes are going to remain the same even though he paid a lot less than the property showed value previously,’ said Wheeler. ‘I tell him he got a great deal.’”
The Columbus Dispatch from Ohio. “Law-enforcement officials think that the popular Short North restaurant owners ran a multimillion-dollar mortgage-fraud ring that involved foreigners buying houses in elite central Ohio neighborhoods.”
“Numerous other suspicious deals across Franklin and Delaware counties also are under investigation. Authorities subpoenaed records from three other mortgage or title companies with offices in Columbus.”
“Deborah Osmond of Powell was glad to hear that authorities are investigating. A house down the street from hers sold in September. A buyer paid far more than the house was worth and never moved in.”
“Then, a week after the Dispatch article, another house across the street sold for an inflated price, only to sit empty. ‘This has got to stop,’ she said.”
The Cincinnati Post. “Salaries of area workers may not be keeping up with the rising cost of buying a home, a new study suggests. The widening gap between salaries and home prices means buyers are finding new ways to finance their purchases, said Janie Wilson, president of the Northern Kentucky Association of Realtors.”
“‘In today’s market, there are so many different types of financing,’ said Wilson. ‘If people have been prudent in the past with credit-type issues, then most people can buy a home. There are so many creative ways to do it that it’s amazing,’ she said.”
The News Leader from Missouri. “Downtown developer Craig Wagoner is going to do something different for his biggest endeavor so far. Instead of putting in rental apartments, the predominant practice for him and his peers in the downtown development business, Wagoner will sell the 32 condominiums he plans to build in his latest project.”
“‘Downtown is ready for condos,’ Wagoner said. ‘People think downtown is the real thing.’”
“Several developers are, or at least thinking of, shifting gears to offer more condo units in downtown Springfield. City planners are considering streamlining the procedure for developers to divide a building into condominiums, and lenders are turning their eyes to this burgeoning market.”
“‘I won’t be surprised if there will be hundreds and hundreds of (condominium) units (for sale) in downtown Springfield,’ said Tom Nash of North American Savings Bank.”
“Josh and Jen are motivated sellers, they’ve already bought their next home.”
Why do people do this? It’s totally stupid, even in the best of markets. There is no end to the list of things that can go wrong when you are selling a place and buying another one.
How many people have the money to pay two mortagages for any length of time? Instead of losing one house, they’ll lose two.
For people who qualify, there are “bridge loans” designed to allow folks to pay two mortgages for a short period of time (under a year, often under 6 months). But they are hard to qualify for, and it’s getting harder.
What I’m seeing in my area are lots of contracts signed contingent on selling house #1.
A couple of former neighbors are in the “two mortgage” boat right now. The consensus of those who still live here is that they’re making a BIG mistake.
My aunt is doing this, while also paying the mortgage on a vacation home, the loan ona boat and a new truck, and putting her oldest through his first year of college.
I’ve decided to leave my estate to her kids, b/c she’s not going to leave them anything but debt.
Why do people do this?
It’s inexplicable to me. However, many of these same people think nothing of running up $50,000 in credit card debt. It’s simply denial, IMO.
How many people have the money to pay two mortagages for any length of time? Instead of losing one house, they’ll lose two.
I’m going to find out soon. Some people I know are in just this predicament. Two $370K+ I/O ARMs and their old house sitting on the market. Maybe a GF will fall from the sky, but I think they’re doomed.
It was my perception that here in Canada, “On condition of selling/financing” was a standard clause in every contract. To get an offer that was unconditional was very rare.
The thought of people not even considering this is mind boggling to me.
however its been 10 years since I’ve last been involved with people buying/selling homes, so I may just have an old fashion mentality
My RE agent tried to get me to buy a new place before I sold my home . I said ,”no way” . Than after I sold my house I made a offer on another house and I made it subject to my sold house closing escrow . The seller refused to let me have that “subject to closing my sold residence “clause in my contract ,which resulted in me walking on the deal . Why would I leave myself in a bind like that ,it’s just not good business practice .I just shutter to think of the kind of advice that people are getting from the REIC.
The seller refused to let me have that “subject to closing my sold residence“ clause in my contract
That guy probably lies awake at night regretting that decision…
And wonder “where have all the buyers gone.”
Yet that seller is still waiting for their “fair price.”
As the market prices continues to correct.
Got popcorn?
Neil
Wizard, in the case of the former neighbor-couple I mentioned earlier in this thread, their real estate agent is a close friend of theirs. But I can’t help wondering how that friendship is holding up these days. They bought a more expensive house (using their friend, the agent). Meanwhile, their now-empty house (listed with the same friend/agent) remains unsold after five months on the market.
Your house was not sold, it was “pending”. Sold is not sold until you have the cash, and a mortgage satisfaction (if applicable).
Even so, if it was a reasonable amount of time, the seller was pretty foolish if everything else met his criteria. He could have given you a limit and cancelled if you did not meet it and he did not have faith it would close.
As a seller, can you trade the clause “Subject to closing on my old house” for “Subject to my selling the property to a greater fool instead of you”?
In addition to wrestling TWO aliigators, they are broadscasting their weakness by having their names printed in the newspaper. This will NOT help them get their wishing price. Buyers will now be aware they are in a desperate position.
Why would you assume anyone stupid enough to buy now reads the paper?
Been There said exactly what I thought when I saw that statement.
“Josh and Jen are motivated sellers, they’ve already bought their next home.”
How many times are we going to see this sob story in print over the next several years? I can understand making an offer contingent upon selling your existing home, but this buy then trying to sell idea is stupid, stupid, STUPID!
Just on CNBC-An article will be out tomorrow on HSBC Bank being in trouble due to home loans……….they hinted at possible closure.
I would like to know more about this. Do you have a link that I can follow? I will also go do my research on this as well.
HSBC is a huge bank with world-branches. Do they have a separate sub-prime division, under their umbrella?
Yes. Using to be called Household Finance
USED to be called HFC
Looks like they are about to take a charge of $10 B (yes, that’s B as in billion) due to bad loans.
http://tinyurl.com/2hue27
It’s not really that bad: Only 1.8 billion more than was already expected. Of course that’s over 10% of NASA’s yearly budget …
a condo is something new in Cinci ?
heck there’s a high rise in Lubbock,Sac,Madison
I didn’t see anything in the postings about condos in Cinci, but yes, there are condos in Cincinnati. However, this is not a condo area. Few people live downtown. Most young people rent appartments until they get married. Then they buy a house and have children. Not a lot of dinks around (30+ years of age).
Condos here are sold mostly to empty nesters. At least that is my sense of things.
“Condos here are sold mostly to empty nesters.”
That’s exactly who’s buying all of our way-too-expensive “Peformance Place” condos — the ones that are selling, anyway. No exactly the hip, young downtown urbanites the city was going for, eh?
“There are 25,000 homes for sale in the Twin Cities metro this week. If you’re trying to unload a twin home or town home here, depending on price, you could be up against an 18-month supply or more.”
Not a market primed for another bull run.
18 month supply?
Oh… 2007 will be interesting in the Twin cities…
let’s see, the correlation says once you break 8.7 months of supply, prices drop until you get below 5 months of supply (less exact on when they stop dropping).
Ok. I’ll continue to spectate.
Got popcorn?
Neil
I’m struck by the increasing number of condo projects in mid/small town America. Like investors that were late to the game in the cities, every nickel and dime ‘visionary’ thinks his burg is ready for the big time. I guess next up are highrises in Dead Mule, Montana.
“Condo” may very well become a four-letter word before all is said and done.
Would that be spelled “cond”? Or “ondo”?
COND-OM - condom OM OM OM
I grew up in a small Saskatchewan town close to the Montana border,close to Opheim montana , which we used to call Dead Mule Montana. It basically had only 5 bars and a gas station at that time, and was our cheap watering hole. My old hometown is 10 miles the other side of nowhere. I have gone back a few times over the years and the age group is between 65 and 95 there. In the late 70’s and early 80’s a few aspotalics from arizona showed up and used to stay during the summer for 8 months, and then go back to arizona for the winter. Today they comprize 20% of the town in the summer. they buy 1920 houses , about 800 to 1000 sq. ft. only. T, however they buy the older ones from the town for delinquent taxes, for 500 to 3000 dollars . They work together and fix them up a bit and seem to rotate them among their followers. They even have now renovated a old bussiness and turned it into a church. They are very welcome there as they are 65 plus in age and are good musicians who entertain with old time music at the old folks homes, and put on gospel music in the summer. There is excellent homes for 24k, built in the 80’s , however they dont buy these, and as a result these houses are tough to move, as opposed to the old ones . I know a american dollar buys alot of our northern pesos, but there is also a lot of nowhere places in Montana too. I dont like to ask them why they come here with the Spring migration and leave with the birds in the fall.( a few stay around and look after their houses). I don’t know if they can’t afford to live full time in the U.S.A or are our medical costs cheaper? There is only a doctors ofice there 1 day a week at the old folks home, and you are 100 miles from a small hospital. They basicly are keeping the town from dying, and wonder if more will come in the future. You couldn’t pay me enough to live there, but they really seem to enjoy it.
Dead Mule: everyone wants to live there. Especially in a “downtown” condo.
The simple fact is that the majority of people want a single family residence with a yard. To think that condos are going to be hot sellers in middle America, where land is still cheap and plentiful, sounds absolutely ridiculous!
Didn’t Bob Newhart live in a condo? I think the mid-70s is the last time condos were considered a good investment…
Bill Daily lived across the hall. He must have moved there after he got out of the space program. Condos were a good investment for airline pilots, too, I guess.
$230,000 is the median price for a home in the Twin Cities
I’ve never been to Minnesota. I’m sure there are nice things about living there. But can someone explain to me what would justify a quarter-million dollar median price in a state where 6 months out of the year are spent huddled indoors?
I’ve only driven through Minnesota. Good things about the Twin Cities from what I hear (in no particular order)? Good schools, nice people, low cost of living, very artsy, progressive politics (RIP Sen. Wellstone). It seems like one of the best places in America to raise a family. Are winters cold there? I am sure they are. Just like summers in Phoenix, Tampa, and heck, even Boston for many days in the summer are hotter than Hadies….
Ah yes, the Great Minnesota Myth - Minnesota is a great place to live. We have one of the highest tax burdens in the nation, horrible traffic (because people don’t know how to drive here), a government that hasn’t meet a handout it didn’t like, a horrible dearth of non-chain stores, horrible weather (yes I like the cold, but most of the time it is 40-65 and crappy here if it isn’t 10 or 80). Crime is being imported from Chicago or St. Louis because of our “altruistic” government. This used to be a great place, it has really deteriorated over the past 10-15 years.
Don’t forget the 900,000 or so Somalis that have flooded into the Twin Cities over the past ten years.
There is no possibility of 900,000 Somalis moving to MN in the past five years. Maybe 90,000.
“a state where 6 months out of the year are spent huddled indoors?”
That is so funny. Minnesotans don’t hibernate the moment a snowflake hits or the temperature drops below 32. They ice fish, snowmobile, ski, skate, play hockey, etc. even when it is very cold. An outsider might huddle for 6 months but not a Minnesotan.
Minnesota is not Nebraska. The State has every major sports league represented. The University of Minnesota is very vibrant. The Lakes area is a very nice place and there are thousands of lakes for winter and summer time enjoyment. Many corporations including Gillette, Pillsbury, Target, Best Buy, 3M, Honeywell, etc. have their headquarters in Minnesota. There’s a lot of money in some areas.
All that being said they have worked feverishly to glut the heck out of Minnesota. Check out towns like Inver Grove Heights, Apple Valley, Bloomington and Rosemount and you will see massive amounts of building. Ditto for the northern suburbs. The building was uncontrollable for the past 10 years. They are surely going to get pummelled. Foreclosures are high and getting higher.
What coast is Minnesota on? I keep hearing the REIC say that the bubble was relegated to the coasts. Could they be lying?
I’m certain you’re right. As a native Arizonan, 100 degrees doesn’t bother me a bit, but to me the idea of living in a place that reaches 25 below is hideous.
My inlaws owned a summer home on a large lake in Northern Mn. If you walked in the woods the mosquitos swarmed all over you in the summer. I only found it tollerable after the first frost had killed the bugs. Ice did not leave the lake until the 2nd week of May and frost came around labor day. It was 80 today in Phoenix and I too find the heat easier to handle than the cold.
Hate to say it Toast, but 25 below isn’t as bad as it gets here. Our record low is -50, and I think it hasn’t broken zero in about a week.
That said, I’ve yet to find somewhere better to live. It’s relatively clean and non-polluted, lots of parks and lakes (second oldest state park system in the country, because NY’s bill passed before ours), decent match between salaries and cost of living, lots of restaurant and cultural choices. I’ll probably have to move away after I finish my MBA, and I rather regret it.
“What coast is Minnesota on?”
Minessota is on the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes are the “North Coast of America”! At least that’s what Ohioans call it.
Gillette was HQ in Boston before P&G bought them. P&G is HQ in Cincinnati.
I agree with your description of Minnesottans as outdoors people, but actually, if I was going to spend 6 months huddled inside, I would spend extra on the house itself. Why spend money for a house in LA if you are going to be outside all the time? If you spend great amounts of time inside, then you want a great kitchen, great baths, rec rooms, home theatres, home workshops, etc. I think it would make more sense to spend money on house in Mpls than in LA.
in 22151 farifax county they closed schools w 1 inch of snow on the ground - new girlieman society
It’s 15 degrees in New York City and you should hear the complaining. These people are so soft and weak it amazes and amuses me. I hate to say it but we need some bad times just to make people toughen up. There are too many prima-donnas, divas and half-men running around this country. If we were a little hardier and a little more practical we would be a better people.
If we were a little hardier and a little more practical we would be a better people.
Indeed. We would be Minnesotans.
You must be channeling my mother! She’s from Buffalo. It’s against her religion to complain about cold and snow.
On a cross country motorcycle jaunt back a number of years ago I thought two of the nicest, cleanest states with the most friendly people were Wisconsin and Minnesota.
“Minnesota is not Nebraska.”
Thank goodness for us idiot Nebraskans.
In a land of 10,000 lakes it seams every single resident could have waterfront property on the cheap.
This is true. If you’re willing to live 50-100 miles from a “major” city (ie >100,000) people the average joe can still buy a lakefront lot. At least this was the case 5 yrs ago before the insanity began.
Most of my former neighbors and an ex of mine have a house on the lake and/or the city. The lakes are beautiful.
MN is great, if you can tolerate a moderate climate. Many people can’t. They’re called californians and arizonans and floridians. Good riddance.
What I want to know is why they are justifying their price based on median (which ignores the quality of the home) and not on comparables. How financially ignorant are these people?
And the endless parade of people who can’t stay in a house for more than 2 years is joined by yet another couple.
It’s really sickening. 90% of the world’s population would kill to live in one of these homes that people like this supposedly “outgrow”. I have no sympathy for people who suffer the consequences of their own greed.
Totally agree with you…. people are dying just to have a room and bath. We(average American) cry the place is small if it is not over 2000sq ft. How have we gotten so spoiled.
Have any of you seen the b*tches on that show… Real housewifes of the OC. This excessive spending is disgusting.
I watch it just to keep myself aware that America is full of these morons.
We can thank our politicians for encouraging this incessant urge to move every two years. Tax free gains for everyone! Well now the market is headed the other way, and some of those greedy a-holes just might have to rough it out in their 2k sf homes. Somehow over the past 30 years the average family size has shrunk but we now need larger homes. Is this sensible? Maybe people will finally start to realize that bigger is not always better, no matter what The Joneses think. And the OC Housewives? A perfect example of why the majority of the planet hates us. Sickening is putting it lightly.
In that case, the world should hate SoCal.
In any case, if they hate us because of some stupid TV shows, then screw them too.
That show is so hilarious!! I see these types of people when I visit my parents in Dove Canyon, which is next to Coto de Caza. Parents have lived there for 16 years and have seen a full spectrum of change in this area.
I watch hoping to see their RE businesses go down the tube!
Hey a#@hole, haven’t you ever heard of Minnesota nice? (joking–in case that isn’t obvious)
I think Minnesota is one of those states that you just never escape from. As a local, I don’t think it is sooo bad–plus we are having a warm spell at 4 degrees today.
Hey, Arizona has its own six months of agony as well, although it’s a beautiful 70 degrees here right now. I think the median prices in both both states
should probablywill eventually be about half what they are now.More nonsense from Lereah today:
“Mortgage interest rates remain favorable, and a gradual rise means potential buyers have some time to weigh purchase decisions,” Lereah said.
“When existing home supplies become more balanced between buyers and sellers this spring, we’ll see some modest price gains,” he said.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/07/real_estate/realtors.reut/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
I wish someone with some real balls (someone we all respect) would step up to the plate and acknowledge things suck and report fact instead of DL’s trash.
Most of the homebuilder CEO’s are being honest due to SOX regulations. Only Bob Troll gave a line of BS
More nonsense from Lereah today:
What was nonsensical about that?
What’s nonsensical?
(1) Lereah actually tries to spin a rise in interest rates as being a positive event for buyers.
(2) He’s predicting, with no reasoning, that home supplies will become more balanced in the Spring. He says it as if it’s a fact.
Haters and gold bugs and doomers, oh my!
“Yo Loquicia, I be thinkin we’s not in the hood no mo’!”
$230,000 is the median price for a home in the Twin Cities, so it should involve the greatest number of potential buyers. But it’s been almost three months and the house hasn’t moved.”
The reporter is a doofus. Early in the article it’s mentioned that the Reitans’ house is a “great little starter home.” If I price an outhouse at the median price, will it “involve the greatest number of potential buyers”?
Yeah, I noticed that. A “starter” home, at the lower end of the spectrum, priced around the median price? To quote Napoleon Dynamite: “Idiot!”
You said it. The cheapest house on the block has the largest pool of potential buyers. This ain’t - so they wait.
Not to mention it’s a “great little starter” in Northeast Minneapolis, also known as one of the worst neighborhoods in the cities. it doesn’t matter how cute the house is if people are being shot outside.
“The variables are endless. ‘Timing is the most important one,’ Dorfman says. If you bought in the last 2 to 3 years and you bought 100 percent equity or took equity out of your house, whatever, you’re going to lose money. If you buy and hold, you’re in good shape.”
I.e., in good shape after 2017. Until then you’re upside down.
Yes. Ten years from now “Buy and Hold” will be a thoroughly discredited strategy in both housing and stocks.
“‘In today’s market, there are so many different types of financing,’ said Wilson. ‘If people have been prudent in the past with credit-type issues, then most people can buy a home. There are so many creative ways to do it that it’s amazing,’ she said.”
AAARRGH!!! This kind of thinking is insane! If people have been prudent in the past with their credit, they can qualify for a tradtional 15- or 30-yr fixed, no “creative” options neccessary! That’s the POINT of having good credit! And if prices have outpaced salaries, DON’T BUY. Rent and do something better with your money until prices come down or you relocate.
Full disclosure: I live 45 min. north of Cinci (You can always tell an Ohioan - we measure distance in minutes. Don’t ask me why.) I wonder what the salary/home price ration is down there, anyway.
I guess it’s time to quote the bottomline on creative financings:
“As to new financial instruments, experience establishes a firm rule … that financial operations do not lend themselves to innovation. What is recurrently so described and celebrated is, without exception, a small variation on an established design, one that owes its distinctive character to the aforementioned brevity of the financial memory. The world of finance hails the invention of the wheel over and over again, often in a slightly more unstable version. All financial innovation involves, in one form or another, the creation of debt secured in greater or lesser adequacy by real assets. … All crises have involved debt that, in one fashion or another, has become dangerously out of scale in relation to the underlying means of payment.” -
-John Kenneth Galbraith, A Short History of Financial Euphoria
“I wonder what the salary/home price ration is down there, anyway”
Funny, I live 20 minutes north of Cinci (near the Monroe exit of I-75). You must be in Dayton. I follow the job and housing market in both.
Dayton jobs pay a bit less than Cinci jobs (like $5-10k less for the same IT job). The houses in Cinci are priced correspondingly higher. I’ve notice in several affordability studies that Dayton, Cinci, and Columbus are all virtually identical affordability-wise.
CincyDad, the numbers are about the same in my feild (publishing). However, my understanding is that in the urban areas at least, Dayton runs well below Zinzinnati in housing prices. But since we’re all going to get subsumed in the great Hamilton-Warren-Montgomery County metroplex anyway, it makes sense that the numbers are comparable.
Of course, I don’t mind living in inner-city Dayton, but no amount of money could get me to live in inner-city Cincy. Nothing personal, but the music scene sucks.
Off thread, but I agree with you on the music scene. Dayton is a blues/rock city (so am I). Cincinnati is a classical/jazz city. Dayton is the party town. Cincy is the Sunday church-going crowd. It’s nice to have all the high-brow culture close enough in Cinci, but have all the party bar scene of Dayton. I grew up in Middletown and my Dad worked in Dayton. After college I moved to Cinci proper, so I’m familiar with both cities. As to people, I much prefer the Dayton types. But the jobs are in Cinci, so I work there. But I would not live anywhere south of Monroe-Lebanon because I prefer the people of Northern Warren county and Dayton much more.
And It won’t become a complete metroplex if I can buy enough rural land to preserve some of it!
“my feild (publishing).”
Ooops.
Yeah, I saw that, too late. *shame-faced*
On blogs, as in life, there are no do-overs.
NOthing like the internet for answering your own questions:
Price to income, from http://www.housingtracker.net/affordability/
Cincinnati: 2.2
Columbus: 2.3
Cleveland: 2.2
Dayton: 2
Which is actually pretty close to what I spent on my house back in 2001.
Wow. Akron has a 1.9, which is also pretty close to what I spent (also in ‘01).
Akron–it’s affordable, but you have to BYOJ (bring your own job)!
For the record, I don’t actually live in Akron, but it’s the closest metro area.
In SoCal (and most other parts of the state, as well) we always measure distance in time, usually with some description of how that time is measured (e.g., 45 minutes without traffic, 2 hours at rush hour, etc.). For us, there is a very good reason: traffic. A 10-mile commute could be 10 minutes, or it could be over an hour, all depending on what particular area we’re talking about and what time of day you’re traveling. As an example, my girlfriend lives in Corona and works in Torrance (about 45 miles), and it takes her about 40 minutes to get to work (she starts work at 6 am), but takes anywhere from 1.5-2 hours to get home (longer if there are any serious accidents). Telling someone in SoCal how far some place is in miles is irrelevant (and most have no real concept of distance, just time) because of the traffic.
Glad to know that when I move to LA, people won’t look at me funny - at least not for that, anyway.
I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the commute time-math. When my friend in Los Feliz leaves an hour later for her job in Palos Verdes and still gets there at the same time, there is something fishy going on with the space-time continuum.
I know what you mean about the space-time continuum. When I was going to college in LA and wanted to get down to OC on a Friday night, it didn’t matter if I left at 5, 6, or 7 pm, I would get there at 8. (Traffic is worse now, so that arrival time is probably later - I’ve been living in OC for awhile, so I don’t go to LA much these days). I never could figure out how that worked.
‘If you’re selling your house, you won’t get what your neighbor got two years ago,’ he says.
Hey, wait a minute. Wasn’t the standard line “…what your neighbor got 6 months ago”? Yikes! Things ARE getting worse!
The Cincinnati Post. “Salaries of area workers may not be keeping up with the rising cost of buying a home, a new study suggests.
LMFAO…What idiot government agency paid for this study!
It looks like all of the 2 home housedebtors of Minnesota will be fighting big heating bills today and will be wrestling with large alligators as well as giant mosquitos this Summer.
anyone have the post Super Bowl inventory number ?
can’t wait till friday……….
“Anne Fike, president of the Hillsdale County Board of Realtors said today’s real estate market provides an opportunity for investors if they want to buy and hold until the market improves.”
This city has an 18 year old mayor. If I were a betting man I’d say the public school system might need some help. I’d also say Ms. Fike went to the same school system as Mr. Mayor.
AND the people who voted him in.
You left out the best part…
” ‘We have to make a positive out of a negative in order to move ahead,’ Fike said.”
All those poor investors have to do is take that negative sign off the amount of money they’re losing each month and they’ll be making money again!
Hillsdale primary claim to fame is Hillsdale College, a small college that refuses federal student aid because it doesn’t want to comply with all the redtape BS that goes with the money. It was driven originally by a refusal to comply with Title IX. Interestingly enough, it was the first college in the country whose charter prohibited discrimination based upon race, religion or gender (1850). In any event, a little college in an even smaller town. The 18 year old mayor is just an example of what happens in a college town-students who don’t even consider it home get to vote and skew elections.
Doesn’t matter if it is Minn. or Bangok ,Thailand you have to many properties unsold either you get wise and sell them cheaper if you have to sell or lose your shirt because you are living in the past.
Common sense prevails, does anybody have common sense left?
I think I spotted some common sense last week. Or was it the week before last week?
“Glenn Dorfman has been with the Minnesota Realtors Association for 24 years. He believes people need to think about their homes less as an ‘investment’ – and more as ‘a place to live.’
Put a cork in it A–hole, you guys have been saying for years now what a great “investment” a house was. Now it’s a place to live, go peddle that pablum somewhere else.
Ain’t that the truth, if the market turns in 24hrs they then revert back to sell for a quick buck and get out, the heck with the neighborhood do you really care i’m your freindly real estate agent i can show you the light? good post
Some realwhores are still peddling the “investment” angle of buying a house. Just got a post card in the mail today.
Are you spending nearly $1500-2000 a month on rent?
How much is your rental insurance?
Stop renting and start investing.
Benefits: Tax Advantages, Equity Appreciation, Power of Ownership
and on the flip side a mortgage broker ad
100% financing available
No closing cost options
Wide variety of loan programs
quick approval
I guess so they can quickly shoe horn you into you “investment”
“The Columbus Dispatch from Ohio. “Law-enforcement officials think that the popular Short North restaurant owners ran a multimillion-dollar mortgage-fraud ring that involved foreigners buying houses in elite central Ohio neighborhoods.”
“Numerous other suspicious deals across Franklin and Delaware counties also are under investigation. Authorities subpoenaed records from three other mortgage or title companies with offices in Columbus.”
geezus, reading the article, you’d think a guy who runs a gyro shop and drives a Porsche Cayenne might be a red flag too. At least here in Columbus it would be. Also explains who is buying all those McMansions out in the woods… not all ‘real people’.
“Salaries of area workers may not be keeping up with the rising cost of buying a home, a new study suggests. The widening gap between salaries and home prices means buyers are finding new ways to finance their purchases, said Janie Wilson, president of the Northern Kentucky Association of Realtors.”
Thank god they’re on top of this. After all, any non-retarded person only figured this out 3 or 4 years ago…
Bay Area traffic conundrum: I work in Berkeley.
I leave home at 8:30, get to work at 9:45. tons of traffic
I leave home at 9:00, get to work at 9:45 less traffic
I leave home at 9:30, get to work at 9:45 no traffic
Prez Bush prefers that I leave at 8:00 because he is in the business of selling gas.
The only way for that to work would be if basically zero people entered the freeway/roads between 8:30 and 9:30, which would allow you to catch up to “your” 8:30 slot in the traffic no matter what time you left. I smell realtor math in your numbers.
“‘I won’t be surprised if there will be hundreds and hundreds of (condominium) units (for sale) in downtown Springfield,’ said Tom Nash of North American Savings Bank.”
YIPPEE
2% per year GUARANTEED appreciation?
More proof of the idiocy of real estate brokers