Post Local Market Observations Here!
What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Repartments? “Citing sluggish sales, the residential developer in Rockville’s Town Square is shifting more than three-quarters of its units from condominiums to rentals. Scott Ross confirmed on Friday that all but one residential building would now be marketed as rental units.”
Changes in loan conditions? “As the subprime home financing fiasco continues to unravel, one of its most frayed threads is coming to light, according to three new studies: Many longtime homeowners have put their houses in jeopardy by refinancing with high-interest loans.”
“Shorewest real estate broker Ian Francis said he just turned down a listing from a homeowner who had a $147,000 refinance loan on a house that is likely worth $110,000. ‘There was no point to taking the listing,’ he said. It’s not unusual to see homes worth up to $600,000 in similar straits, said Francis.”
“‘The way things are looking is that things will be getting worse, not better, for some time,’ said John Pawasarat, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.”
Hesitant buyers? “Realtor Mindy Althoff can tell you a thing or two about marketing a home in Michigan’s sluggish housing market. To sell a home these days, sellers and their agents will have to go the extra mile, Althoff said. ‘Now, (buyers) don’t really want to do anything,’ she said.”
Cheaper materials? “Kruger Inc. is slashing more than 1,000 jobs as it indefinitely shuts four sawmills in Quebec to cope with the impact of the drop in the demand for lumber.”
“‘Over the last two or three weeks there has been a dramatic drop in [lumber] prices. Our prices are 24 per cent lower than last year at this same time. It’s a record,’ said Kruger spokesman Jean Majeau. The main culprit is plummeting housing starts in the U.S.”
Less speculation? “New and existing unit homes sales in Benton County were off 18.8 percent from a year ago, according to figures released Thursday by the Arkansas Realtors Association. ‘This decline is directly related to the number of speculators and investors that have gotten out of the market,’ broker Shae Dittrich said.”
A spring bounce? “Springtime usually means good times in the U.S. housing industry, but this year it’s threatening to become a grim season of reckoning. ‘Things seem to be snowballing very quickly,’ said economist Steven Cochrane. ‘It’s going to be a weak spring.’”
“‘This isn’t going to be over in a year,’ predicted Yale University economics Prof. Robert Shiller. ‘Housing prices could be declining for years and years.’”
“Lenders made these subprime loans largely because they felt protected by rising home prices. But weakening home prices have exposed the folly of that premise. ‘Giving mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them was the biggest error of recent years,’ Shiller said.”
America as it sits:
Irresponsbile 87%
Repsonsible 13%
Your poll numbers may vary.
America as it sits:
Irresponsbile 87%
Repsonsible 13%
Note: Margin of error of 12%.
That was “good”
Let me throw out some Florida numbers, guys:
Irresponsbile 106%
Repsonsible >.0001%
106%??? Is Countrywide financing your research?
Americans are an over indulged people. They just can NOT say NO to anything.
They can not say NO to extra food. That is why we have so many fats.
They can not say NO to over spending. That is why we are in debt up to our eyeballs.
Americans have been living on borrowed time and money. This century will bring the downfall of this country because it’s developed like an empire, not a country.
It’s going to be one painful ride…and alot of others will be intentionally pulled down with the demise of this place.
Don’t be upset. Think of yourself as not an American, but a sovereign individual. You did not get fooled into buying high in real estate. I hope you invest internationally in stocks and diversify into precious metals. PRPFX (i hope I got that right) is permanent portfolio. It is a fund whose purpose is to hold value. Gold, Swiss Francs, Silver, Treasuries. Keeps up with inflation. Another one is DODFX (Dodge and Cox International) - value fund of international stocks in stable developed countries. Or VEIEX - Vanguard Emerging markets in not-so-stable countries, but in China, South Korea, Russia, India. The world is your oyster.
The people in this country live in a dream world, not reality.
The Richard Jeni weight loss plan comes to mind…”Look over here on this chart, these are carbs, these are proteins, so stop eating, you fat bastard!”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_Jeni
How does it make sense for a program targeting low-income buyers to set a loan limit for SD at $698,000 (FHA limit on a 4BR home in SD)? The median household income in SD county is around $65,000; what low-income household (or even median-income household) can afford to buy a home at over 10X their HH income?
Type in San Diego on the “County” line in this form to see for yourself…
https://entp.hud.gov/idapp/html/hicost1.cfm
Can anyone in Washington connect the dots between rising foreclosure rates and reckless federal housing policy? What can be done to stop the FHA from encouraging irresponsible borrowing, especially a lending program backed by taxpayer-funded guarantees?
My bad — the $700K is for a four-family dwelling. Hence Senator C’s proposal to raise the $363 SFR limit on FHA mortgages…
100-150 NOD’s a week here in town. A significant number have situs addresses here in Kern County but, mailing addresses in LA, Orange and Ventura counties. Investors??
Crispy,
What is Mr. Crisp doing these days in Bakersfield?
They have laid off a significant number of realtors as their sales have slowed significantly.
They do very little advertising for their clients.
At the peak they were doing 80 homes a month (not sure how many were their own flips) now they are doing 10 per month.
Recent rumors - they fired all non-commissioned staff and the DRE has opened an investigation.
“At the peak they were doing 80 homes a month (not sure how many were their own flips) now they are doing 10 per month.”
This is exactly why realtors are so desperate to keep prices up. They were drinking their own Kool Aid, and are now caught with their pants down. If there were any way to calculate the total number of “investment” properties purchased by realtors and their companies, I’m sure the quantity would be staggering.
There are lots of “owner/agent” signs and ads in ther paper down here in FL, that’s for sure.
“If there were any way to calculate the total number of “investment” properties purchased by realtors and their companies, I’m sure the quantity would be staggering.”
The house downhill from us sold to a realtor
for $575K, and it is now being rented. The rent covers taxes and insurance, sure, but not the payment. And prices are peaking here. (SFBay area, California)
LOL. Wonder when the bodyguards get laid off.
Maybe he works on commission?
LOL
Same thing happened in the early 90’s, get rid of all the paid support staff. They then assign realtors all a few hours a week of front desk duty to answer phones, etc. They try to spread the pain a little. Then eventually about half the realtors over the next few years will drop out and get regular jobs.
This is the 90’s cycle playing out perfectly…right down to the headlines and denial. We are about 5 years from dragging along the bottom….
(Third try, seems I can post only “replies”)
Foreclosures here in Morro Bay stuck at a big fat three.
If any of you Central Coast folks would like to come to a Harvard Club cocktail party in SLO on Tues April 17, call my cell (626 399 6568). Too bad I didn’t go to Yale, we could more legitimately toast Robt Shiller.
I live in the Canyon Villa condominium conversions in Aliso Viejo, CA (Orange County). They are selling like hotcakes. I don’t know where all the idiots are comming from. I also monitor the sales in and around the 92656 zip and I see a lot of sales lately. Anybody out there from Orange County have any comments about this market?
sales are down about 35% in 92656 from first 3 months in 2006; hotcakes?
Foreclosures here in Morro Bay still stuck at a big fat 3. Hey, if any of you Central Coast guys would like to come to a Harvard Club cocktail party in SLO on Tuesday the 17th, call my cell (626 399 6568). A fringe benefit of posting on this board. Sorry I didn’t go to Yale, we could more legitimately toast Robt Shiller.
There is a real estate auction today in Key West, curious to see what happens
The paper said the last auction only had mediocre results
Mediocre, meaing terrible nothing sold. The paper skipped that part.
Was it an absolute auction, or were there stupid reserve amts?
If this is the same auction that was described in an article Ben posted a week or so ago, they all have a reserve “wishing” price that likely won’t be met. This auction will probably be another boring non-event with very few properties moving. These idiots signing up for auctions are unwilling to submit to the ass-pounding they so desparately deserve by listing non-reserve. They can run, but they cannot hide from this eventuality.
I’ve mentioned this before…
Auctions typically have reserves, in some fashion.
It is incredibly common for there to be a bunch of shills in the audience goosing prices ever upward.
They always bid like dervishes, until the “magic” number (whatever they’ll really let the house go for) is reached. At this point the auctioneer is hoping that “auction fever” will set in and a member of the public will hold their bidding paddle, high to the sky.
If you look closely @ the auctioneer @ this point, you might see a little bit of a smirk on his face.
Auctions are for pros, not the booboise.
Well perhaps if I get bored with life I will start attending these rigged auctions and make sure I’m the first in with a very low ball bid, just to let them know where “the market” is. They can enforce their “reserve” price through bidding shenanigans but ultimately they will have to lower the price or BK to get rid of their alligators.
They have reserves, I think
That would be something , no reserves. I would definitly go then.
auctions are a giant waste of time. Just wait a few years and look around. Deals will be everywhere.
(Trying a second time, but then will desist.)
Foreclosures here in Morro Bay stuck at a big fat three. If any of you Central Coast folks want to come to a Harvard Club cocktail party in SLO on Tuesday April 17, call my cell (626 399 6568). Too bad I didn’t go to Yale, we could more legitimately toast Robt Shiller.
“I’ll be all around in the dark. I’ll be ever’-where - wherever you can look. Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad - I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when the people are eatin’ the stuff they raise, and livin’ in the houses they build - I’ll be there, too.”
I live not far from where Steinbeck’s fictional family Joad toiled…
In fact the Central Valley of California is the only Red State part of an overwhelmingly Blue State.
Why’s that?
Those Arkies & Okies that came here in droves?
They brought the bible belt with them.
A Grapes of Wrath reference seems incredibly appropriate for the housing blog.
DL would be Lenny.
He bears some resemblance, yes.
Isn’t Lenny in “Of Mice and Men”?
“Many longtime homeowners have put their houses in jeopardy by refinancing with high-interest loans.”
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I think this is the dirty little secret that the REIC tries to under the rug. Here in the OC many have refinanced out as much equity as possible and are now realizing that the new rate resets are putting them into previously unimaginable payments.
Do HELOC’s reset to higher rates also ? I was always thought they had fixed rates too but I throw out all offers of more debt after gleefully tearing them up.
pretty sure most HELOC’s are linked to the prime rate
HELOCs are indeed tied to prime, so their rates go up every time the Fed raises the federal funds rate (As an aside, watch the newswires right after an FOMC meeting where there’s a rate hike … the major banks have press releases on the wire within minutes announcing increases in prime). Some banks offer you the option to “fix” portions of your HELOC, either for a fee or for free, depending on the lender. In theory, if someone borrowed $20,000 on a revolving HELOC, and was smart enough to fix at least some of that two years ago, they’d be fine. But I suspect a lot of HELOC borrowers did not, and are therefore getting into trouble now due to rising payments. I don’t have access to the American Bankers Association’s full delinquency data set at home, but their home equity loan delinquency rate did rise from 1.79% in Q3 2006 to 1.92% in Q4 2006…
http://www.aba.com/Press+Room/032907FourthQuarter06Dbull.htm
In rural western WA, inventories are slowly increasing. The fantasy listing prices are at an all time high. With the subprime gone, all of the trailer trash sits in suspended animation. Many properties are coming up their one year listing aniversary. It’s absolutely remarkable how prices could climb so high in areas with relatively few decent paying jobs, and high rates of unemployment. It was most certainly based entirely upon speculation, and fraud. I anticipate these off the beaten path areas to crack much sooner than the greater Seattle area, however they’re not yet showing any signs of doing so in price. The local realtors talk of a slowdown in transactions, but will not hear of price drops. The Kool Aid is strongest in the PNW. “It’s special here” is the motto.
I hear ya.
Places like Lynden, Blaine, Ferndale…people love these areas and talk about how they will continue to explode. To me they just seem like small farming towns that could be located anywhere in the country, except they have mountain views. (And six months of rain and ridiculous prices.)
After seeing all the homes and land that has been sitting on the market for the past 9+ months, I would think otherwise. And the realtors I know feel things are pretty grim too.
What’s worse, most of the jobs are in residential construction.
A few little observations from my corner of the bubble, Alexandria, Va:
1) Inventory creeps to 1,401 (was around 1,200 in January), mid 1,300s last month. Not a surge, but I’m going to start tracking it daily. However - most new condo developments in the area don’t seem to be listed in the MLS for the most part, and there is definitely a lot if these coming in here, and even more in DC and nearby Arlington.
2) I live on a townhouse block (old places, mine dates to 1824) that averages about two sales a year - it’s been interesting to watch some folks really push the market in recent years and break the $1 million barrier for a couple of the largest. This fall, yet another pretty good sized place listed at $1.1 million (although not as nice as the others that managed to eventually bag $1.2 million sales), then went to just under a million, and now is renting instead after about 4 or 5 months on the market.
3) Some good looking houses in the “just listed” category in the MLS — and, just eyeballing the pictures, and knowing the locations, asking prices definitely lower than they would have been last year in a lot of cases (although, still really expensive - really nicely maintained/renovated 3/2 bungalows in the cool Del Ray area asking around $700k). The most interesting thing is that there are still some folks really trying to test the upper limits of the market here, as well. The slight retrenchment in a lot of asking prices makes the ones who are really trying to get “wishing” prices stand out even more.
4) I still think people have no idea how bad this spring is going to be. I think a lot of stuff that looks at first glance “reasonable” in terms of pricing (when compared to a year or two ago) is going to move slowly or not at all. And folks who bought recently-completed condos near the King Street metro and the huge patent office/Carlyle complex hoping for flips are going to be sorely disappointed.
zeropointzero,
That sounds exactly like the situation here on Capitol Hill.
Nice observations. I’m looking to buy a condo eventually in Alexandria in or near Old Town, and I’ve been tracking for sale properties for the last year, and observed that the listing price of efficiencies have dropped by 20% over the last year. Last year at this time, you couldn’t find anything for less than $220; this year a property went as low as $160 (and quickly sold), though several $180K properties are on the market. Listing prices for 1 and 2 bedroom have barely budged from last year, however. They might be down 5% tops. One Einstein’s trying to sell at 550 square foot apartment for $295K; good luck with that.
Over the next year or two, there will be an enormous number of newly constructed condos coming online. (Where I live in Rosslyn in Arlington, there’s four condo complexes within walking distance either finished or to be finished in the next year.
I would be very surprised if condos don’t drop at least 10% between now and this time next year, more if there’s clear signs of a recession.
‘Giving mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them was the biggest error of recent years,’ Shiller said.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself…
I disagree. Building an entire economy on giving mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them, and expecting it to last forever, was the biggest error of recent years.
Hey, TXChick, what do you think of the consumer stocks? They sure look like a great short. AMZN looks like the biggest pig of the bunch. If the consumer stumbles these things will get killed.
Never underestimate the power of a credit card.
“An event of colossal and overwhelming significance may happen all at once, but the words which describe it have to come one by one in a long chain.”
Upton Sinclair
et tu Ben?
I track my old neighborhood back in Anaheim CA, particularly area code 92805 and Anaheim Colony on RealtyTrac. I find it amazing the amount of NODs and forclosures in Hispanic areas. We lived right by Pearson Park, bordered by Lincoln/Harbor/LaPalma/Anaheim Blvd. Just by moving across one street NOD/foreclosures skyrocket. We are talking mostly small 1920s craftsmans here, the ones west of Anaheim Blvd were restored, east of Anaheim Blvd were aborted with add ons, perimeter fences, bad paint, automotive art in the yards and some of these properties were flipped from one family to the next. I actually got to going around to the housed for sale looking for Batchelder tile fireplaces to buy out right, because flippers seemed to love to tear them out, I found one too late where the flipper ruined a 6×18 tile with a hammer. This is really going to end badly.
NYC queens, i think this year will finally be the top. Checked the public records and co-op prices and sales are pretty good. Around 200 sales in the last month and prices are around 10% - 20% over last year.
Reason I think it’s the top is that the spread between co-ops and single family homes are too small. 3 bedroom apartments are always owned by nutjobs here willing to pay $600,000 and up. 2 bedrooms are the key. I’ve seen people price them at $370,000 - $470-000 in the Forest Hills/Rego Park area. Add $1100 - $1300 for maintenance and utilities and you are talking $3000 - $3800 a month total payment. This is after 20% down of $80,000 or so.
Take a $600,000 home in the area, put $100,000 down, $3000 a year taxes and utilities and you have the same payment.
Unless home prices go up this is the end. And if you search Craigslist and the records you will find people selling this year because of mortgage resets.
A lot of buildings in the area are poorly managed and let their expenses go up too much. no one cared when prices are going up, interesting to see what will happen once things flatten out or drop a little.
don’t see a meltdown since too many houses are owned by old people who can afford them on a social security check and don’t need to sell
don’t see a meltdown since too many houses are owned by old people who can afford them on a social security check and don’t need to sell
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My landlord paid like $39,000 for this 2 family 3 brms each floor w/basement/ garage, in queens 40+ years ago….so he is just going to will it to his kids, and since the kids have their own homes , on long island they would probably sell this at a nice discount … but then i dont think he is not leaving this earth anytime soon…just went on a 10 day cruise in the bahamas….first time ever….he’d rather drive 300 miles to a vacation spot bed and breakfast, then take a cruise.
Agreed that many people that are upside down will just live in the property because they can afford it. They are not speculators, they are homeowners.
Indeed, I know people that bought property at the last bubble peak in 1990 in Los Angeles and continue to live in the property to this day. They were upside down for ten years, and only in the year 2000-01 started to appreciate out of that problem.
But those people have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH COMPS…comps are made by the people and properties that HAVE to sell…the people with kinky mortgages, divorces, death, moving, job transfers…those groups will make up to 25% of the homes around any area. Those properties that sell make the market.
So you see even though MOST people will stay in their homes, continue to make payments, and not sell…the price their properties are worth will go down.
Precisely.
Same with prices going up. If one house on a street sold for $500K, all of a sudden, everyone on that street thought they had a $500K house. Didn’t matter if they were going to sell or not.
As things went on the upside, they will go on the downside. Prices are determined by those engaged in a sales transaction (IMO, the buyer, specifically, dictates the price of an item — too bad the FBs never understood that).
That is true of some homes. But an awful lot of people , some realitively new to this country and not aware at what houses should cost, paid very inflated, ARM financed prices for houses in Queens in recent years. According to Newsday, there is over a 12 mo inventory in Queens right now. Yes “median prices” are still up. But comparable prices are down 10%-15% from ‘05.
I do agree with what you say about condos, and do you see how many new “luxury” condos are going up in Western Queens. We’ll be seeing “Now Renting” signs soon.
Are these people insane?
I live in a tony building on the UWS near Lincoln Center, and my neighbors (good friends) pay $3800 for their apartment (2-bedroom.)
I live in a 1-bedroom next door.
$3000-$3800 in Forest Hills/Rego Park after putting money down is sheer freakin’ lunacy.
“sheer freakin’ lunacy”
perfect description of the NYC housing market.
San Jose CA:
Existing Condo’s still selling at a fairly good clip as they are about the only thing left “affordable” at ~450-500K. Houses seem to be sitting. Not a whole lot of inventory compared to the selling frenzy going on here this time last year through September. And they continue to build Condos as fast as they can on the worst possible left over lots and sites that have been razed of former businesses. I for one would not desire to buy an LUXURY condo on a lot right next to a McDonalds drive through on a busy streer but I’m funny that way.
I was just out running some errands here in NoVA… finally got off the beltway on my way home via Chain Bridge road. For kicks, I decided to count the number of For Sale/Open House signs… yeah, im a wild man.
in just over a 3 mile stretch, 23 signs pointing me into various upper middle class/upper class neighborhoods to look at houses for sale.
One particulary obnoxious one (only counted once, but had many signs on both sides of the road) was a cute gimmick that promised THIS HOUSE WILL BE SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER SUNDAY NIGHT.
“….highest bidder Sunday night”. Yes that made the rounds in CA to, last year. I went to one and tracked it. Paid $499,000 in Dec. 2005, listed at $589,000 after putting in $5,000 of carpet and painting the kitchen cabinets. That was April, 2006. That Sunday night, no one bid. The funny thing was, the flipper used some lady and her nice FICO score to buy the house with 100% 80/20 financing. Fast forward to January 2007. The house is sold in foreclosure for $450,000. The second lien holder ate most of the loss. An Asian couple bought the 2800 SF house and now rent it out for $1800/mon (21 times the annual gross rent). The new buyer will be paying for that “investment” for the next 10-years.
We have builders now offering $80-$100K price breaks on some of their unsold condos in this resort town. The papers have always been heavily flooded with RE ads, so what does one local paper do?
How is this for spin? “NUMBERS MIGHT LIE” headline on page one.
LOL
http://www.thecoastalpoint.com/news/realestatemarketshowingsignsofrecovery.html
Their editoral spoke of a rebound too, and “it’s different here” theme.
Anything to keep their RE advetisers happy I guess.
“
Well the DE paper seems to be a little more in tune with reality. Today’s cover story was about those selling RE on the DE beaches offering incentives since due to slow sales. I thought this was interesting, since the DE beaches draw their population more from DC metro area than from Phila.
“A lot of people thought there was no end to it. But there’s always an end,” Corrozi said.
House Still for Sale
From the article, prospective buyers provide a reality check:
Rick Fenstemaker, 47, of Towson, Md., and his longtime partner, Rob Dewey are the kind of buyers who are sending a cold wind down the streets of Delaware’s resort towns.
Fenstemaker was all business as he toured the model of a new town house development on a busy highway near Lewes.
Within a matter of minutes, Fenstemaker had a verdict.
“Overpriced for the noise,” Fenstemaker said of the eight-home community on Del. 1 where houses start at $599,900.
The couple would like to move up from their $430,000 vacation home in the Sandy Brae community west of Rehoboth Beach, but they want a great bargain.
“I don’t think anybody is willing to pay asking prices,” Fenstemaker said.
“There’s going to be a lot of bleeding,” Dewey said
sincedueI hope the link works at least.
Here in Ashland, OR, the spring inventory buildup is starting to accelerate. We’re now back to the level of inventory we were at last September.
Over that same time period, average ask price per square foot on single family houses is down $22/SQFT from $294.94 in September ‘06 to $272.09 this week.
Reality is very slowly sinking in, but we’re still at an early stage here.
Patience is the key.
Hi AshlandRenter,
Lived in Ashland in the late 1960s. Lived on High Street, about 2 blocks from Lithuia Park.
If I remember right the only thing Ashland had going was the Shakespeare theater and Southern Oregon College. Are there any other industry in the area?
The major industry is shipping in California equity locusts. Unfortunately, they bring lots of cash and huge retirement benefits from generous, soon to be overburdened California municipal, state and federal govenments. Then they pay all cash for homes and don’t spend much money on anything else. It will be interesting to see how much the CA downturn affects Ashland and the Rogue Valley. My guess is it will take a long time. The retirees don’t move again until they are ready to be planted, which limits turnover & availability. But once a property goes to the estate, you have ready and willing sellers! The children can’t wait to get their hands on the money!!
April is here in California:
House payment Apr 1 (with reset?)
Income tax Apr 15
Property Tax Apr 30
House payment May 1 (with reset?)
record gas prices, almost $4 in San Fran
credit crunch underway
the May numbers that come out in June should be very interesting
“April is here in California…”
Day One of the much awaited Second Quarter; blood in the streets?
An extremely pessimistic view:
http://www.safehaven.com/article-7237.htm
This guy is not a true believer in helicopter drops…
“In my opinion, the ultimate affect of the real estate bubble — and its mostly unanticipated implosion — is that the entire asset class will fall out of favor for many years, possibly for a generation. Only a select few will benefit — those who had the foresight to sell now and squirrel away the money safely before the real anguish begins.”
57,780 (zip) Houses on the market in Phoenix Metro….Wow….
Pinellas County, Florida: same as always, inventory creeping up, SFH >$200k still selling, no real price reductions (yet!). The summer slaughter awaits…
I am noticing a lot of SFH rentals coming online.
It will be a long wait, but I guess we’ll get some kind of sense what has happened in mid-August when NAR second quarter data by metro, and data from competing sources, is out. I guess that is 3 1/2 months away. We’ll see what the spring bounce is then.
I predict fewer sales, and not much decline in prices, if foreclosue auctions are excluded (and given that builder sales are also excluded). But if you include foreclosure auctions and builder sales, you might get the reverse!
Data Point from Reno;
My sister just sold her house a small 3bd/2ba, in one of those deveolments with narrow streets, nowhere to park, and houses crammed together, in a suburb NW of Reno. It was on the market for about a year and sold (after many downward price changes) near what she paid for it 4 or 5 years ago.
I wrote an e-mail to my family members in the spring of ‘05 advising them to sell thier houses if they planned to do so in the next couple to few years. For those of you who have been in this boat (trying to talk to people about the bubble and consequences, even now) you know my fustration with the replies I got. People don’t want to hear about bad news.
Anyway, my sister went ahead and signed up in a new development for a (bigger, more expensive) house to be completed next month. All I could do is wish her well.
I was walking around Sherman Heights/Barrion Logan and stumbled across a symbol of the Burbuja inmobiliara. A FSBO sign that had $830K written on it. I peered at the site again looking for a decimal point or something, but no it was 830K!!! A fairly normal house for that area - the poorest neighborhood in San Diego where the median price is $320K.
This house is on J Street between 24th and 25th. Around the corner is a house where a former campesino is growing corn in the front yard. The plants are almost waist high. I heard a rooster crowing down th e block. Most of the houses have all types of junk piled around - a la Sandford and Son, and all windows have bars. All the signs are in spanish. Basically this is Tijuana - street vendors, pinata shops, outdoor taco grills, mariachis and tons of graffitti.
I actually found a listing for the house on the Fox News website - I guess they have a free real estate listing service where the house is reduced to 799K: http://sandiego.fox6.com/realestate/classifieds/ViewAd?oid=oid%3A1448475&name=homes%20for%20sale
is this still the USA? Does LA have any zoning laws? Cornfields, chickens and junked cars? Sad that LA is being trashed to the point of comparison to Tijuana.
Stop being so racist. This is a multicultural society and you’ll just have to realize that people have a right to keep livestock in their backyard.
Six bedrooms - 2 kitchens. Doh! Targeting a newleywed couple with a newborn? NOT! How would you like to be a neighbor of this soon-to-be higher density POS flipped by a Realtor/Owner? -
Let’s see, three to a room at $175 per month…
How much you wanna bet that extra kitchen & at least 1 or 2 of the six bedrooms is an unpermitted add-on?
Sick.
For all of the California Central Coast Bubble Heads out there … I have started a new blog that can provide a forum for the very specific issues of San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties.
http://centralcoasthousingbubble.blogspot.com/
It will likely be more of a forum than a true blog because I may only be able to post a couple times per week. I hope you find it useful.
Thanks Ben for providing the King of All Blogs and being the most useful source of financial discussion in the 21st Century (money is on the way)!
-SLO Bear
The latest on the Phoenix Foreclosure rate is >here.
In the space of 4 hours this morning, I’ve seen:
- Three neighbors trying to rent out their homes, rather than even trying to sell, and two flippers doing fixups. (Next year will pick up again. Right?)
- Several sign spinners
- An unwelcome advertisement stuck to my door
The ad is the stupidest thing ever. It reads
NO PAYMENTS FOR 6 MONTHS!
Buy-Down Program
In the heart of downtown Escondido
MINGLES ARE THE NEW SINGLES
Min-gle (ming-guhl) verb, -gled -gling, noun
5. Mingles: two or more unrelated single adults who live together - and are wise enough to know that the buying power of two makes home ownership a reality. Learn the definition at (Doomed and Badly Located Condo Project) today.
Looks more like a financial mangling than a mingling.
Plenty of bad ideas to go around in SD this morning.
SD_suntaxed,
Ha-ha…Thanks for posting this cheeky ad for the Doomed and Badly Located Condo
You laugh, but wen I lived in the grim London suburbs, that was how many young singles actually got onto the property ladder. It works out well enough (barring the incessant arguments over close living quarters) so long as the market keeps rising, and that’s how many young Londoners managed to be owners. Worst comes to worst, if the “mingles” cannot get along, they sell out for a profit, or at very worst break-even.
But if the market stumbles, as it did in Los Angeles 15 or so years ago, it’s a whole new game, and an unpleasant one. A friend of mine there was so hot to get on the bandwagon that he and his girlfiend bought together, expecting that it was a no-lose situaton.
Eventually, their relationship fell apart — unfortunately right on cue with the housing price slump, and they had to sell (or kill each other in their 1-bath bungalow). At the inflated price, there was no way one could buy the other out. In the end, they sold and got out, but each lost the equivalent of a year’s take-home pay, some of which was deposit, some of which was borrowed from credit cards just so they could bring the requisite check to the closing table to escape that place.
I expect this will happen a lot with those “mingles” buying into that Doomed and Badly Located Condo Project!
My Sumter, South Carolina real estate market stats for February 2007 were published recently. They can be found at:
http://ourcarolina.com/modules/wordpress/?p=50
Basically we are still seeing a continuation of YOY slowdown in single family home sales in my little piece of the world. After talking to some non-real estate sauvy friends in the last 3 weeks, they were unaware of this slowdown. Two said they thought the local market was extremely good because of the massive construction on-going in Sumter. They were also unaware of two new projects just approved by our local goernment. These two new subdivisions will give Sumter County an additional 600+ residential lots for builders to grow homes on. Sumter County population is ~106,000 people. I’m not good with math but it seems to me we are going to need a large net in-migration of folks into our area just to fill up these TWO new subdivisions. This doesn’t take into account the 5 newer subdivisions that have just started foundations. Census data shows a +0.8 population growth from 2000-2005.
Anyone out there planning on moving to South Carolina? There will be an abundance of cheap new homes coming on the market in
“New and existing unit homes sales in Benton County were off 18.8 percent from a year ago, according to figures released Thursday by the Arkansas Realtors Association. ‘This decline is directly related to the number of speculators and investors that have gotten out of the market,’ broker Shae Dittrich said.”
Last year my hairdresser was talking about investing in NW Arkansas. I never heard whether she went through with the plans (I never returned, as I don’t trust hairdressers who invest in real estate on the side…).
Manhattan Beach (90266) just had the lowest-selling March in years; 47 houses sold. There are about 150 places for sale, about 15 places undergoing preforeclosure, and 12 places REO. This is one of the richest zip codes in the LA basin– almost no subprime loans.
Flippers are bailing on their houses left and right. You see a lot of places purchased in 05 and 06 up for sale, for about $20k above the original purchase price. None of these places are selling. 90266 is going to be schadenfreude central later this year and going on to 08.
A ton of places were pulled off the market in late November/December for the holiday season, and they haven’t been relisted yet. When they do, 90266 is going to rocket up the inventory scale; last year at its height there were about 240 places for sale. This year we’ll probably see that number by May 1.
Well, list prices in the MLS have come down, as well as the price per square foot. But you are right this is an inventory constrained market (at least at the moment). When the biggest increase in inventory is in the $1,600,000.00 - $1,700,000.00 range, you have a very limited set of people who could ever try to buy this kind of stuff.
i drove around the carlsbad hills today and found new cities full of empty multimillion dollar homes. i wanted to take photos but there were too many. i wanted to see where all the construction trucks were headed. i was agitated in sd. now im buildingfrenzy sd
Not to take anything away from Manhatten beach, because it is a closely knit, upscale, very safe walkable beachfront community, but virtually every SFH, at least those right near the beach, is on a small(2500-3000)ft lot, and the homes situated on that high bump slanting toward the pacific at a 45 % angle are 3-story condo-like stacked structures, with cramped alley parking and virtually 0 lot lines. Though they are indeed state-of-the-art rehabbed beach houses or posh newly-built MCmansions, the acreage is so small for such high prices. At the peak, these properties were commanding almost $2 million.
Now Manhatten Beach average selling prices are around $1.3 million for the few that do sell, at least according to last several months dataquick figures.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/0315cr-forsale0315Z6.html
Elevation Chandler, the partly built tower south of Chandler Fashion Center, is for sale.
Developer Jeff Cline, owner of the 10.5-acre site at Loop 101 and the Santan Freeway, is asking $42 million to $58 million. No explanation for the $16 million price range is given in an advertisement from Coldwell Banker Commercial, which is handling the sale.
The listing brokers are Steven Schnitzer, senior vice president, and Donald Brigham, executive vice president, at Coldwell Banker Commercial on Camelback Road in Phoenix.
Schnitzer refused to talk about the project.
“I can’t discuss it,” he said Wednesday. “I’m not supposed to be discussing it with the media. We don’t need the publicity.”
Cline, who is asking for bids until March 26, did not reply to a phone call and an e-mail seeking comment.
He stopped talking publicly about the project months ago, and his desire to keep any details about the sale secret was evident in the notice sent to commercial brokers.
That document includes a form for brokers to complete to request information, and it requires they comply with a non-disclosure agreement that reads, in part, “No news media will be contacted or communicated with.”
LOL, I have seen that place. No way in hell he gets that kind of money. What a joke.
“Some areas of the country saw a severe retraction. Places like Southern California, Florida, Washington, D.C., Las Vegas — they all saw a sharp recession in real estate,” he says. “They lost from 15 to 30%.”
Though falling prices are bad news for homeowners, homebuyers in those depressed markets are taking a fresh look at those bungalows that were priced out of their reach just a few months ago.
“All real estate is local,” Lereah says, adding that that phrase will be the title of his new book, expected to come out in April.
Can you believe this fool, what nerve he has to write another book. I thought he said “real estate always goes up”. He has no shame.
…Peel away the concerns about our international creditors, stability on Wall Street and the more than two dozen large loan companies that have closed in the wake of the subprime lending crisis. Ignore the reassurance that the market appears to have stabilized. Beneath those concerns lies the vulnerable homeowner holding a subprime loan.
By year’s end an estimated 3 million of them will lose their homes. Disproportionately, they will be black and Latino, an unfortunate effect of the marketing practices of subprime brokers and lenders…
The race card in play?
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/4669861.html
Give me a break.
Disporportionately, they will be greedy and stupid, an unfortunate effect of the math illiteracy affecting subpar borrowers.
It was a good thing while it lasted for them. Most of them couldn’t afford homeownership in the first place, so it sounds as though things are going back to normal. I hate to see tragedy and un-expected events tear apart families, but most of the people losing homes to foreclosure right now are not innocent victims.
The debt slavery in states with recourse loans will be fully justified.
NYCityboy said:”A Grapes of Wrath reference seems incredibly appropriate for the housing blog”.
Exactly NYCB. It took us a while before we could finally rent it. Another great depression movie is “Our daily bread”. Chilling….
So I was walking to the store the other day and paused to glance at the newspaper headlines. Imagine my shock when I saw, written across the top of the “Seattle Post- Intelligencer”, in bold headline:
“Seattle Home Prices Falling”
This is a true story. I swear, I was not in a parallel dimension. The article underneath did a good job of “softening the blow” somewhat. But the headline was a “knock you off your feet” headline.
The Post Intelligencer is the other Seattle daily newspaper. It’s not quite as “fluffy” as the Seattle Times, though not as “intelligent” as the name would imply. There’s a lot of overlap between the 2 papers and the city’s been debating for years about getting rid of one or the other because it’s always seemed pretty redundant having them both.
But, after that headline, it looks like maybe there IS a benefit to having 2 papers. Perhaps the PI does not depend on REIC adverts as much as the Times so can afford to knock people over the heads with the truth.
I just spotted this Craigslist ad warning people NOT to buy a house.
http://denver.craigslist.org/rfs/303896408.html
“Don’t become a HOMEDEBTOR! Lease property for 60% of HomeDEBTOR cost.
House prices are FALLING in Denver.
Lease the same property for 50-60% of HomeDEBTOR costs, and watch the price fall…as you live in the property!”
——
love it…somebody is actually posting ads warning people not to buy!
Posting removed by Craigslist staff
Are they on RE folks payroll as well?
A small condo complex (3-4 units) off Rt 1 on the south edge of Boston has offered “luxury” condos for about a year with the wonderful view of a car dealership across the road. I believe they wanted 300-400k for them.
Just saw “For Lease” sign on them Saturday. They’ll never be able to get rents anywhere near their carrying costs. I expect the building will be turned over to the banks in six months.
In San Diego the insanity continues. Yesterday I walked around some of our poorest neighborhoods. As I walked along Imperial avenue I came to the Interstate 5 underpass. There were about 15 homeless people reclining on the sidewalk under the freeway. This is at 2:30 pm in the afternoon. I expect over 100 people camp there at night. As I came out from the underpass there was an overpowering stench: a patch of grass was being used as the community toilet. Human excrement was visible scattered about.
Now, directly opposite this open-air toilet (17th and Imperial) is a small lot that backs up right against the freeway. A glossy sign advertises Luxury Lofts with construction to begin this summer and finish in 2008. The next block on Imperial Ave. hosts a six-story treatment/rehab (?) center (Father Joe’s villages). Other recovery centers, feeding centers and homeless shelters are concentrated in the area.
That project (called “32 lofts”) is more likely to become a homeless shelter than a luxury dwelling. And the strategy of pushing the homeless east from the Ballpark isn’t going to work anymore. There is nowhere left for them to go and this is where their services are located.
“…with the wonderful view of a car dealership across the road.”
Well if it’s a Lexus or Mercedes dealer, the condo buyer should be downright overjoyed to pay a premium for that view!
hehe
“‘Giving mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them was the biggest error of recent years,’ Shiller said.”
Have Shiller and other top housing economists publicly (or otherwise) recognized that U.S. federal housing policy actually encourages households to buy homes they cannot afford? I am feeling very outraged over my discovery this morning that the FHA mortgage limit for SD is $698,000, which sounds a bit on the high side for a low income family to manage (the median household income in SD is only around $65,000 or so…). What can the average citizen do to stop this kind of insane policy?
Overthrow the corrupt government in DC. I’m single and have a graduate degree and I can’t even afford something half that price. Even a home 1/3 of that price would be a stretch for me.
Another poster pointed out that I misinterpreted the info on the FHA site — the $700K limit applies to 4-family dwellings ($363K is the single-family limit). Thanks to subprime lendings’ role in driving California prices to levels that nobody except the super rich can afford, the $363K limit has no relevance.
Went out and saw some houses with a realtor yesterday in the Tri Cities of Washington state. First house in a very nice area, 2300 sq ft $239,000 down from $264,000, and 308 days on the market. Of course it was vacant and looked like renters had just left. Holes in wall, kitchen cabinet door bracket was torn off and the place was very dirty. The poor buyers bought this place new in 2005 for $256,000.
Second was advertised as a California Split. Nice older house (1981) priced at $209,000 in a upscale older neighborhood within walking distance of parks on the Columbia River. Basically the house has a walkout basement with 1364 sq ft above the basement. Nice backyard, mature trees, lots of flowers, but way over priced. Got home and looked at the tax info - poor fool bought the place 0n 4/17/06 for $200,000. I figure it is only worth about $175,000.
Oh one other thing my wife and I have been looking in this area for about two months. Only one or two new listings each week and not many sales at all - we keep seeing the same house on Realtor.com. Prices our being reduced however. One house dropped 5k and two orthers dropped 10k. Many of the houses we have looked at have sale prices only 10 - 15k over the bought price and some of these were bought 3 and 4 years ago. With a 6% listing and a 1.75% county tax fee the total closing costs for a seller our around 8.5% which means most of these sellers will not make anything on their house sale.
There are decent, steady government jobs there, right? If a two-earner household can pull down $80-90k, those prices don’t sound too bad.
That’s correct. Most homes are selling for right around $100 per sq ft with .20 of an acre or more.
If everybody works for the government or a government contractor, who pays to support the system?
Government employees **do** pay taxes (just as much as anyone else). The money paid to government entities get redistributed in the economy (via wages & various programs), unlike money going to the capitalists, where the money is simply hoarded & loaned out to return even more money to the wealthy to be hoarded & loaned out, again.
Not saying govts can be completely “self-sustaining”, but the idea that money going to the govt just disappears into some black hole is ignorant. Truth is, money is really taken out of circulation by the capitalists (except as loans, which one could argue does not benefit the masses so much).
http://mary.springssearch.com/Browse/IDX1_ViewRecord.asp
I’ve been tracking a very localized area in Colorado Springs - the prestigious Old North Side. In January 2005, when I first searched on the $275-1.5M dollar range, there were 14 SFHs for sale. For about the last year it has fluctuated in the 20-24 range with very little turnover. Some properties (such as the $875K, 6000+ sq ft house) have sat on the market for well over 500 days (original asking price was $969). Asking prices have not dropped substantially. Some $25K cuts here and there, but most of these listings have languished for at least 180 days. Most are still at least $100K overpriced, IMHO. I’m hoping that the local realtors, who have been saddled with these properties for months and months, will eventually refuse to continue to be enablers for greedy, out-of-touch sellers.
Going bubble spotting this afternoon with Mrs., we are trying to pick between Irvine, Riverside or Temecula. Plenty of carnage to see in each! Will try to post a detailed SITREP when I get back.
MSA Stats (Hardtack)
Temecula: http://tinyurl.com/2cqwk8
Irvine: http://tinyurl.com/24dq8f
Riverside: http://tinyurl.com/yq4phr
“east of Anaheim Blvd were aborted with add ons, perimeter fences, bad paint, automotive art in the yards and some of these properties were flipped from one family to the next.”
See this stuff all over LA in crapped out hood areas of SCentral, and also in areas such as East Torrance,,South Whittier, Bellflower, Inglewood, Wlimington, Bell, Cudahy, maywood, North/central Long Beach, SGate, Lynwood, Compton, East SFV, ect. Entire Neighborhoods in which the owners/borrowers/specu-investors do shabby add-ons, alterations,put up 4000 sq ft monstosities on 5000 ft lots,ect. Also maybe half of homes in these decaying hoods are rented out, with 3-6 cars rammed in the oil-stained driveway, brown unwatered weedy lawn, chipped paint along sills and eaves, cracked porches,ect indicating rental status.
Lots of areas in the Northwest OC besides area you described also declining into the slumburg stage, such as Buena Park,South Fullerton,Parts of westminister and GGrove. However, Santa Ana beats them all for bottom-of-barrel neighborhood decay.
Here is one that will ruin the comps in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach, CA
4211 Myrtle ave. 3809 Sq. Ft. 2 story colonial
List price $1,195,000/ Sold price $923,500
“Here is one that will ruin the comps in the Bixby Knolls area of Long Beach, CA
4211 Myrtle ave. 3809 Sq. Ft. 2 story colonial
List price $1,195,000/ Sold price $923,500″
The average recent selling price in Bixby 90807 for 3/2 1500+ homes on 6000+lots is NOW AROUND $500,000. One such home on 3937 gaviota st several blocks away sold on march 2 for $525,000. Even thou that Myrtle house is almost 4000 sq ft and may be in a nice clean street/neighborhood it is still overpriced for the entire Bixby/North Long Beach region(Location,location,location). No Beaches, no swanky nearby shops, no clean attractive parks/greenbelts,90805 slumzip only a mile away, ect. The only positive is this area is a 40 min drive into LA Dwtn/LA Westside and equally close to the OC.
Those million$+ plus estate homes around Virginia countryclub(some of them gorgeous neocolonials),
will feel the pain as bixby nolls is too close to the North Long Beach slumzone 90805. Bixby is a tiny middle-upper class enclave in the RE meltdown City of Long Beach. which is being hit hard with foreclosures and NODs, especially in the decaying zips of 90805, 90810, 90813, 90806,90802(the condo zone), parts of 90804 and 90814.
Bixby RE is fallng hard-it has fallen around 20-25% already- simply as a result of drastically falling comps all over LB.
BTW: As of this posting LB has 114 foreclosures and 567 NODs. The worst hit zip section of LB, 90805, has 34 foreclosures and 150+ NOD’s.
Irvine inventory is up steadily. Early this year it was 985, now it’s 1105. Asking price is still too high.
Drove through 95531 yesterday and I think the entire city right up to the Oregon border is for sale. Too many signs to count! No clue on prices.
Atlanta’s inventory broke 100,000 according to the counter at Metrobrokers:
http://www.metrobrokers.com/
I am not too surprised. During fall of last year I started looking at prices for houses in my area on Realtor.com. When the page first comes up it says “Over 2 Million Homes Online”. Well now it says over 3 million.
Does it really say 3 million? Is that correct? What that means is there is one house for sale for every 100 people in this country. Let’s say the occupancy per house is 2. That puts the number of houses to approximately 150 million. I can support this estimate from housingbubble stats from Tuesday, August 30, 2005 statistics page. Close enough. So, it appears there are 2% of the total number of houses in the US for sale.
Is this correct?
Roidy
They have billboards all over Atlanta that can only hold 5-digit numbers. I’ll have to drive by to see if they’ve managed to accomodate all of the numbers on their billboard now that housing inventory is over 6-digits. I’ll try to take a picture and post if possible.
–
April 01, 2007
Cash Versus Mortgage Price of Homes
Note: No, this is not April Fool joke.
I took a walk around the neighborhood (it is a 2.5 miles hike up and down the hills). I stopped by a neighborhood home to say hello and get the neighborhood news. It is a couple in their late 60s who have been trying to sell their home for the past two years to move to Oregon. There have been offers in the past but they fell thru because of the appraised value versus how much money the lenders were willing to lend to the prospective buyers. The home is in escrow right now with everything taken care of except for the FHA (Federal Housing Authority) loan that is waiting approval. The property is a nice 3-acre lot with a 1+1 sectional mobile home and a big old mobile home as storage unit. The price of sale is $169K and is subject to 97% MORTGAGE from FHA.
As I was talking to the woman of the house (the boss) she told me that if the sale goes thru she would temporarily move-in with her daughter who lives in the same general area closer to the town than where we are. She bought the home for the daughter recently for a CASH price of $45K! This property is on a 2.5-acre lot with 2+2 mobile home and a 2-car garage! It has a well on the property, septic tank, and electric utility. I am sure it is old but everything is functional. She bought the property from an old woman whose husband had died and had someone, a friend or a relative, living with her who was a nuisance and had lot of junk (some 9 old junky vehicles). The old woman who owned the property was sick and tired of the place and wanted to sell and move. My neighbor immediately smelled an opportunity and made her a cash offer for 45K and as it turns out she got it. She had someone who likes junk to take the junk and made the property okay for her daughter.
It is hard to imagine that the value of the two properties is off by a factor of 3.75. At the most the difference is 1.5-2. The rest of the price deflation and inflation is strictly due to CASH versus MORTGAGE, respectively. If people had to pay cash, or mostly cash, for homes the prices will be at most half the current prices. The Housing Bubble is nothing but a manifestation of the Debt Bubble, or what others call the Credit Bubble. Debt-driven bubbles have distorted everything in American and the world economy including the prices of services and goods, or consumer level inflation.
It is the Debt, Stupid!
Jas
Not local, but I just got back from a nice relaxing vacation (low rent = disposable income, but I don’t have to tell you guys that). We used Las Vegas as a home base to do the Grand Canyon and Colorado River rafting. Anyway, I was unprepared to see the 14-page (!!!) advertisement in the Southwest in-flight magazine, telling all of us ignorant travelers how the housing market is tanking in the US, but not in Vegas. Better buy now!
Noticed some uninspiring condo towers along the strip, some under construction and some appeared finished. Many of them were completely dark at night.
Housing-related advertising was everywhere, and everyone was telling us how fast Vegas was growing. I wonder if taxi drivers get a referral bonus or something. Even that crappy overpriced monorail (with the “smooth” ride that is worse than the 110-year old rail lines here) was trumpeting how fast the city is growing and how crowded the hotels are. Let me tell you - this past week the Strip was DEAD during the week; and barely picked up by Saturday. I’ve been there in the middle of the week before and have never seen it this empty. Oh, and someone here posted something about old coins starting to show up in circulation again… I got a bunch of super old coins as change this past week. Guess people thought they could get the mortgage money at the slots.
I was wondering if someone with knowledge of the “housing bubble” and knowledge of the Hampton Roads area (Virginia Beach in particular) could explain to me why the housing prices don’t seem to be dropping. It isn’t like people here make exorbitant salaries. Yes, of course, we have doctors, lawyers, business owners, military retirees, etc…but the average Joe is in the military or a teacher or fireman or a store manager or someone who works for him…waitress, shipyard builder…the area doesn’t command the kind of salaries that places like northern Virginia or even Charlotte can. In fact in Charlotte, where the salaries are higher…one can find a very, very nice 2 story brick home for around 250K. In Virginia Beach, 250K might get you a dumpy townhome or a 1,200 SF detached home.
Yes, I know that it’s considered a resort city and might be able to command a bit higher price than your average city. But it was reasonable before the interest only loan, liar loans and the investors with dollar signs in their eyes forced the prices to artificially inflate.
I HAVE noticed that there is never, EVER mention of the housing bubble or the sub-prime mortgage fiasco in the daily papers here. I’m sure the realtors and developers and mortgage brokers don’t WANT people to know the truth and accomplish this through the almighty advertising dollar. I was hoping someone had some insight because I just can’t seem to fathom it.
Syracuse Report:
Featured property:
No payments for 6 mos. being offered on a local spec home. 3072 sq ft home, 1.1ac in a great location for $364900. But Manlius is piling up inventory at that level and the taxes are $16k year. “D’oh”
Also in today’s paper: 2006 Home Sales numbers from NYAR
Onandaga County: 4870 total sales -8.3% from 05
Madison County: 632 total sales -10.5%
Cayuga County: 647 total sales -8%
Oswego County: 950 total sales -11.5%
Median home prices:
Onondaga $125k +1.6% over 2005
Madison $127k +6.3%
Cayuga $93.5k +8.7%
Oswego $83.5k +8.4%
Onondaga contains Syracuse, all its pricey burbs including Baldwinsville, Camillus, Fayetteville/Manlius, Pompey and Skaneateles.
Madison is mostly farm country except for Cazenovia which includes both farms and million dollar lakefront properties.
You probably know Oswego (off Lake Ontario) from the winter weather reported nationally.
Cayuga county is the Finger Lake region (NY wine country and Watkins Glenn Raceway).
Gotta love these flippers, you see them once every three months and they stand if front of their investment with hands on their hips looking very mad? Then they reduce the price the next day a small amount like that is the magic bullet to sell.
Three months go by back again doing the same thing, i call it a very slow and painful disease, the only cure cut your losses people and get your health back.