Sellers Are Starting To Hear The Message
Hometown Annapolis reports from Maryland. “The number of homes sold in Anne Arundel County fell about 21 percent for the second straight month, while prices were down in the midst of the national credit crisis and a slowing economy. The median sale price for a home in the county in August was $335,000, a 2.8 percent decrease from August 2006. It also was $27,403 less than prices in July.”
“Joseph Cater, president of Market-Economics in Annapolis, said he expects foreclosures to increase the amount of available inventory, giving buyers plenty more to choose from. ‘It’s the old situation of demand and supply,’ he said. ‘You’ve got excess amount of supply and lower demand. Sellers are going to have readjust their housing prices to reflect demand.’”
“Pat Ogle, an associate broker in Annapolis, said some buyers are concerned they won’t be able to get a loan because some mortgage companies have shut down, while stricter guidelines will lower the number of people who qualify for a mortgage.”
“‘People with marginal credit are not going to be able to get houses,’ Mr. Ogle said.”
“Bill Hyland, an associate broker in Annapolis, said national headlines from the subprime market fallout has caused some buyers to hesitate, thinking the worst has already arrived. ‘They’re cautious at the moment,’ he said. ‘They thought the market bottomed out.’”
“Mr. Hyland is hopeful that ‘there’s not much left that can happen’ and said homes that are priced right will sell. ‘I think most people are eager to get back in the market, but want some assurances about what they are going to pay.’”
The Baltimore Sun from Maryland. “The number of homes sold in the Baltimore area last month plummeted 17 percent from August 2006 - the largest drop in volume this year, statistics released yesterday showed.”
“With the slowdown in the housing market stretching well into its second year, the inventory of unsold homes swelled to a record 20,265 listings in metropolitan Baltimore.”
“‘Buyers are moving much slower,’ said Leslie Thomas- Vitek, an agent in Marriottsville. ‘We have to try to talk to the sellers a lot and keep an eye on the competition and encourage them to reduce the price and not wait too long to do that.’”
“The slowdown has followed a four-year period in which buyers, nationally and in the Baltimore region, took advantage of low mortgage rates and easy credit to snap up properties in bidding wars that drove up values at double-digit rates. But when the home prices stopped rising, investors raced to unload properties, and inventory began to climb.”
“Slower sales in the Baltimore area have come partly as a result of the credit crisis, said John McClain, a senior fellow at the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.”
“‘Companies are getting stricter for qualifications on mortgages because of what’s happening in the subprime mortgages,’ McClain said. ‘Some people might have been able to afford a house and get a mortgage three months ago, but the mortgage companies are getting more particular, and pending sales have been canceled because of this.’”
“The number of homes sold fell in all jurisdictions, as much as 23 percent in Baltimore City and Howard County.”
“‘The values are holding up, but the units [sold] seem to be dropping from prior months,’ said William L. Yerman, president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors. ‘Sellers are not adjusting their prices quickly enough or aggressively enough, and that’s what’s causing buyers to wait it out.’”
“Many sellers, especially those who bought during the boom years when home values soared, are still counting on pre-slowdown prices, real estate agents said. The properties that settled in August sold for just under 95 percent of their asking price on average.”
“Cindy Ariosa, a regional VP for Long & Foster in Baltimore, said agents have begun re-evaluating the pricing of their listings much more often than in the past, checking the prices of comparable homes on the market every couple of weeks, instead of every month or so.”
“‘Sellers are starting to hear the message that prices are shifting,’ Ariosa said. ‘The buyers are coming in low [on offers] and asking for closing costs help.’”
“Sharon Welsh and her husband have been trying since the end of June to sell their eight-year-old, four-bedroom Colonial home in Ellicott City, so they can relocate to Florida. The sellers have reduced their asking price from $749,000 to $739,900, made some minor upgrades and held open houses. Yet no offers have come in.”
“‘We thought with the amount of folks coming through, we’d have at least one or two offers, but there are a lot of homes in our area for sale right now,’ Welsh said. ‘We’ll continue to advertise and have open houses and wait for the market to take a turn. I’m sure it will eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later.’”
The Daily Press from Virginia. “New and existing home sales declined by double digits in July compared to the previous year, according to industry figures. Nearly all 24 regions of the state reported declines, the Virginia Association of Realtors reported.”
“‘Certainly, there is evidence that sales are decreasing from last year, but not enough to warrant hysteria,’ said Martha Durnett, president of the Richmond Association of Realtors. ‘People are still buying and people are still selling, although our inventory is increasing.’”
“In Prince William County, sales were down nearly 35 percent, among the steepest declines in the state. Thirteen regions reported double-digit percentage decreases, including the Charlottesville area with a 13.6 percent decline in sales in July from the same month a year ago.”
“‘It’s not all bad for the buyer,’ Durnett said. ‘They have a lot to choose from.’”
The Daily Times from Delaware. “Feeling the pinch of a sluggish real estate market, Bayside in Fenwick Island has cut nearly 30 percent of its home building staff. The layoffs won’t curtail the project’s final buildout of 1,640 homes, said Patti Grimes, VP of the community division for Carl M. Freeman Associates.”
“‘We’ve had slower sales because of the market,’ Grimes said. ‘We’re not building as many homes today as we had planned, but we’re still going to build it. It just may take a year or two longer.’”
“Delaware’s declining home sales mirror the problems of the national market, said Walter Molony, National Association of Realtors spokesman. ‘There’s just too much supply,’ he said.”
test
‘We’ll continue to advertise and have open houses and wait for the market to take a turn. I’m sure it will eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later.’”
That is the one thing she is right about, the only problem is the turn is not going in her direction.
Exactly what I was going to pick up on. She’s saying that hopefully someone will realize that her house is different . . . that a four-bedroom house in Ellicott Sh*tty (as my friend who lives there calls it) is just not worth three quarters of a million dollars. Knocking $10K off ain’t going to ‘correct’ your mispriced listing.
Did all the Realtors ™ ride the short bus to school?* Krike, its like they didn’t hear the dive alarm. Not exactly a good time to be sunbathing on the deck of the submarine SSN Housing. Good thing the pack of Orcas following the sub have such big friendly smiles.
Got popcorn?
Neil
* I exclude “Jim the Realtor” and Bob Casagrand due to the insights on their blogs. Oh… and a few others (like my relative who has already accepted she will have zero income for two years… so for two years she will travel the world!).
Hey Neil, Better tell her to take 5 yrs off, these dolt sellers are clueless. I’m waiting for the damn to break on the REO side of the equation. Those asshats can only cover this up for so long before their “come to jesus” moment.
You have to have half a brain to get on the short bus (NOT a crack about the kids, they need our love and support) Most realtors are proving they don’t have what it takes to even get on the short bus.
As a former resident of EC, I won’t see fair value until four bedroom colonials go for $300,000 on a 1/2 acre lot.
“The sellers have reduced their asking price from $749,000 to $739,900, made some minor upgrades and held open houses. Yet no offers have come in.”
Get real. A measly $10k cut ain’t gonna sell your house! Try $50k to start.
But…. I thought BRAC was coming to save us all? Where are these idiots with tons of money who want to pay 3/4 of a million for this thing…
Sharon Welsh and her husband have been trying since the end of June to sell their eight-year-old, four-bedroom Colonial home in Ellicott City, so they can relocate to Florida. The sellers have reduced their asking price from $749,000 to $739,900, made some minor upgrades and held open houses. Yet no offers have come in.”
Why isn’t it selling. I mean we dropped the price by a whole 1.3% and we put in a Moen faucet. Maybe we need to list it at $739,921 like Suzanne from Century 21 said and plant one of those Virgin Mary thingys in the lawn
I always wondered if Suzanne looks anything like the slob and the sanctimonious worn out hag featured in the commercial?
I agree. These price cuts are pathetic and insulting.
800K in Ellicott City?
Who the hell do they think is going to buy that place? Anyone making that kind of money stands to make more doing the same thing in DC versus Baltimore. Believe it or not, there’s a small, finite supply of people making that kind of money. In any case they can certainly buy something new that’s possibly bigger and definitely more convenient.
here is the listing:
MLS #: HW6452111
That’s hilarious. Somehow reading “colonial” gave me an image of a huge, beautifully restored and maintained historic home filled with original stained glass, old trees and a wraparound porch. You know, something that would work towards justifying the price? Not this snap together monstrosity.
yep…it’s the typical brick front crapbox.
$10K reduction, what a joke. $800K in Elicott City? That’s rolling on the floor, tears in my eyes, can’t catch my breath, laughing!
Friends in Rockville (W of 97, N of 355) sold their 4/3 colonial in less than three months, but they quickly and aggressively dropped the price from around $840K to $700K in that period of time.
Price it right and it will sell.
Oops, that’s W of 97, N of 28.
LOL. Is that aluminum siding on the side??? That’s “brick” as in “brick facade”.
I had a friend who sold a pretty decent house in McLean for not much more than that. Ellicott City? You gotta be kidding me.
And they only owe 299K per the land records.
This is just like the Arizona market. The houses went up 50% to 75% and they cut the price by 2% and think that they are being generous. These sellers are completely in denial and think that someone will run out and buy their house at 2005 prices. They need to get a clue….
They want to sell an overpriced McSh#$box in MD and move to where? FLORIDA. And oh yeah, they will buy there right away ’cause FL real estate is always hot, hot, hot. These people are what we around here call “Baltimorons”
The sellers have reduced their asking price from $749,000 to $739,900, made some minor upgrades and held open houses. Yet no offers have come in.
At just over a 1% reduction the property will not sell. To unload a home in today’s market you need to be well ahead of the curve in terms of price reductions in order to compete with your competition. Just market dynamics!
And the best part?
Drum roll………………………
They want to move to Florida
Ya just can’t make this stuff up…LOL.
For everyone that moves to FL, there are 10 trying to get out.
Look at the UHaul Index.
And buy puts on U-Haul out-bound reservations? A 10 to 1 play would work anywhere.
Well one things for sure they won’t have trouble finding houses for sale in FL. Bet they’ll look at $750k houses and be mad when the seller rejects their $375k offer.
Try reducing it to $500k. That might work, and it might not.
Yep, they are going to make lowball offers in Florida because that housing market is imploding. I wonder if they will be insulted if the seller of that Florida house takes 1.3% of the list price. Oh, yeah that makes sense…………Not!
Some learning curves have no curves at all!
test1
Nouveau Risk, i.e. Subprime Loan: def: All the airs of home ownership (for a coupla years anyhow)
‘Delaware’s declining home sales mirror the problems of the national market, said Walter Molony, National Association of Realtors spokesman. ‘There’s just too much supply,’ he said.’
Hey MSM, why don’t you ask the NAR what happened to the shortage?
I thought they were not making any more land. Someone find some?
The comments server crashed, should be OK now.
Ben…Check MSNBC right now if your close to a TV…Paulson in a summit meeting with the national homebuilders…Wow…
My mistake…It was on Bloomberg….
Perhaps they are there, like the auto industry, to lobby for a further crackdown on those lazy welfare and unemployment insurance recipients in this country. Get a job!
Bloomberg seems to be the only TV channel reporting the Bubble with any accuracy.
I only skip to CNBC if Bloomberg is in commercial. Totally agree, way less spin.
Notice the all to common real-turd speak in every one of the articles? They all talk about “the hesitant buyer”, “the buyer on the fence”…… If they haven’t bought then how can they be a buyer? These “buyers” don’t exist. They borrowed from the future buyer pool and the current pool is dry along with the cash.
I would be a buyer if prices corrected by 50% or so. I’ve got my 20% down ready to go when the time is right.
we are waiting. all of us are not sheep.
I am waiting too. Have >500 K cash available. Just need to see prices of 2000 - 2001.
They borrowed from the future buyer pool and the current pool is dry along with the cash.
You are so right. Not only did they tap the future buyer poll and dried up their cash, but they also ruined their credit, so they won’t be back in the pool for years to come.
Right — it’s not the mythical “hesitant buyer” who is gumming things up — it’s the absence of the “can’t miss this opportunity” buyer and the “all my friends are making money flipping, so I have to try” buyer and the “we can qualify for an interest-only/option ARM loan - and, hell, we’ll sell it and make $$$ before it resets anyways” buyer.
The slump in housing stocks to new four-year lows is hurting some well-known investors who recently added home builders and housing-related stocks such as KB Home (NYSE:KBH - News) and Pulte Homes Inc (NYSE:PHM - News) to their positions.
Value investors such as Legg Mason’s Bill Miller and Harris Associates’ Bill Nygren, as well as other managers such as Tim Cohen of Fidelity Investments seem to have been caught in a ‘P/E trap,’ where these stocks were cheap for a long period and only went lower as the firms reported their earnings.
Your going to love this…mortgage brokers are gleaming they can make 7 points on a FHA LOAN!!!! Not all support it but many are asking how and wow! So here comes the next wave of rip offs for the housing industry…3 points on the frnt and 4 points on the back…
This was sent to me by someone in the business..He is shocked..here we go again…no wonder the MBA wants to lift the FHA limit..
http://www.brokeruniverse.com/grapevine/thread/?thread=454895
My God…a ripoff so bad even mortgage brokers are embarassed about it (or the ones still in business anyway).
Yeah, but some of them think it’s great. Upheaval in that industry.
A lot of these people don’t have the 3% down let alone 7% closing costs. Anyone with a good downpayment is not going to go FHA, because it’s still more hassle with all the inspections over and above the inspection the buyer pays for himself.
Many of them were very averse indeed. I found this post VERY interesting: (sorry for the all caps, but it’s SIC)
And of course, as soon as I post this I see the stories about Crisp.
Nice.
Thanks for the link. I e-mail this off to several government agencies (for all the good it may do). I signed my name too!
Missed you guys yesterday. I was out at an event where I was volunteering in the midst of a bevy of Realtors. Rather than engage them in conversation about the housing market, I decided to keep The Troublemaker (my mouth) closed and locked.
I figured that listening to them would yield all the market info I needed to know. And I was right. I heard one Realtor type speaking to another. The topic was the Tucson housing market and its effect on business at one of his agency’s offices. The punchline? “Well, we have a lot of nice listings…”
And that’s the report from Tucson.
Arizona Slim: good report
“‘People with marginal credit are not going to be able to get houses,’ Mr. Ogle said.”
Ogle me this, mr. associate mathman…
Empty houses, nobody home
Your next step?
The Unemployment Zone…
Right now they can’t get houses..lets check a year from now when inventory is up, eating at the balance sheet and they have little buyers..somebody is going to come out with some kind of program that is going to help the little guys..nobody likes liabilites/losses on the old balance sheet..especially stockholders..
“‘It’s not all bad for the buyer,’ Durnett said. ‘They have a lot to choose from.’”
Yes indeed. Let’s see, which one of these falling knives do I want to stand under?
“The sellers have reduced their asking price from $749,000 to $739,900,”
Another 50 cents should do the trick.
Unfreakinbelievable.
“The sellers have reduced their asking price from $749,000 to $739,900, …
“‘We thought with the amount of folks coming through, we’d have at least one or two offers,’ Welsh said. ‘We’ll continue to advertise and have open houses and wait for the market to take a turn…’”
Yeah, that is the trick, Ms. Welsh. Continue with Open Houses until you sell. Don’t bother slashing the price too much. The buyer is obviously going to be a greater fool.
They’re starting at the attic and they’re going to ride this market to the basement, one real-wood-veneer step at a time.
“Mr. Hyland is hopeful that ‘there’s not much left that can happen’ and said homes that are priced right will sell.
Hope in one hand brother, there is plenty left that can&will happen!
guys, Ivy Zelman in WSJ. She’s one of the 2 people (or analysts on her behalf) that consistently added value to conference calls of home builders… I miss Ivy!!!!
Did you guys noticed that lately, before she quit CEOs were avoiding her questions? This is great for her, as she will get rid of conflicts of interests. Hopefully she gives us some access to her insights.
“Expert on Housing Has Her Own Nest. Ivy Zelman, former housing analyst for Credit Suisse, has started her own housing-related research firm geared toward institutional investors such as hedge funds, mutual funds and banks.
Ms. Zelman says her new firm, Zelman & Associates, will assess the risk of bankruptcies in the housing industry, examine the turmoil in the mortgage market and dispense research about the housing downturn’s broader impact on the economy and consumer spending.
…”
It would be our pleasure to have her views expressed…
What says you, Ivy?
Just read this this morning:
“WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) — More mortgage products are needed to help homeowners keep their houses, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday.
Speaking before a meeting with mortgage-servicing companies, Paulson said the Bush administration is working to keep as many homeowners in their homes as possible. ”
http://www.nasdaq.com//aspxcontent/newsstory.aspx?textpath=20070912\ACQDJON200709121058DOWJONESDJONLINE000621.htm&cdtime=09%2f12%2f2007%2010%3a58AM
Sorta makes my blood boil.
“More mortgage products” is what got us into the problem we have now.
You can’t “mortgage product” around the fact that you can’t have increasing house prices without increasing income and people like Paulson hate increasing most peoples income since they think its inflationary. That’s why they have been outsourcing as many good paying jobs to Chinese sweatshops as they possibly can.
Almost two million adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset to higher rates by the end of next year.
Of these 2 million ARM’s that are schedule to reset, I wonder how many already have a market value 20-30% below the amount owed on the mortgage. Probably most of them. Why would these people even be interested in a refi when their house is only worth 70-80% of the loan?
This from the charlatans who constantly yammer “free markets”? These asshats couldn’t define a free market if they had 24 hours to answer.
I wouldn’t get too worked up about it. I think most of these homeowners aren’t going to want to be saved once they figure out their home isn’t a money tree anymore.
Apparently more mortgage products are needed to prevent free-market economics from ever happening here in the land of capitalism. More mortgage products are needed to prevent responsible “non-suckers” from stepping up and buying homes at their actual value. More mortgage products are needed to keep idiots living in an irresponsible fantasy land that is financially unsustainable and is leading the US dollar into the shitter.
Thank you Mr. Paulson. It’s good to see that we’ve got all of our top positions filled with spineless, unintelligent yes-men.
“Thank you Mr. Paulson. It’s good to see that we’ve got all of our top positions filled with spineless, unintelligent yes-men. ”
Welcome to the circus where the snake oil is selling fast, everyone’s a clown and there IS NO POPCORN. Sorry Neil…
“Slower sales in the Baltimore area have come partly as a result of the credit crisis, said John McClain, a senior fellow at the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University.”
Suffers from misidentity ‘Nam flashbacks, once in awhile…
Yeah, or he thinks he’s Bruce Willis in Die Hard.
By PEG BRICKLEY
September 12, 2007; Page A15
Thousands of homeowners face an “imminent risk” of losing their homes because of clashes between American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. and its former financial backers, according to Freddie Mac, a government-chartered housing financier.
In documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., Freddie Mac said it seized $7 million that homeowners sent to American Home to cover principal and interest payments, property taxes and insurance just before the company’s Aug. 6 collapse. American Home quit making payments to tax authorities and insurance companies Aug. 24.
http://tinyurl.com/2sch6t
This is why when I bought my house I insisted that *I* would handle the taxes and insurance and send the mortgage companies copies teach year to show it was done. Some mortgage firms said no; I said thanks for your time and went on to others who would let me do that.
When we refinanced, same deal, except this last time it was the bank (ING) that insisted that the homeowner manage that stuff!
The thing that irks me about the above case: Isn’t that money in an “escrow” account specifically tagged for being paid only for tax/insurance? My memory might fail me, but last time I dealt with escrow accounts, it was a very serious offence to take money out of those for other purposes. Or maybe it’s just a case of AHMI still having the money in there but not paying it out.
Um, this could happen with any mortgage company, right? If so, how can anyone buy a home again, with confidence, ever, period? How can you possibly be sure that your lender will not go bankrupt and do the same thing AHM did? This is frightening.
Smart people may just decide to pay cash for the house. If enough people do that prices will crash.
How can you possibly be sure that your lender will not go bankrupt
…will not go bankrupt or deliberately scam the mortgagees:
In 2003 I took money out of my house, and the loan originator sold my note to this nightmare of a loan servicer: Fairbanks Capital
Thank God by the time I had to send payments to Fairbanks, the feds had already put the hammer down. Otherwise I’d have been stuck in the same boat with hundreds of other customers whose on-time payments were never posted, generating fees upon fees ad infinitum.
There’s a lot to be said for paying cash for a primary residence, loss of income tax deduction notwithstanding. Or at least deal with a hometown bank who’s not going to sell your loan to Gypsum Goode LLC.
from the link:
“‘People with marginal credit are not going to be able to get houses,’ Mr. Ogle said.”
So who exactly is supposed to buy the record level of homes for sale??
People with marginal credit (and no money in the bank, most likely) SHOULD NOT OWN HOUSES! I know that might come across as elitist to some, but owning a house is more than just making the monthly payment. Maintenance can kill ya. In many cases, when people are “marginal”, those people are one broken furnace away from foreclosure.
And these days, when it costs so much less to rent than to own in many places, it’s just stupid for someone on the financial edge to be buying into what I used to call “The 30-Year Lease”.
People with little to no money are not going to be able to………..
Buy a yacht
Stay at the Four Seasons
Take a trip to the Mir space station….
“The Horror, The Horror!”
So who exactly is supposed to buy the record level of homes for sale?
Credit is not the biggest problem. This country has way overbuilt for the population and there lies the biggest problem of getting rid of these houses.
i used to be in the buyers pool in manhattan. gave up, will forever watch from the sidelines. at this point the whole home ownership mantra and catching up with the jones repels me.
i realized it’s much better for me to have the cash to invest (my dream is to live out of my investments). my parents in law have an unused trailer in oklahoma, i’m asking them how much would they charge us for rent… and planting nice trees each time we go there.
an investor in a trailer! 
Julia - in a different way we struggled with with ownership too. We did own a home but almost all of our free cash went to fixing it up. (We bought a fixer-upper right before most of the bubble hit.) Doing the work yourself is okay if you have nothing else going on. We, however, have a part time business and are homeschooling our young children.
That experience and this blog has made me gave up on the whole idea/goal of home ownership. What’s the point, exactly? I’d much rather have the principal in the bank earning income to cover the expenses of living. As it stands we have money generating about 1/3 of our rental costs per month. We are not living off of it at the moment, but it stands to reason that we could get to a point where interest would generate enough to cover rental costs.
Someday down the road, if our “trailer” comes cheap enough, we may buy again. In the meantime, I’ve got better things to do than maintain a building or part of one.
Smart thing to do, I think. More and more young people should try to live off their investments. That means living well-within one’s means during the working years.
“‘Certainly, there is evidence that sales are decreasing from last year, but not enough to warrant hysteria”
As soon as sales people start using terms such as “panic”, “hysteria”, etc I think that gives their hand away as they are the ones who are are panicked and hysterical.
FBI RAID ON CRISP OFFICES RIGHT NOW!
Rad.
Are you posting from shackles??
Thank you VERY MUCH for printing an article about the “Silent Bubble” here in Maryland and NoVa. Everyone around here is either still delusional or just starting to realize, “Gee, duhhh… maybe there is something wrong with the housing market… but I am sure it will be better next year and prices will take off again!”
I am sick of it. The “it’s different here” attitude is almost as bad as in New York City or some of the worst places in Ca. People actually believe that everyone here is rich because we live near DC. Right… Because the government just hands out money to people…
Note the median house price in Anne Arundel county is over $300,000. The median income for Maryland (and for Anne Arundel county, by coincidence) is about $60K. So, houses on average sell for 5 times the median income. That does not work long term! Even entry level houses here are grossly overpriced, and most are PoS that need huge upgrades (new roof, etc.) or are obsolete (well water, septic tanks, etc.) and may not be saveable.
What a joke - I think this region will be second to last to crumble, with New York City being the final resting place of the Housing Bubble. At least we’re making progress to that goal.
The problem is, pondering the mess, there are people - - otherwise smart people - - that I work with in this area (I rent/live in DC btw) who are buying. It has slowed down immensely and prices have definitely crested and are falling, so they’re thinking “awesome! a lull in the market! Now’s my chance!”
They don’t realize that they’re merely the greater fool. We’ll have probably another year of those people. Don’t worry, tho, Pondering. Just like the Foreclosed Fools, these people will also learn their lesson. Slowly, painfully, and $10K at a time. It will be sad.
Yep, that sums it up. People here - even the educated ones - are perfectly willing to buy a $360,000 house on $60K a year and consider themselves “smart” for not going with that old-fashioned down payment. Or, we have the DIGADs (Dual Income, Grandparents Are Daycare) who go out and buy a $600K McMansion on $120K a year, which works poorly, and then is even worse once they have a few more kids or one of the parents actually has to spend time away from work with the kids (thus reducing their income).
Unreal! They all believe it is “different here” even though it cannot be “different” anywhere - either you can pay for the house or you can’t, and around here many people cannot.
As for the unending sprawl between Baltimore and DC, it is a wasteful design and not at all planned out, and I assume that NoVa has the same problem. Everything concentrated in a few areas so housing is cramped and costly and traffic is horrible. Duh!
People think DC is recession proof because it’s a government town. But 9/11 showed the folly of having government (or any organization) concentrated geographically. Telecommuting makes it unecessary.
FBI RAID CONFIRMED:
http://bakersfieldbubble.blogspot.com
Another one:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20744210/
BayQT~
Wow, that makes two articles from the Daily Press in Southeastern Virginia in a short period on the bubble. The other paper, Virginian Pilot, hasn’t run any negative RE articles that I have seen. They have been absolutely quiet. There is a huge glut of inventory in Norfolk / Virginia Beach and surrounding areas. Craigslist is jammed with reduced listings. Buyer pool has declined. And has a good ways to go before home prices are in line with salaries.
I’ve also noticed the lack of housing coverage in the Virginian Pilot. I I suspect that it’s because of all the strong editorializing the paper has been doing in favor of VB’s new program to relax building codes and allow more affordable (cheap, crappy, cramped) housing for average people, “like teachers and fire fighters.” Builders are making deals with the city to sell these dwellings for bargain prices, like $250k. I guess the paper cares more about getting behind this “solution” than informing the public about market conditions.
http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=132128&ran=39549
What If The Recession Storm Hits?
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/recession-1980-decline-GDP-equity+market/index/a/14069/from/yahoo
wow! quite surreal that the FBI dropped by.
Hey Crispy, excellent work.
I remember how for years now, you’ve claimed fraudalant activity by these characters. In fact, I have you to thank for, for exposing of what I am sure is fraud in my neck of the woods.
You know smugness is a quality I really do not like.
But it sure is difficult not to feel smug right now.
Starting to see listings here in NOVA that have asking prices that are “below assessed value”. Of course assessments have been coupled to pricing that’s been “uncoupled” from fundamentals for several years now. So I’m still not touching the stuff until fundamentals return. This is really going to roil assessments once it becomes more common place, but the counties will just up the rates to insure they get an uninterrupted revenue stream. I guess this is what Greenspan was talking about when he commented that the majority of homeowners will be untouched by any down cycle in housing because even if they do sell they will be able to “leverage their equity” which to me means just alot of marketing and smoke in mirrors in regards to valuation of the asset!!
Washington, DC condo prices falling quick. Saw a few 1 bedrooms advertised for about $250K. While still too high have not seen those prices in a few years. Saw a 900 square foot 1 bedroom at the Watergate for $330K. Watergate has HOA of $1 per foot per month.
My little house selling and price cutting story:
Put our house (4 bed, 3 bath) up for sale in Chicagoland for $350k about 90 days ago. Hardly a showing at that price. Dropped to $340, then $330, then $325 over the course of a few months. Finally got an offer for $305, negotiated up to $313. Close is in about 3 weeks (hopefully).
Getting $330k for the house would have been nice of course, but $313 still isn’t bad, giving me about 7% return on our investment over the course of around 4 years of ownership. Could have been much worse.
How can go on living knowing you “lost” 37K by going with 313?
How can you go on living knowing you “lost” 37K by going with 313?
Good job getting out right now, or at least that’s probably the consensus on the board. Sure would have been nice to get top dollar, but hitting the peak is a matter of luck, and if you’re in the black, you’re better off than almost anyone who’s bought in the last year or two.
Now please tell us you will be renting, not buying another house right away. Right?
Don Ho(r.i.p.), king of the bubble
Not so tiny bubbles (not so tiny bubbles)
Well defined
Make a contrarian happy (make me happy)
Make me feel fine (make me feel fine)
Not so tiny bubbles (not so tiny bubbles)
Make we warn, all others
With a feeling that i’m gonna
Love being right, this time
Pondering the Mess, I live in Md. — in fact, Ann Arundel County — and the constant mantra about why it’s “different here” is “BRAC is coming, BRAC is coming!” Our county execs sold their souls and every inch of greenspace in the county to developers years ago and this once-beautiful area is now turning into a ghastly Rockville-like mess of empty, overpriced housing and unecessary retail strips (because I guess all those people working those minimum-wage jobs are going to buy those townhouses that start at $600K).
Funny thing, I am not known as a *really smart person* money-wise, but I was alone among my friends in resisting the siren call of homeownership. REALLY funny when you consider that I was a realtor, and when clients would boggle that I “still rented,” I would tell them honestly that buying wasn’t always the best option for everyone and renting was a perfectly respectable way to live. (I got out of the bizness just in time, btw–I was doing well but I knew I wasn’t experienced or established enough to ride out a prolonged slump.) My rent is less than a third of what a mortgage payment for a POS dump would be around here and I am currently in the process of looking for a newer, nicer place to rent while my friends are desperate trying to either sell or pay off their HELOCs.
Incidentally, there are a lot of bad, unscrupulous realtors but I can honestly say that I was not one, nor was the agency I was in. We were extremely conservative about loans and would implore people not to go the HELOC route. Even before the slump hit home-equity loans were forcing too many people into foreclosure. Just my 2 cents.
Crazed Opossum: Great name, and nice to hear of another person in Anne Arundel county who has resisted the siren’s call to home debtorship. “Get your $400K starter townhouse today - real estate only goes up!” They are selling $500+K McMansions in places like Glen Burnie, for crying out loud - WHY!!
And yes, you hit another sore point with me - they have paved over or going to pave over every inch of this county with idiotic shopping malls, condos, etc. that nobody needs. By the time the latest mall finishes, I’ll have: 2 or 3 Wal-marts, 2 Lowe’s, 2 Home Depots, 2 Best Buys, and 2 Circuit Citys - all within 6 miles of each other!? What are these madmen thinking!?
Oh, BRAC will save us - I guess because all those people who are moving here (and I bet it will be far fewer than they dream) are making $100K to $200K a year, so the $400K “starter” homes are properly priced. Right…
This state makes me so mad sometimes…
Heh, and when those BRACers making $200K get a load of the “lovely” Ft. Meade neighborhood of tattoo shops, bars where stabbings are a regular nightly feature, and boarded-up former chicken joints, not to mentions schools where students have to hold classes in trailers, they will just be thrilled to shell out that much money to live there…Ha!
Yes, I agree, I love it here but sometimes it makes me nuts, too!! Maybe legalized slots will save us all.
(Thanks for the comment about my name, I am one of the few people on the planet that loves the shy opossum.)