Nervous Sellers Missed The Boom
The News Review reports from Oregon. “To make the jump to a larger house, Eric Pickle and his wife have to sell their current home first. And attracting buyers has proven a difficult challenge these past six months amid a stagnant real estate market. ‘Unfortunately, I missed the boom,’ Pickle said.”
“According to the Regional MLS, houses for sale in Douglas County in July 2005 outnumbered closed sales by a ratio of only 3 to 1. Two years later the ratio had jumped to 12.7 to 1. The inflated inventory reflects a lull in home sales, keeping houses like the Pickles’ on the market longer than expected.”
“Pickle, who originally listed his home for sale at $237,000, has since dropped it to $197,000. He paid $105,000 six years ago for the four-bedroom, two-bath house on Rainbow Street. Since then he’s spent $30,000 in upgrades, and expected to turn a nice profit when he initially put it up for sale.”
“It didn’t stay at its original listing for long. Two weeks later, the Pickles slashed $18,000 from the asking price. They cut another $10,000 a month later. Not until they dropped the price below $200,000 did interested buyers come by to take a serious look.”
“Pickle said the home’s appraisal two years ago was $198,000. And that was before the upgrades. ‘It was a starter home. I was thinking how I can get in the market and make a profit on a home,’ he said. ‘That’s the whole idea.’”
“The Pickles, who are now on their own, had a contract with a real estate agent which ended Sept. 1. Pickle said he and his wife are constantly picking up after their kids and cleaning the house to make it more appealing to homebuyers. ‘There’s no relaxing at home now,’ he said.”
“‘Really, I think the prices are too high. Prices need to come down,’ said Diana Woodward, president-elect of the Douglas County Board of Realtors. The majority of homes currently pending sale in the county are priced around $225,000 or less, Woodward said. Newly built homes, however, are largely hovering at $400,000 or more and are not in high demand.”
“‘Two years ago you could buy a ranch for that,’ she said.”
The West Linn Tidings from Oregon. “The delay in closing the deal on the sale of two properties owned by the West Linn-Wilsonville School District will continue probably until the spring of 2009, according to Dale Hoogestraat, chair of the school board.”
“The softening housing market and delays getting through the cities’ permitting processes, Hoogestraat said, are reasons for the delay.”
“Those earnest money payments are not refundable, but beyond that Hoogestraat says keeping the contracts is in the best interest of saving taxpayers’ money because if either deal defaults, the land could not be sold today for the same price.”
“‘The market has softened to the point that we are in very good shape price wise,’ he said. ‘In today’s market, we would not be able to sell at those prices.’”
The Olympian from Washington. “The South Sound real-estate market has shifted from a sellers’ to a buyers’ market in the past year. Inventories of homes, pushed by new-home builders entering the market, have swelled, sales volume is down and homes are staying on the market longer before they sell, according to two regional MLS’s.”
“The shift to a slower sales market attracted Roman and Rosemarie Pitka of Tenino to the remodeling show. Roman said he thought of selling his Tenino home recently but decided to remodel as the region’s real-estate market cooled in recent months.”
“‘A few years ago, homes were selling in a month or two, but not now,’ said Roman Pitka.”
“The couple have noticed it taking longer for Tenino-area homes to sell. ‘In our town, ‘for sale’ signs now stay up for a year,’ Rosemarie Pitka said.”
The Columbian from Washington. “For the third month in a row, Clark County home values slipped in August below 2006 levels, as year-over-year sales dropped 21.67 percent.”
“Sales of new homes took the hardest hit last month, dropping by more than 52 percent from 2006 with a total of only 82 transactions out of 730 total sales. Builders have reacted to slowing sales with a dramatic cutback in construction as measured by single-family home building permit requests.”
“In August, local home builders sought 50 percent fewer permits to build homes in unincorporated parts of the county. Home construction represents a $350 million piece of the local economy and supports several thousand jobs in construction and related services.”
The Anchorage Daily News from Alaska. “Anchorage’s hot housing market has cooled. Evidence comes from the proliferating ‘for sale’ signs around town and in the Mat-Su, many of them marked ‘price reduced.’”
“The upshot is that the housing market in the state’s largest city, for the first time in years, is shifting in favor of buyers.”
“The number of houses for sale in Anchorage has increased steadily almost every month since spring of last year. By August, the inventory of Anchorage single-family homes for sale was the largest since 1994 and almost double what was available in August 2001.”
“In Anchorage, the inventory of single-family houses for sale in the $250,000 to $350,000 price bracket has increased to about a five-month supply, based on how many houses typically sell in a month.”
“The inventory of houses priced $1 million or greater is at 29 months’ supply. New home construction has tumbled to half of last year’s level.”
“Terrie Gottstein and her husband, Jim, recently downsized to a smaller home. But they are having a heck of a time selling off their sprawling stucco estate on the Lower Hillside.”
“These days, the house on Alpine Woods is mainly a source of anxiety. It’s been on the market since late October. Since then, an average of one house per month in its price bracket, $1 million and up, has sold in Anchorage.”
“So, Terrie has joined the ranks of the nervous sellers. She’s hired a professional who ’staged’ the house. The Gottsteins are holding frequent open houses, and recently, when Terrie heard about a business executive moving to town, she e-mailed him a link to a virtual tour of her home.”
“‘One of the ways to deal with stress is to be more proactive, to put (the house) out there as much as I can,’ she said.”
“Crystal Neff, who owns a home in Muldoon, is another nervous seller. She, her husband and their four kids are moving to Texas to advance his career.”
“After purchasing their Anchorage home a couple years ago, the Neffs remodeled it ‘from head to toe,’ taking out a second mortgage to complete the repairs.”
“They still owe more than $400,000 on the home but can’t seem to attract any serious buyers, she said. They’ve already reduced the list price by $15,000, and can’t afford to reduce it much more without losing some money, she said. She’s speculating that prospective buyers are getting scared by the national news about housing.”
“‘I am partly scared that it hasn’t sold or remotely had an offer,’ Neff said.”
‘ Oregon ranks among the top 15 states for high-risk loans made when lending standards were most lax. About 37,000 Oregonians had adjustable-rate subprime mortgages in winter 2007, up 17 percent from two years earlier. About 2.3 percent of those loans were in foreclosure in early 2007, which is six times higher than the rate for all loans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.’
‘Already, Oregon’s subprime borrowers reported more trouble meeting their payments. In April, LoanPerformance reported, 7 percent of Portland-area subprime borrowers were more than 60 days late, up from 5 percent a year earlier.’
‘Nowhere is it worse than the Medford area. There, 11 percent of subprime borrowers were more than 60 days late — triple the rate from the year before.’
‘After 37 years building manufactured homes in Woodland (WA), Fleetwood announced Wednesday it is closing its 135-employee plant within 60 days because of the poor housing market.’
‘Sharon Knight, Woodland Chamber of Commerce director, said the closure is going to hit the community hard. ‘It’s awful. Terrible. It’s one of the largest employers here,’ Knight said. ‘I would think a lot of people are going to be moving out of Woodland. It’s bad news.’
‘Dennis Sabo of Longview has worked at the plant since graduating from high school and was questioning his future in Cowlitz County after the announcement. ‘There’s nothing really out there open for me at my current pay,’ Sabo said. ‘I might have to move.’
Don’t forget to check out the Portland Housing Blog for all the latest news and updates.
http://www.portlandhousing.blogspot.com/
oh my God, is that normal to take out a second mortgage like that 6 years after buying the place? Holy sh**t, that’s crazy…does that mean that they borrowed the whole appraised value of the house? instead of like, let’s say, $25,000 to remodel…
Wow! Thanks for the info on Oregon, Ben. In the past few weeks, my wife and I have been talking about moving out of Southern California and going to Oregon. Believe it or not…..Medford or Ashland! I’m in Thousand Oaks, ca. but we’ve noticed Los Angeles and it’s problems are creeping ever closer and closer to this area because of the property boom. Street people appearing. Break-ins. Street crime increasing. We were in Best Buy over the weekend when the cops arrived to pick up shoplifters. Then there’s the congested traffic. The 101 freeway is nothing short of a joke. Just a short 6 years ago none of this was happening. I predict a lot of white flight from this area and crime going much higher. However, I didn’t realize that Oregon was THAT much in the hole where property prices are concerned when compared to other places. Looks like I might delay my plans for a year OR check out the rental properties in Oregon in the next few months. To quote my favorite mantra, “Now is NOT a good time to buy.” Sounds like Oregon is a looooong way off from hitting the bottom.
Street people appearing. Break-ins. Street crime increasing.
Those are your sub-prime neighbors. They were trying to make thier payments, but didn’t,
Mike, I live and rent (of course!) in Ashland, and it’s a really nice place to live.
There are many options for rentals here for such a small town, and rents are ridiculously low compared to house prices. My guess is that many houses that didn’t sell this summer will end up as rentals, which will make renting even more attractive in the near future.
Definitely rent here for the next year or two. Prices are coming down, but it’ll take a while before there’s anything resembling a deal in Ashland.
The low rents are common to many of these boom towns. In Bozeman, MT with a median home price in the mid-300k range, I rented half of a duplex, roomy 3/2 with garage and big yard, 10 minute walk to campus in a nice residential neighborhood for $700/mo. To purchase an equivalent unit would have run AT LEAST $1500/mo PITI.
“The Pickles, who are now on their own, had a contract with a real estate agent which ended Sept. 1. Pickle said he and his wife are constantly picking up after their kids and cleaning the house to make it more appealing to homebuyers. ‘There’s no relaxing at home now,’ he said.”
Hate to tell you this Mr (I’m in a) Pickle, you were always on your own.
He might be ready to dill soon though.
A little OT, but it’s funny reading articles like this one from the NYT that was published almost exactly 2 years ago: “Is it Better to Buy or Rent?” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/realestate/25cov.html?ex=1190174400&en=b9efd5c2fb7c2b8a&ei=5070
“I am a proponent of buying,” said Tchaka Owen, 37, a loan officer and licensed real-estate agent in Miami who is renting a two-bedroom apartment overlooking the bay there. “But you can get so much more for your money, renting instead of buying. We’re paying half the amount we would be paying if we owned this place.”
In Manhattan, 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom apartments on the Upper East Side now rent for about $3,700 a month. Buying a similar apartment costs around $1.1 million, which can translate into monthly payments of $6,000 or so.
I think the guy behind me, who had his house on the market for 5.5 months, threw in the towel. Saw someone moving in there over the weekend. And I suspect that the someone is a tenant.
He (or his family) had purchased the place in March ‘06, then put it back on the market in April ‘07. For about $30k more than the purchase price. I think Mr. Market said “Uh-uh!” to that idea.
“Pickle said the home’s appraisal two years ago was $198,000. And that was before the upgrades. ‘It was a starter home. I was thinking how I can get in the market and make a profit on a home,’ he said. ‘That’s the whole idea.’”
What a scumbag, he’s the reason people can’t afford starter homes.
“Pickle, who originally listed his home for sale at $237,000, has since dropped it to $197,000. He paid $105,000 six years ago for the four-bedroom, two-bath house on Rainbow Street. Since then he’s spent $30,000 in upgrades, and expected to turn a nice profit when he initially put it up for sale.”
Assuming an inflation rate of 3.5%, fair value is 105K * 1.035^6 = 105K * 1.229 = 129K. Fair value of the upgrades, allowing for depreciation, may be graciously estimated at 15K, which takes the value to 144K. I’ll bid 10% under that, taking us back to $129K.
$129,000. All cash. Take it or leave it, pickle dude.
Thanks for doing the analysis. I’m not sure you can depreciate the upgrades if they are part of the house, such as new windows. But still, this guy should price at $160 and be glad to get $150. But no, he just wants that extra 50 grand for being such a shrewd operator.
Well, yes you can. Seperated, would you pay more for a 4 year old refrigerator than for a comparable new one? Or, look at it this way: I had bare land in 2001. I spent $150K in upgrades in 2003 (built a house on it). Now, it should be worth $300K, right? WRONG. A house is, and always will be, a depreciating asset.
You’re right - the house is a depreciating asset, and the land “can” be an appreciating asset given the right conditions. I should know this given my 1984 model house needing something repaired or replaced every other month.
I do not care for his upgrades. They are not to my taste, and I will have to pay to replace them. Deduct from your asking price what you added in upgrades, since I will not pay for them.
Then further deduct what it will cost me to replace your atrocious design decisions.
Ronin- you are right on target about upgrades. The one house I am looking at seriously has white walls-and bless the owner’s heart- white bathroom cabinets. I could use whatever paint I want- because paint is all I can afford.
And the reason he can’t sell. He paid 105K and spent 30K fixing it up, and he’s crying that he’s “only” going to get about 190K.
Count yourself lucky pal. At least you can still sell for a tidy profit.
…and probably buy it back 2-3 years from now for 105K again.
What a scumbag, he’s the reason people can’t afford starter homes.
Dead wrong. The sellers can’t dictate prices - they can sell only for what a buyer is willing to pay. Mr. Pickle is going to have to take whatever he’s offered, regardless of how much money he put into the place.
It’s the buyers who have been driving up prices.
Yep. What a jerk. Thanks to his kind I am stuck renting for who knows how long (once the Fed gets done trashing the dollar, etc.) No, the point of buying a house is as a place to live! It is NOT an investment! Let Pickled-brains burn with the other flippers.
“Nervous sellers missed the boom…”
I love it. Nice zinger. Imagine you’re at home, thinking about listing your 4 walls w/ roof, googling “housing bubble” after you overheard a friend talking about it and seeing that headline. Love it, love it, love it.
Let the shants-pitting begin.
How about thinking about selling if you watched AG say on national TV last night that housing prices have further to fall?
Very true, like it or not the masses still take AG’s word as gold. Let’s wait and see if his comments take on a life of their own.
I think only the criminally insane would argue that prices WON’T fall these days. However, the variation on HOW MUCH they will fall has a lot of room for opinion. I’m of the 30-50% from 2005 peak mindset. Some FB’s may say “We’ll drop 5% and then start going up again next year”. Either way, AG is “right”.
AG also said prices will fall “farther than most people expect.”
What they fail to realize is that prices are still in a portion of the boom! It’s just the backslide and they refuse to sell at a portion not at or near the top. These fools won’t realize it until they are deep within the trough a year(s?) from now.
“The majority of homes currently pending sale in the county are priced around $225,000 or less, Woodward said. Newly built homes, however, are largely hovering at $400,000 or more and are not in high demand.”
…ditto for the Boise area. In the mad rush to cash in on the wave and equity locusts, many builders stopped constructing homes that the locals could afford and instead flooded the market with $300k-$400k homes.
This market report from Realty Times about Eagle, ID (a suburb of Boise) really captures current conditions:
“Eagle homes in the $200,000 - $300,000 price range are fairly limited in supply and are selling near asking price. Most of the Real Estate in Eagle is above $400,000 with over a 12- 18 month supply of homes in those upper price ranges.
With the Real Estate slow down that started late in 2006, List prices have been discounting from 3% - 10% with some rare instances over 10%. Seller concessions are readily offered in many of the new homes as builders have been pressured into oversupply by the developers in 2005-2006 requiring lot pay offs, instead of options previously available prior to 2005. This phenomenon has caused builders to borrow on lines of credit in order to have lots to build on. Now builders are faced with their own personal inventory of lots and a need to continue to build even though the market is already over-supplied.
Surprisingly discounting has been less than feared and most of the inventory sold in the last 3 months has been at 90%- 95% of asking price on homes below $500,000. Some of the homes near or over a million have sold at 90% of asking price with a few rare exceptions going for less than 90%.”
“The majority of homes currently pending sale in the county are priced around $225,000 or less, Woodward said. Newly built homes, however, are largely hovering at $400,000 or more and are not in high demand.”
Which means they’re not $400K houses at all but $225K houses with $400K price tags.
“…ditto for the Boise area. In the mad rush to cash in on the wave and equity locusts, many builders stopped constructing homes that the locals could afford ”
Oh, I disagree. A builder’s idea of an affordable home is called a “condo.” Maybe you’re heard of it? A condo is a essentially luxury apartment dwelling mistakenly labeled as a “home.”
Oh wait, do you mean an affordable single family home?!? On a decent plot of land? The kind for young families? Sorry. They haven’t built those since 1992. No profit.
Very true, and that infuriates me. There hasn’t been a single, modest-size house on a chunk of land built here in Maryland for probably 20 years. Instead, we get:
- Crummy condos: Nothing but glorified apartments for which you get to pay twice equivalent rent (thanks to the Bubble!) to listen to your neighbors beat their wives, etc. Great…
- Oversized McTownhomes: Because living in a 3 to 4 floor townhouse is so much fun! All those stairs are great exercise and wonderful when moving, doing laundry, etc. And you still get to listen to your neighbors make noise.
- McMansions: Big, sloppily built houses on tiny lots of land. You overpay, end up with so much room that you have no use for it all (but you get to still pay the utility bill to heat and cool it), and you still have not enough land to escape your annoying neighbors.
Oh, that and all new communities are ruled by iron-fisted HOA’s that collect monthly fees and then give you crud about the color of your shutters, the height of your lawn, and forbid you from doing anything to your house to make it more personal (planting trees, plants, etc.) Wait - if I can’t do anything to my land to make it mine, what’s the difference between that and RENTING?!?!
Unreal…
Eric Pickle?! Eric Freaking ‘PICKLE’?! Who lives on ‘Rainbow Street’?!
‘Oh, sweet Baby Jebus, I now thank You for Your benevolent pandering to my love of comedic drama. And please make Eric’s middle name be ‘Earl’, or else ‘Victor’. Then my joy will be complete.’
This is my prayer for today.
Seriously, I am beginning to think that baby Jebus does in fact hear my earnest murmurings, ‘cause tons of my prayers have been answered lately, except for the one where I want to be a pirate with a cummerbund and a big box of pearls, and the one where the Olympia Master Builders association members all get eaten by Bigfoot.
But those are both tall orders, and could just be taking some time. I’ll be patient and hopeful.
Speaking of religious things, at a really super yard sale on Saturday I found a little sterling silver ornament, it’s three small platelets arranged like a booklet, attached to a loop on top of each other, the outside parts are twining roses, and inside, there’s a very small Virgin Mary and a little symbol of an ‘M’, with a cross atop it, and a bunch of tiny stars around it all. It cost a quarter.
I’m not Catholic. Can I wear this around anyway, because it’s pretty, or will that piss off the Baby Jebus? I don’t want to make Him mad, now that we’re getting along so well and all.
I am beginning to think Ben is making this stuff up.
I would think so, too, except nobody would make up such an absurd name as ‘Eric Victor Pickles’. Characters in sad and emotional tragi-comedies should be named ‘Brad’ or something.
I’m not Catholic. Can I wear this around anyway, because it’s pretty, or will that piss off the Baby Jebus? I don’t want to make Him mad, now that we’re getting along so well and all.
The only ones who might get mad are Protestant Fundamentalists.
A good enough reason to hang it on my neck this very minute.
I bought an attractive small cross (trinket souvenier on a school field trip) as a youngster. At least my Methodist parents had a soh about it while trying to explain “catholic” & “protestant” to me, and repeating; “son, you can’t wear this”. It was all very confusing !
LOL, I love your posts Olympiagal!
I’m thinking that maybe you should check the weather before you go out golfing. And by the way, I’m in the Sir John Templeton camp of 90% declines. If you try to snatch a bargain at two thirds off you’ll still lose two thirds of your money.
Income…Salaries…Affordability…for the area- back to basics. Who can afford to buy your home?
You are in a ‘pickle’. No one ever said life or real estate was fair. There is no guarantee you’ll get a return (or even break even) on upgrades, especially in a deflating bubble.
The cliche’ that kitchen and baths upgrades are no brainers for ROI is over.
I seem to recall reading something that said that very few home remodeling projects will bring back what you put out for them. At the top of the list were the kitchen remodels, which brought back only 90%. With odds like that, I think I’ll head to Vegas.
During the boom, hardly any flyers arrived in my mail box from re-modeling companies. All too busy sub-contracting and demanding, and getting, thousands of $ off the major builders like DH Horton. Now I get at least 1 flyer everyday from a kitchen or bathroom re-modeling company along with carpet companies, window companies, air conditioning companies, etc. Sometime I get as many as four. On my street, there are 2 contracters who run electrical contacting and the other air conditioning. They used to leave early and come back late an, I suspect, spending a lot of time cashing in big checks. Now their trucks (each has 3 or 4) are sitting outside or in their driveway most of the time. This mess is going to hit a lot of people.
At least the HVAC guys can try to drum up some business doing HVAC maintenance (I probably should get the A/C checked next spring). The other guys are boned.
Stucco houses in Alaska? Doesn’t seem like the right material for the climate.
A better question is…$400K houses IN ALASKA?!?!
Pretty it may be in the summer, but the rest of the year you are freezing your tail off in the dark. And do they even have any jobs besides tourism and fishing??
How about the million dollar homes? A show of hands: who here would choose to live in Anchorage if they had a million bucks to spend on a house?
Not me personally, but there are loads wealthy hunters and fishermen who go to remote areas in Alaska and Canada all the time. I think that’s the core market.
Saw a TV show the other day with a couple looking to purchase a vacation home in Panama for $300,000 or $400,000. I pity these idiots. When the housing market here has tanked, “investments” in places like Costa Rica and Panama are going to be uber-toast. And I can’t see any reason why to buy a vacation home in Central America unless it is an investment. You can take a half dozen trips a year for the rest of your life for the cost of one of these places.
Yep. House building.
Oil.
‘do they even have any jobs besides tourism and fishing??’
When I was up there in 2001, I noticed a lot of people built houses for a living.
The most profitable Chili’s in North America is here. The most profitable Lone Star is here. The biggest grand opening for Petco was here. The biggest 30 day net receipts for Golden Corral was here. One of the most profitable Nordstroms (per square foot) is here. The most profitable Cal Worthington west coast car dealership is here. There’s plenty of money in Alaska - where do you lower 48′ers think the oil comes from (at least 20% of US consumption)?
Now are real Alaska millionaire has a 6000 sq ft house with vinyl siding (especially in the Valley).
Don’t feel too bad for the Gottsteins - they have the triple net leases for the major grocery store chain in town.
It’s just like the Simpsons movie, only the check is for $2000 this year.
AKRon, please feel free to add.
Alaska has the 5th or 6th highest median income in the country. Higher than CA and NY.
No state income tax and no sales tax either.
$2000 is per person not per household. Family of 4 = $8K a year in bonus money.
I guess that there has to some incentive to endure winter temps a low as -60F.
They still couldn’t pay me to live there. I was there in November a few years ago and it was MINUS 27, the sun didn’t rise until 11am (and even then it was a very dark gray) and it was pitch dark again by 2pm.
Can’t people hunt in West Virginia?
“I was there in November a few years ago and it was MINUS 27″
Where I live, we LAUGH at minus 27! That’s t-shirt weather.
Californians can’t handle anything below 50.
Seriously, I couldn’t even breathe in the air without a scarf on. It felt like knives in my lungs.
Anchorage is an interesting case… but I strongly suspect that it is overvalued by about 30% due just to bubble lending (which is on top of a temporary economic boom), if it is like the interior.
The money in Anchorage is mainly oil and the federal government (oil money powers the state government, which pays for a lot of local government, too. There are some oil company headquarters and lots of employees in Anchorage. Dividends are oil funded- should be about $1500 per person this year. Also two large military bases and much dinero via Ted Stevens and Don Young who have lots of seniority in congress. Finally, there is some over-pole transportation and intrastate transportation and manufacturing). Money SHOULD be tight, as the oil is slowly running out (the pipeline is now at half capacity- try to contain your ‘I told you so’s, peak oil people…) but, as you know, prices are going stratospheric. For gamblers, there is always the possibility of another oil strike (ANWR??) and/or a natural gas pipeline, either of which would trigger a boom.
Prices of houses have been rising steadily since the last big collapse in the mid 80s, but in the last few years the rate of increase has veered upwards. I have heard from a few realtors that the selling market in Anchorage has virtually frozen up. The Hillside that they mention is the wealthy part of the city. You have to realize that Anchorage does have a land shortage problem… it is a triangle hemmed in on two sides by the ocean (Turnigan Arm and Knik Arm) and by the Chugach Mountains and military bases on the third side. For those who want to commute an hour, the Matanuska Valley nearby has essentially unlimited land. There seems to have been some bubble pricing even there, which is amazing considering that the MS Valley covers thousands of square miles and has about 70k people!
What should alarm the almighty Congress is the fact that the bubble is deflating hard in Alaska, even though we have conforming limits of $600k for Fannie Mae, so clearly moving the conforming limits is not going to have a big effect on the evolution of the bubble…
Alaska houses are more expensive, due to the weatherproofing required for the weather extremes and the fact that some components still have to be shipped from the lower 48. However, that doesn’t justify the price increases they’ve seen in the last 3 yrs.
“Terrie Gottstein and her husband, Jim, recently downsized to a smaller home. But they are having a heck of a time selling off their sprawling stucco estate on the Lower Hillside.”
Correction: they didn’t downsize, they upsized. From one house to two.
Any guess when I can pick up a nice starter home in SE for 185k?
That’s the point at which renting and buying are the same. For kicks- look at the CL post of a Clinton St bungalow for 445k. I sold a similar one last summer for 380k. Some sellers are delusional.
Sign Holders for our 7 day Home Sale
Reply to: gigs-424683641@craigslist.org
We are looking to put together a “Street Team” for our 7 day Home Sale. It’s easy work holding a sign at the busiest places around the property during the hours of our open house.
If anyone asks, your job is to tell interested customers how to get to the open house. We are considering costumes. Costumes increase traffic. Nothing says “SALE!” like a giant fuzzy banana!
Work 5 hours per day on the weekends. 8.00 per hour.
* Location: Far Rockaway ….AKA GHETTO!!!!
Eight bucks an hour to dress as a fuzzy banana? Where do I sign up?
I’ll do it for free! I often do this anyway, just for fun.
* Location: Far Rockaway ….AKA GHETTO!!!!
It is unfair to call Far Rockaway a ghetto… most ghetto dwellers would be scared to go there in broad daylight.
I lived in Far Rockaway for 22 years. My parents bought their co-op in 1968 for $1,900. They are still in that co-op and just sold two 3-BR apartments- I forget the prices, but combined it was over $300,000. This gives you an idea of truly how bad the real estate sickness is.
$8 an hour! What’s the chances of the sign twirlers buying the property they are hyping. Try zip, zero, nada. Of course, that’s the under lying principal of raw capitalism. The worker cannot afford to buy the product he makes unless he goes to the banks for a loan and puts himself into interest rate slavery for 30 years which will also keep him on the treadmill. Ever wondered why a car worker can produce 200 car seats a day and his wages for the day isn’t enough to buy just one of them.
I find this stuff hysterical but sad. The majority of Americans make around $20,000 to $30,000 a year. Take out taxes and it’s less. Forget health insurance. They don’t make enough. Gas at $3 a gallon. Food prices going through the roof.
Oh, yeah. They can afford to buy $400,000 properties. Very, very sad. Many are not very bright and if they haven’t gone broke and have credit cards, you can be sure they are maxed out. The American Dream (if it ever exisisted) has gone and it ain’t coming back.
Majority makes $20 to $30K. Where do you get this stuff from? As for taxes, someone who makes $30K pays practically no taxes.
http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/medincearnersandstate.html
Government numbers?! Give me a break. My wife does work for 3 companies. In one of the companies the average wage is $12 a hour. In the other company which is food related, $10 an hour. Only one of the 3 has employees making between $50,000 and $100,000 a year. Of course, if you live in California you can get a job as a meter reader. $65,000 a year. Unfortunately, the US isn’t all California. I wouldn’t trust those numbers you posted. Those are in the same column as, “The surge is working.”
Speaking of the Pacific Northwest y’all…..What is the word on Sandpoint, Idaho and Coeuer D’Alene, Idaho. My Spokane friends have leveraged themselves to buy multiple properties in those cities. But, as you guys know, waterfront prices never drop!
Oooh, that sounds real ugly. Those silly sheeple!
OT…. American Home… Thieves.
http://www.lucianne.com/threads2.asp?artnum=360374
bk lawyers-technos-defense-gov
everyone else is screwed- getting a tree taken down for half of last year’s price…………
Because he thinks that “making a profit on a home is the whole idea” Mr. Pickle is in a pickle.
“I was thinking how I can get in the market and make a profit on a home,’ he said. ‘That’s the whole idea.”
Hate to break the news to you Eric, but the idea is to have a roof over your head!
“Nowhere is it worse than the Medford area. There, 11 percent of subprime borrowers were more than 60 days late — triple the rate from the year before.”
Southern Oregon posters, correct me if I’m wrong, but Ashland/Medford seems like it was Speculation Central during the boom. Just wait ’til foreclosures become the new comp for the neighborhood. Lovely.
I live in Ashland and you are right on the money as far as it being spec. central. Nothing is selling here. My wife and I howerver rent a super nice three bedroom townhouse built in 2004 with a gorgious veiw of Grizily Peak. We pay $800/Mo. Last year three of the townhomes were on the market. they all started around 310K, price drops down to 249K didn’t help. According to the rent my wife and I pay this townhouse should sell arrond 160K…we are waiting 1-2 years to buy. Oh ya the townhouse has all the yuppy stuff, granite counters etc….Ashland ids toast.
“‘Two years ago you could buy a ranch for that,’ she said.”
…and maybe in two years from now you will be able to again….
“Horse Property” is still fetching strong prices in Eugene, Oregon area ($300k and up for 2 to 5 acres and a crap house). Regular houses (new or existing) on regular lots are coming down fast. $200,000 will put you in a decent 3 / 2 stick built; manufactured homes go for less.
Did people forget that no home improvement provided for a 100% payback prior to the bubble?
Google ‘payback percent home improvement’ to see interesting figures about payback for certain projects. Even pools usually only got a 30% return on investment.
Typically, you would hear on the flipping shows that if you spent $15K you could increase the price by $80K. (Isn’t that price gouging?)
So if he spent $30K on improvement, I’ll be nice and give him $18K for his efforts.
testing
“‘I am partly scared that it hasn’t sold or remotely had an offer,’ Neff said.”
Maybe this should read…………
“‘I am partly scared that it hasn’t sold or remotely had an offer,’ Nuff said.”
The Pickle Family are in a REAL pickle now!
I rent and live in Ashland and the market is crashing. My wife and I rent a very nice townhome that should sell for 160k if our rent were to cover pti but last year three townhomes in our complex were listed at 310, then 299, then 289, now 259 and no takers. Ashland RE is toast!
A friend in B’ham, WA. has her home up for sale and has now left the US for a couple of years. I’m looking after it for her while it sits on the market. This is the place that was listed for 360K in May, now down to 315K.
The Realtor left the spec book on the kitchen counter and I took a look: the house was sold for 34K (yes that’s thirty-four thousand) in 1989. (And yes that’s 1989, not 1969). I found that interesting because a couple weeks ago a friend who grew up here told me that house would have sold for 80K -TOPS- in ‘97.
And everytime I’ve been in there the past couple weeks, especially now that it’s empty, it’s just *felt* like a 40K house.
Anyway, seeing that 1989 sales price gave me a bit of insight as to why B’ham was on the early (2005) lists of “extremely bubbble-ized” cities. And also made me wonder how low we might go…..
Yes, Ben is correct! Ashland/Medford was one of the fastest appreciating markets in 2004-2005. I saw homes double from 2000 to 2002, and then double again from 2002 to 2004. Never did the economic fundamentals justify the inflating prices. Many transplanted Bay area folks drew comparisons to San Francisco, but those of us from other markets (e.g. Anchorage, AK) where we have seen the housing market move up and down like a slow motion yoyo, knew it would not last. Now the market is dropping, and it is picking up momentum on the way down. There are 200-300 empty properties in Jackson County, and by the summer of 2008, there will be as many 1000 empty homes spread throughout the area. I am an insurance agent, and I already see people picking up and moving to other areas (in and out of Oregon), and leaving the keys behind. It will be years before the banks begin to catch up with the inventory. I have seen this before, in Anchorage, and in the Tri-Cities, Washington. However, this time, this correction is going to drop like Dorothy’s house, in the movie, the Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately, everyone will be found under the house, wearing ruby slippers.