Local Market Observations!
What do you see in your housing market? Builder problems? “Last year, when Terry & Terry Inc. was developing Cross Creek in Oakland, the company’s executives projected they would have three or four builders each starting a handful of homes in the subdivision by now. But only three homes by one builder have risen in the 129-lot development, which sits just off Tenn. 194 in Fayette County.”
“Terry Pagliari of Terry & Terry said the trio of homes sitting alone on an otherwise empty parcel is a disappointing sight. Pagliari said the company continues talking with other builders about lots, but the result is always the same.”
“‘Each one said, ‘Well, I like the subdivision, but I’ve got some spec homes I need to get rid of so I can get some more loans; until I get rid of my specs, I can’t get any more loans,’ Pagliari said. ‘That’s kind of what’s happening. It’s not a lot of fun right now.’”
Or foreclosures? “Bob Slade, deputy public trustee for Garfield County, said for 2007, the Carbondale area, denoted by the 81623 ZIP code in Garfield County only, had 10 foreclosure proceedings, representing 12 percent of the foreclosures in the county.”
“‘At this point, I’m showing four actual foreclosures in Carbondale this year,’ Slade said. An interesting sidelight, he said, is that two of these involve expensive dwellings - one a $1 million house and another that was priced at nearly $800,000.”
“Bob Horton, executive director of the Springfield-based nonprofit Urban Neighborhoods Alliance, said the region, like many parts of the country, is facing its highest number of home foreclosures in 10 years.”
“‘(Foreclosures) are not discriminatory,’ Horton said. ‘It’s not just the north side or the south side, east or west. It’s citywide and it’s all over the county.’”
“On Saturday and Sunday, Real Estate Disposition Corp. is going to try to auction off more than 450 homes across metropolitan Phoenix for the lenders that took them back.”
“These foreclosure auctions, which started in the Valley in December, are becoming regular events on the weekend as foreclosure rates climb. A few homes on the auction menu for this weekend have starting bids as low as $1,000.”
“One of the properties featured in this weekend’s sale is a condo in downtown Phoenix’s Orpheum Lofts valued at $299,900, but the starting bid is only $79,000.”
A letter to the editor? “We are being forced to foreclose on our condo, but unlike many other news stories you’ve done, we’ve done everything right…The increasing debt our mortgage is putting us into is making us struggle to survive. Our mortgage lender is crooked and dishonest.”
“Our broker assured us we would be able to refinance before any significant change appeared in the payment amount. Being new and naive to the intricacies of the housing market, we believed him. We certainly did not purchase outside of our means; we just believed, as everyone else did, that we would be able to refinance when the time came.”
“Since the market has plummeted, the value of our home has significantly decreased, and our interest rate has increased at an astronomical rate. We no longer can afford our expenses.”
“We are going to lose our condo, and it’s not fair. These banks and mortgage brokers took advantage of a booming market and idealistic buyers. Someone needs to be our voice to tell these banks that what they’re doing is wrong. - Delray Beach.”
“we are losing our condo . . . we are losing the SUV . . . we are losing our minds & it’s not fairrrrrrrrr. wahhh. wahhhh ” !!!
my reply to this crybaby:
“never, in my 4 decades of life, have I ever had anyone imply that life WAS fair. why are you different?”
Wrong point.
The right point is that it is fair to lose things you bought but couldn’t afford in the first place.
“fairness” is usuall a perspective of who benefits.
Yesterday I went to an open house in Kearneysville, WV. This house was listed for 469K. It has 5th bedroom in the open space over the family room, built in 2005 by Drees homes, model Antietam. That realtor was adamant on the price. I told her that if she can talk to the seller/bank and do a short sale I can offer close to 275K. She said if the price goes down to 275K, she will receive multiple offers and there would be a bidding war again. She said this is DC suburb and house prices are moving back up.
Give me a break. Firstly with these gas prices, 80 miles commute is no DC suburb. Secondly, I think all the realtors are in their own little world and have no clue about economy. I think realtors themselves are still not at realty with the current situation. They are called realtors but really out of realty. Well, if they had knowledge about economy they wouldn’t be realtors at the first place.
DC suburb prices are not moving back up:
See these charts: http://novawatch.blogspot.com/
Oh, and WV is NOT a DC suburb.
There job is to sell no matter what it takes, not to understand economics. Sadly, the dumber and less ethical the better. Smart ethical people would question their role.
Somebody call the Wahhhhhhhhmbulance!
Can I have some cheese with that whine?
Someone threw a pity party, and they didn’t invite meeeee!
What’s the difference between the dog whining at the back door and a FB whining at the front? The dog shuts up when you let it out of the house.
NSO
“What’s the difference between the dog whining at the back door and a FB whining at the front? The dog shuts up when you let it out of the house.”
now that made me laugh out loud and to myself.
I don’t get it - why would you have an FB in your house whining to get out???
(man, I’d just give ‘em the boot)
That letter made my day. LOL.
If I had to give a list of the most memorable things my mother ever said to me, “Nobody ever promised you that life would be fair,” would be right at the top of the list. I heard it constantly during the “it’s not fair” years of my life. By the way, those years were about 9-13 for me. Then I started to grow up.
..top of my list would be “Do that again and I’ll brain you.”
I checked the Palm Beach County Register of Deeds for the condo lady….Seems she and her [then] boyfriend purchased a condo, for $185K in 2005, and took a $144k “”"”"”"INTEREST ONLY”"”" loan for 2 years…..NOW, after it reset in 8/’07, she having to pay TOWARDS THE “”PRINCIPAL”"”…..Grossly unfair, I’d say…..
Seems she married the guy now, and is carrying his name and debt…
from the letter to the editor, in the Palm Beach Post: “…bought a condo within our means…” unfortunately, I’d prefer not to be the bearer of bad news, but, umm, how shall I put this: you did not purchase within your means. had you purchased within your means there would be no need to refinance at some future date, and no need for the bank to foreclose on the property. get over your delusional self, that includes your husband, and admit that you did not do your due diligence and screwed up. consider it a lesson learned and plan to be more cautious and do your research in the future. OK?!
“She said if the price goes down to 275K, she will receive multiple offers and there would be a bidding war again. She said this is DC suburb and house prices are moving back up.”
Nope, it was a fringe exurb for part of the bubble years. Now that prices are decreasing in the actual suburbs, and fuel prices are increasing rapidly, it is no longer a fuctional exurb. Since I’m throwing Latin-based words around, it should return to the rural splendor that it once was (rus, ruris = countryside). Of course, all of those McPlantations will sully the views.
I took a trip through WV hills back in summer/fall 2005 and was mortified by what I saw. Gargantuan monstrosities dotting the landscape. When I saw multiple NJ plates on rural backroads, I became physically sick.
“‘Each one said, ‘Well, I like the subdivision, but I’ve got some spec homes I need to get rid of so I can get some more loans; until I get rid of my specs, I can’t get any more loans,’ Pagliari said. ‘That’s kind of what’s happening. It’s not a lot of fun right now.’”
And the credit crunch goes into its next phase. Other bloggers have estimated that the surplus housing stock is being cut back by 350,000 homes per year with the surplus being in the 2 to 3 million range.
We have a long way to go. The real-estate/loan sales people are trying to argue we’re not in a recession. I think otherwise.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
As of April, there were 5.0 million new and existing homes for sale.
The real question is who is going to buy all these homes:
- Gas prices exceed $4 per gallon
- Real wages are flat (wages and salaries rose 4.4% yoy in April, while CPI was up 3.9% yoy in April)
- Employment is shrinking (the establishment survey shows job losses in each of the past five months)
- Home prices are dropping 1% to 3% per month in many areas of the country and are still way out of line with incomes and rents in many areas of the country.
- No documentation loans and creative financing are history.
Keep the popcorn popping,
Red Baron
This guy is complaining about not being given enough rope to hang himself with. That’s how builders operate: build, get rich, build more, go bankrupt, repeat.
Hate to repeat..but builder troubles abound here in Subvisions here in GA..
Again same story of build it and they will be able to qualify for a Million Dollar Home and Mortgage..
Builders are losing there butts here..as the homes they haven’t even finished in gated golf communities are being taken back by the bank..57 homes for sale, half built in 2006, 3 foreclosures and 2 are not even finished yet and for sale…and the beat goes on…
By the time the end of year come I will have a new remake for the 12 days of Christmas…rather renamed the “The 12 months of the Housing Bubble 2008″
Ann — any particular area? I’ve been looking off and on at areas at least 30-35 miles away from downtown, like Douglasville and VR. Not looking for anything that ever listed for a million, mind you.
Yep..took a friend to look at some awesome foreclosures..
Depends on what you are looking for..the ones we looked at were in Alpharetta, Milton, Marietta, Cumming, Roswell and Canton..age of homes were new to 5 years old and about 40-60% off peak price..got a great one for one of my friends in Canton, right on the border by Alpharetta for $300K(new. Was a investor property never lived in taken back by the bank.) in a community where all the other homeowners paid between $500-600K…The neighbors 4 months later still tell them they can’t believe the deal they got!
I have my license here but use it for friends/family..so this way I know they won’t get screwed by some fast talking Realtor….
Ann and Kid Clu - thanks very much.
Chip,
If you are looking to be 30-35 miles out, try Paulding County. I hear all the builders out there are toast. Before the bubble, the area was cows, trees, and bubbas, so there should be a lot of new/recently built houses to choose from.
WSB radio reported 9000 metro area homes were scheduled for foreclosure last Tuesday. I don’t know if all of these sales actually happened due to the new state filing requirements Ben cited on Friday.
Traffic seemed to have gotten lighter for a little while when gas prices went up, now its back closer to normal. I guess all the legally pharmaceutically impaired among us have already forgotten how much it costs to drive around.
Other than that, we are having major heat wave with disgusting smog resulting from it. I don’t think our AC has shut off in 4 days, so I really don’t want to see the next power bill.
Hate to repeat..but builder troubles abound here in Subvisions here in GA..
Did you see the Biz section of the AJC today? It was about the grading companies and the earth movers basically being moth-balled and/or auctioned off.
Somewhere in the article it referenced a number of 150,000 lots that have been developed but not built yet. I remember reading somewhere, maybe here, that metro Atlanta has a 10 year supply of vacant lots. Ouch!!
Multiply this by every major market in the country.
Ann - Can you recommend a good Atlanta-specific real estate blog? HBB is great, but I’d like to round out my reading list with something closer to home.
Florida - Sarasota-to-Tampa area: bad accident and fire closed southbound I-75 and created havoc for local commuters, particularly those who have to go to/from Tampa/St. Pete. Ellenton Mall took a big hit because customers either couldn’t get there or wouldn’t be able to get home again (in a reasonable time).
More for-sale signs, but sort of hopelessly stuck in the ground. Restaurant traffic seems down, but it’s hard to remember relative to last summer. 88 jobs cut at Manatee County; won’t be enough, IMO. St. Pete - commission agreed to put new Devil Rays stadium on a referendum ballot. The real purpose of that appears to be to let the voters say NO in huge letters - the only thing developers might understand. Voters still remember getting screwed on the last stadium, that was built with no team on hand and didn’t attract one when it was completed.
Picked up totally-unconfirmed rumors that a lot of stuff in fancy Lakewood Ranch could be underwater. I’ve wondered how many of those folks were posers. Reminds me of that “up to my eyeballs in debt” TV commercial. In Parrish - what, is every other house for sale?
And somewhere I read of a property tax assessor in the area who is getting realistic and accepting that short sales and foreclosures will begin to set valuation comps. That has been a killing issue for potential homebuyers because the assessors were using the last “good” sales, even reaching out a distance to get them, rather than the only real price - that for which closings are taking place not matter what they’re called.
In Parrish - what, is every other house for sale?
It sure seems like it Chip. I’m looking at a development out on golf course road and I’m starting to feel what posters here said a few years back, I’m afraid to buy in the coming months/years because frankly, I don’t think a lot of these subdivisions are going to be around, and if they do survive who’s going to be living there? Man, I have to tell you the predictions of the HBB have been deadly accurate, I remember back in 05 when Ben talked about razing entire developments in Texas during the bust there, I thought that was a bit extreme but it looks more and more like that’s the only way out for some areas.
I drove down that way (Ellenton) today from the Ruskin area. Took 41 to 301 to the antique malls. Deadsville at the malls, which usually have some sort of Sunday traffic. I’m sure the accident had a lot to do with it, on top of the economy and gas prices. On the way home, checked out a couple of areas of Ruskin. There was a whole bunch of Mexican guys with packed bags looking like they were waiting for a bus on the corner of 41 and Shell Point. I’m guessing they’re migrants either returning home or going on to the next job.
Took a tour of a couple of the formerly nice little modest neighborhoods with older homes and duplexes. Made me want to cry, they look like complete slums now, with trash all over the place, For Rent signs stuck in the ground, along with some For Sale signs. Saw a realtor on a cell phone sweating in his white shirt and black pants in front of one place. Saw a number of newer “fucco” (fake stucco) houses built on individual lots up for sale. Interesting to note that the older Florida block homes in those neighborhoods are not up for sale.
Palmy - interesting observation re the “fucco” boxes. In my experience, almost the only buyers of stick & stucco houses are pilgrims who are not very familiar with Florida life, termites or hurricanes. I wouldn’t consider a stick home here unless I wanted a cracker or historical house for some reason.
Still - right - it makes it difficult to focus on a neighborhood to buy in - what good is a great foreclosure deal if the entire neighborhood goes belly-up afterward?
Ann
If I may be permitted to start the ball rolling on the 12 Months of Christmas Song, here goes;
On the first month of Christmas, my true love gave to me
a vulture
in a Joshua treeeee . . .
Aquis,
I like the start.
On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
Two sign twirlers…
And a vulture in a Joshua treeeee
On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
3 insulting low ball bids…
Two sign twirlers…
And a vulture in a Joshua treeeee
On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me
4 St. Joseph statues
3 insulting low ball bids…
Two sign twirlers…
And a vulture in a Joshua treeeee
On the 5th day of Christmas my Realtor gave to me
5 “It’s different here”’s
4 St. Joseph statues
3 insulting low ball bids…
Two sign twirlers…
And a vulture in a Joshua treeeee
6 Ninja loans
On the 6th day of Christmas, my realtor gave to me
6 percent commission,
Five “It’s different here”’s
4 St Joseph statues
3 insulting lowball bids
2 sign twirlers
And a vulture in a Joshua Treeeeee
On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
FIVE S-U-Vs,
Four bags of rice,
3 insulting low ball bids…
Two sign twirlers…
And a vulture in a Joshua treeeee
Chip
if the devil rays stadium backers do it like the bucs did, they will start sinking pilings before the vote is taken. (always amused me driving down dale mabry seeing these expensive starts to a theoretically not yet approved public project. thats when I told the ex the fix is in & the vote WILL be passed)
then, if the ballot fails on the first 2 tries, they can attach a heart-tugging angle, like public school benefits, to the ballot, in an attempt to get ‘er done.
I have no doubt that sooner or later the stadium will get done. all that remains is to see how much corruption, back slapping & networking the good ‘ol boyz in the area pull off.
also, watch craigslist for an amusing barometer of pro/con remarks on the issue. youll see the usual raging truck-driving blue collar jackasses try to ramrod this thru with all their usual remarks of “yer unpatriotic/hate St Pete/hate children, god, baseball & apple pie if you oppose this” rants.
Aquis,
I believe AT&T park for the SF Giants, in San Francisco, was built by private money, no public money was used. “However the Giants did receive a $10 million tax abatement from the city and $80 million for upgrades to the local infrastructure (including a connection to the Muni Metro). The Giants have a 66-year lease on the 12.5-acre ballpark site, paying $1.2 million in rent annually to the San Francisco Port Commission (according to Wikipedia).”
Everytime a ballot came up asking the taxpayer to build a new SF Giants stadium, the taxpayer voted no.
Every day, without fail, Ben prints something that makes me do a “spit-take”. In the morning, I get coffee on my keyboard; because it’s 4:00PM on a Saturday and I’m on my back porch it was beer this time.
A letter to the editor? “We are being forced to foreclose on our condo, but unlike many other news stories you’ve done, we’ve done everything right…
We certainly did not purchase outside of our means; we just believed, as everyone else did, that we would be able to refinance when the time came.”
“We are going to lose our condo, and it’s not fair.
As near as I can tell, these people are the textbook example of greedy-f**ks. How, exactly, was the refinancing fairy going to wave her magic wand and make this house affordable?
I’m in downtown Austin this week. Can’t believe the incredible numbers of condos being built. Thought it was strange that there aren’t any lights on in most of them so I went riding around to the various buildings today. It turns out that many of the ones that look finished aren’t, but the construction workers don’t seem to be in any hurry. Where you would expect to see bus loads of workers there’s just two or three pickup trucks that come and go. This is on high rise units that are being finished out inside and on ones that are just concrete and steel. Some low rise units that look to have been finished for a while seem to be well occupied, but others look barren, no curtains or furniture visible. Maybe they were all rented by students that are gone for the summer.
I checked the Austin Condo Blog and they claim that some of these are fully sold with 10% down. I wonder how many will close?
Took my son out for another bicycle ride. We visited the other side of town where new spec home development continues. A few blocks away we saw a older fellow mowing his lawn; a For Sale sign with brochures was planted near the curb, so I stopped to check the details. I mentioned the tight lending environment and the new home development several blocks over (where the obese guy with a Stars and Bars had his BBQ out front on the sidewalk). The old fellow glanced over in that direction and said, “That developer has lowered his prices so much that we can’t sell our places.” Sound familiar?
Yes, things would sell much more quickly if ppl didnt lower their prices.
“Our broker assured us we would be able to refinance before any significant change appeared in the payment amount. We just believed, as everyone else did, that we would be able to refinance when the time came.”
“Since the market has plummeted, the value of our home has significantly decreased, and our interest rate has increased at an astronomical rate. We no longer can afford our expenses.”
What is this myth about refinancing at a later time? Were they looking to refinance to a 30 year loan? 40 year loan? Why didn’t they do that in the first place. Or was it that they couldn’t qualify? Were they looking to refinance to another ARM or another teaser loan which brings them back to square one. I don’t get it. Were they hedging on getting a big pay raise in 2-5 years? or sell the house to make a killing?
And think about how only about 10 years ago it was a sign of some family misfortune or really poor money management to refinance and it was usually done on the downlow…Everyone wanted to build equity and actually own their house, which can only happen when you pay off your mortgage.
We just believed, as everyone else did, that we would be able to refinance when the time came.”
*I* never believed that! I never considered an adjustable mortgage for one millisecond! I knew they were bad deals, and dangerous.
If you didnt plan on the paying the max rate under your variable rate mortgage when you signed up for it in determining whether you could afford it, you shouldn’t have been buying the house, you should have been investing in an education.
Tim
I like your fairy tale. When did your high powered, self motivating lawyers that you can’t trust to work at home ever learn how to balance a check book?
“Were they hedging on getting a big pay raise in 2-5 years? or sell the house to make a killing?”
You make a great point here that’s often missed. Nearly everyone who took out an adjustable mortgage when fixed rates were at 40-year lows, was hoping to GET RICH QUICK. They were all specu-vestors, even though now it’s all “BOO HOO! Help us Barney Frank! Give us some mone, Obama! We’re going to lose our home!”
There’s only one type of person who should get an i/o loan with a teaser rate–and that’s someone with enough cash to simply write a check and pay off the mortgage if they need to.
Of course, if you never had any intention to pay off the home, and are essentially broke, you can get one, too. But don’t cry to the newspapers and politicians when you have to leave.
I noticed that my RSS feed reader is filled with juicy stuff on the weekend–until this weekend. I found that especially stunning, given the magnitude of the move we had in the stock market on Friday.
I did overhear a realtor saying that rental properties are doing better than actual home sales, but “not by much”.
I also noticed substantially less traffic this weekend around Northern Virginia, outside Washington, DC. It’s tough to guage whether it’s because people are going to the beach (common in DC in the summer) or if it’s because the economy is coming to a screeching halt. Would love to hear from Delaware folks if they’re seeing a decline in beach traffic.
I also went to a mall where it’s normally a major PITA to get a parking spot…I had my choice between 3 different ones.
A coworker made an offer on a home recently and called it off this week over a problem with the house. They really wanted the house and were ready to do the P&S except for a problem with the house. They found out that the sellers were going to do a quick and cheap patch job on the problem. Of course the problem would just resurface in a few months.
But the reason he gave me for pulling the plug is that they were being lied to too much. He had expected to be lied to but he was amazed at how often they lied to his face. So he’s out $1,000 in inspections.
The house was a little distressed and the problem with dealing with distressed sellers is that there can be problems with the property due to poor maintenance because the sellers couldn’t afford it.
“…there can be problems with the property due to poor maintenance because the sellers couldn’t afford it.”
Good point michael,
Also to surface if not already will be all the houses bought during the boom that didn’t include inspection contingency. (Oh and new construction can have more problems than resales as I have personally witnessed).
Think of all the dishonest sellers who knew their property had problems and cherry picked the offer (during the mania) that didn’t include an inspection contingency, even if lower than competing bids with the contingency. Those FBs (or should I say, their foolish lenders) have a lot of losses to realize in the future when the loans begin amortizing principal. Even if the FB can find a Greater Fool, good luck finding a greater fool lender and an inspection will be mandatory, thus sinking any possible deal involving third party financing.
Those are future REOs that the banks (or should I say federal reserve and eventually fdic and then taxPayersUnderThreatofPrison) will be taking massive haircuts on.
This mess is going to take years to clean out. Neil, please pass the popcorn.
Got diversified assets?
In the 80s, 90s, and up to last year, people in the Bay Area were buying houses and waving the inspection contingency. The largest purchase in your life and you waive the inspection contingency. I don’t get it and I never will get it. I will demand the inspection as well as a geology inspection.
Here I am in Moab, Utah, where no one got the memo about the housing bust (except the used house salespeople, who are very worried).
But there are more condos/houses going up right this moment than in the entire 10 years I lived here. I hope there’s a special place in hell for developers/builders. This place is so beautiful.
But the mighty Colorado is right at the top of its banks. Very powerful and humbling to watch. Wish we could bulldoze all these artsy fartsy condos into it…they could float on down to Lake Foul and clog up the dam.
River in the rain
Sometimes at night you look like a long white train
Winding your way away somewhere
River I love you, don’t you care?
When you’re out of hand and your muddy bubbles roll across my floor
Carryin’ away the things I treasure
Hell there ain’t no way to measure
Why I love you more than I did the day before
(a beautiful song by Roger Miller)
Lost,
I felt the same way when I saw the Mississippi River while in St. Louis. I remember standing there and trying to picture Lewis and Clark rowing up the Mississippi.
When I am out exploring I like trying to imagine what it was like for the early explorers that didn’t have my maps, GPS and for my last resort, Personal Locator Beacon.
“it’s not fair. These banks and mortgage brokers took advantage of a booming market and idealistic buyers. Someone needs to be our voice to tell these banks that what they’re doing is wrong.”
Comment: Yes, it’s not fair…just like it would not be “fair” for the used car salesman and his finance guy at the used car dealership to recommend you pay too much for a car and recommend a loan that favors the car dealership’s profits over your ability to pay.
However, Americams don’t often put their financial well being in harms way by trusting used car salesmen and their loan officer friends. So why would it make sense to trust used house salesmen and their loan officer friends…especially when the dollar values are so much higher?
“I didn’t know any better”, “I trusted the professionals”, and “this was happening to everyone” just doesn’t cut it when you are talking about borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars. In the end, you wanted your “bauble” so badly that you signed loan documents without understanding them (or maybe even reading them). Next time, if you don’t understand what you are signing, get it changed…or just walk away.
There has never been a better time to catch a falling knife in San Diego.
From today’s sdhomes BUYING GUIDE:
Take advantage of the buyer’s market
By Sandy Fish
Broker/Owner, RE/MAX Ranch and Beach
Low-interest rates, available financing and a wide inventory of homes make for the ideal buyer’s market. But what does that mean for the seller? A buyer’s market can be good news for the seller too, if he or she knows how to respond to the competition for buyers. Most sellers will discover that with careful planning and attention to detail, they will find themselves in as attractive a position as the buyer.
Sellers wanting to attract serious buyers must begin by pricing the house in the right ballpark. An overpriced house will discourage buyers from even looking at your home. And, if they don’t look, there’s no opportunity to even discuss the price.
Hear hear! Kudos to Sandy for seeing the light. Sellers are simply never going to find buyers at 2005 prices, as easy money financing has dried up. Let the Dutch auctions begin!!
Ok..change in my neighborhood this morning..the signs saying million dollar plus(No one in here built a million dollar home or wants one) has come down and now we are listed with the 5 houses left to sell at 600K-700K…which is more like what about 1/2 the people spent in here..hubby and I still hold record for cheapest built ..
4 people in here got carried away and went over to the 900K mark..hope they plan on being here a long long time..
No comp in this community comes even close to it..
However, can say so far..community has held value for those that went under the 600K mark..they should be fine..
Funny thing is that the 40 families that live in here all seem to be of the same mindset..everyone put good money down(20-50%), everyone could have afforded to go much higher in purchase price but chose not to, and everyone drives regular cars but have very high paying jobs…most of our conversations revolve around retirement plans and savings..I’m not moving..I’ve found heaven..
CHELMSFORD — As homeowners continue to get hammered by skyrocketing food and fuel prices, home-improvement projects are taking a back seat.
The aftershocks are rattling Town Hall, where building-permit fees have dropped dramatically from last year.
“Things are very slow, especially for this time of year when building permits are usually at their highest,” Town Manager Paul Cohen said.
The town anticipated $680,000 in revenue from building-permit fees before June 30, the end the current fiscal year. With three weeks to go, the town has collected about only $480,000.
“Instead of building additions, most people are sticking to the things they absolutely need like roof repairs or remodeling kitchens and bathrooms to keep their home values safe,” Reidy said. “It’s definitely a much slower season.”
The latest home-sales numbers show that the Massachusetts housing market is still declining. That means no recovery in sight yet for the residential-construction market.
(Lowell Sun)
Michael,
Or anyone else from MA: I wonder if anyone has any info on how the Cape is doing.
I know a large proportion of year round home owners commuted to jobs off Cape. My husband used to have a 90 minute commute. It made monetary sense w/a Jetta diesel back in 1999 when we did it plus our home cost $150k less than if we purchased near the job. With today’s prices I can’t imagine those commuter’s costs not eating them alive. (Locally diesel is over $5/gal)
I just got back from a walk and was dumbstruck by a townhome I saw for sale. I guess it would be 94087 Sunnyvale.
This 1150 sqft attached townhome is located behind a supermarket. The asking price? $775,000! On top of that there’s $350/Month association fees!
In this area there are plenty of professionally managed rental apartments (in buildings built as rentals). A quick check shows that you can rent a 2-bedroom townhome in a nice place for about $2000, and a 3 bedroom for $2500.
A $700,000 mortgage alone, at 6.5% would be over 4K/month. Add tax, insurance, and that $350/month association fee, and you can’t get away for less than $5,000. And I’m being very low in my estimate.
And, with that “association” what do you really own anyway? Nothing! You don’t have the right to do anything with your place.
After 30 years, you’ll have so much more $$$ if you rent than if you bought that place and managed to pay it off.
I think my math is low. It’s more like $5600/month, assuming you put 20% down and got a 6.5% mortgage