Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Jim Lee — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

Nice article. A local TV reporter callled me recently and wanted to do an interview about why our local real estate market was so slow. Happily I was able to supply her with information that not only was it not slow but actually doing pretty well. I explained to her that there was really no such thing as a national "bubble" of real estate prices because all real estate is local and depends more on what's going on locally rather than nationally. The internet looked pretty good.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

tim rogge — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

It is not just real estate news that gets overhyped these days. It is ALL news and ALL stories. The media is out of control with turning EVERY story into a big deal. They have mountain out of a mole hill syndrome.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Dennis ODonnell — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

Some interesting points. I'll add that land is only shrinkng, not growing. Simple supply vs. demand will tell you where the market is going to head as the population increases. The interest rate in my opinion is still a real deal. Remember those years when we thought 11% was a good deal. Only one way to go and that's up. Don't talk the blame game here. My small manufacturing company had to lay off all employess after NAFTA and Free Trade Agreements when all of my customers went to China.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Steve Colonna — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

Congratulations on yet another meaningless "feel good" article on the current realty depression. The average price of a "starter" home apprx. 200K, avg. mortgage PITI of $1800.00. How many average working Joes (80% of market) can afford that? The worse has yet to come, stocks might not provide shelter but they are not astronomical on a monthly basis. Hint: Blame Bush, Greenspan, Bernacke & the Republican dominated Congress. It will take many years to repair their damage, if ever.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Steve — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

John and Donna nailed it. RE sales are 20%-40% below year over #'s is because investors have backed off of buying in many markets. Housing sales are still strong, the problem is all the investors that are "flipping" their properties added to the usual new + existing home sales has flooded the RE markets. New housing projects just starting to break ground, will flood the market even more. And remember the builders that were gouging the buyers can come off their prices 15-20% + still make $.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Donna Robinson — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

Investor inventory is the first to cut prices. This has all the earmarks of a softening market, but it is actually hidden inventory. Foreclosures on exotic mortgages may be the wild card in all of this. If the foreclosure rates go as high as some predict, due to graduated payment adjustments and so forth, we may see a true buyers market developing over the next year.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Donna Robinson — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

As an investor and market analyst I believe the "hot" markets of the past few years are bloated with investor sales. Demand from buyers is still at high levels, but investor activity has dumped too many resales on the market. Reading ads for houses in my market, I can tell that a very high number of them are being marketed by investors. The "investing boom" is probably the factor most responsible for the additional inventory at this point, rather than falling demand from regular buyers.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Kevin Ward — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

Hallelujah! It's nice to hear someone else force some levity into the over-blown hype machine of bad real estate news. What's really agravating is when you see headlines that read something like "new constructions starts down" or "existing home sales down", etc. What they are not saying clearly is that they are basing their numbers against growth numbers from the previous year or month. Which is to say that growth has not stopped happening, it just isn't happening as much!

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

John — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

In this rosy picture you fail to mention that approx. 2 trillion dollars worth of ARMs are due to reset to higher interest rates. This will be occurring over the next year or two. These are the buyers of 2004 and 2005. They used ARMs because they couldn't afford payments on a 30 yr fixed. They can't refi because they can't afford those 30 yr fixed payments today anymore than they could a year or two ago. That means foreclosures and a sufficiently crazy # of foreclosures = price collapse.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

caahay — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

I agree with kevin ward's comments. If someone cannot afford to buy a house save their money and rent until they can. That is what most of us did. I do hope the doom and gloomers are watching the stock market and the economy still, going up and all the extra people coming into USA. Where are they going to live? Think good thoughts and work hard.

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Lyn — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

I am amused that so many folks are eager to shoot the messenger now that they don't like the message. Was minute-by-minute real estate coverage an "overblown hype machine" when the news was good? Or did it become that just now, with sales down and prices, too, starting to tumble (at least in in my area, South Florida — and in others, as well).

RE:Home Sellers Should Remember That They And Their Homes Are Not National Statistics

Terry — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 11:00:00 GMT

Housing prices were just getting out of control. We all knew that this increase had to inevitably reach a plateau. Maybe if those who are "renting and waiting" wait long enough, they may be an increased foreclosure market. Then they may be able to afford a little more?