How's your real estate market?

[manekineko]

Has the housing bubble burst in your area yet? After years of skyrocketing housing appreciation, the market finally is slowing down, with housing prices falling in some markets. What's happening where you live? Are any of you trying to sell or buy a house right now? What's your experience?

I'm trying to sell my house, and unfortunately, the timing sucks. Up to about a year ago, there was so much competition for houses that buyers often paid above the asking price. Sellers were making a hefty profit from what they paid for their homes just a few years earlier. But now just when I have to put my own house on the market, the market takes a downturn. It is SLOW, and everybody is talking about it. My house has been on the market for over two months without a single offer, and it's priced very competitively. We've even dropped the price to lure a buyer, but no one seems to be house shopping right now. There's a glut of homes on the market in my price range. (I live in central Maine.) What doesn't help is that the nearby Navy base will be closing in five years.

Tell me your stories.

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[phillyidol]

All is fine by me. In my area, 15 years ago a single family house went for $150,000. When I bought 5 years ago, the going price was $250. Last year the going price was around $650. I plan on staying anyway, but my area is desired because its right by the park, ocean, everything. And it is still a nice middle class, working mans neighborhood.

[newwavepunkgirl]

I know it's alot cheaper to buy in th estates than it is to buy in the uk, it used to be the other way around but the house prices in the uk have got ridiculous...

Devolution is real

[phillyidol]

Don't forget, America is huge. My house with a small yard is $650. But I can get 60 acres of land and a farm house for $90,000 someplace else. It depends on where.

[hutter]

[quote][i]Originally posted by phillyidol[/i]
<br>Don't forget, America is huge. My house with a small yard is $650. But I can get 60 acres of land and a farm house for $90,000 someplace else. It depends on where.
[/quote]
Where? Even here in the south, no one can get 60 acres and a farm house for 90k. Unless it's the Haney residence in Hooterville.

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[marie3]

I have been watching the real estate market here on Long Island for at least 10 years. It is bad right now. Just like you said Manekineko. The summer of 2005, people were getting more then their asking price. Now, the prices have dropped and there are so many homes for sale. Not much is selling. I see houses that have been for sale for at least a year still on the market and the prices have dropped $50,000. or more.

Good luck Manekineko.

[Moparmark]

It is still pretty hot where we live thanks to the retiring baby boomers who want out of the big shitty(Toronto).We paid 106,000 in 95 for your average 1,100sq,ft 25 year old bungalow now there topping 190,000.Of course to upgrade you,re now looking at $230/250k.

[eight6]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Moparmark[/i]
<br>It is still pretty hot where we live thanks to the retiring baby boomers who want out of the big shitty(Toronto).We paid 106,000 in 95 for your average 1,100sq,ft 25 year old bungalow now there topping 190,000.Of course to upgrade you,re now looking at $230/250k.
[/quote]


Tsk, tsk, --- the big Shitty. Our place has doubled in value in the 10 years since we bought it. Our house was built on a double lot which makes it even more desirable. No plans to sell now though as we're in the middle of renovations.

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[birdmadgirl]

The market had been booming here for many years. It came to a big screeching halt a few months ago.

It's definitely a buyer's market right now. Supposedly, there are about 20,000 homes on the market right now, and I don't think this number includes condos and apartments, which are sprouting up everywhere. The inventory is huge and no one is buying. I do graphic design for lots of realtors and they're all about to starve.

The median new home sales price for late summer was about $340,000. Builders are throwing in all kinds of incentives (swimming pools). No one's buying, though. No one can afford to. Some of the realtors I deal with have knocked off $10,000-$30,000 on homes in the past month--and nada.



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[hexicon]

Not as crazy as last year, but still pretty good. In my neighborhood, a couple of houses at the high end (4-5 BR, 700-900K, with 180 degree water views) have been on the market quite a while, but the 3 BR houses like mine seem to go pretty quickly. We've still had some bidding wars in this range, mostly folks who were priced out of the Seattle market and find Tacoma a bargain (if you can handle a nasty commute).

[newwavepunkgirl]

[quote][i]Originally posted by phillyidol[/i]
<br>Don't forget, America is huge. My house with a small yard is $650. But I can get 60 acres of land and a farm house for $90,000 someplace else. It depends on where.
[/quote]

It's the same in the uk, like you don't want to buy in London you can get a nice decetn size house in florida for the price of a two-bed flat in London, no joke. It's cheaper up North but still ridicoulous in general. I'm glad I have my own house because it is so hard to get onto the property ladder now.

Devolution is real

[WoodlandParkPunk]

It was great here in Arizona up until about 9-10 months ago. The boom has busted here. My home which I purchased in 1990 for $65,000 was just appraised for $309,000.00.

WOW, but to find a buyer is getting harder and harder.

[phillyidol]

Trust me, real estate (in the long run ) ALWAYS goes up.Its still a great long term investment.

[stella]

Philly is right but I've seen some down markets last for years. I got a RE license in 1987 and the market stayed hot until 1990. Than it fell, dropped like a stone and came back slowly.

The thing is while my house may be worth more money during an up market, what you buy costs more too. The trick is not to hold on to that top dollar figure that you could have had, that money is pie in the sky. Focus on what you can get now and rely on the falling market to deliver you a deal on the buying end.

I've been looking at foreign property for a while now and at the top of the most recent buying frenzy my house was worth as much as 400K but my buying power in that market would have left me with less house than I had.

[manekineko]

This link is interesting.

http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/

Her argument is mere semantics. Whether the market decline is the burst of a bubble or a natural correction, the end result is still the same for anybody who is trying to sell a house right now. It sucks.

At the end she says, "The most important thing you can do in this real estate environment is avoid panic selling...Hold tight and wait it out, especially if you live in a market that has strong fundamentals, like lots of people still moving to the area. Over the long term, the value in real estate will stabilize and you'll profit. Now is not the time to sell. But it is a great time to buy."

Yeah, this is a good strategy IF you have the option to just sit tight and wait until conditions improve. But it sucks for anybody who doesn't have much choice and who has to sell NOW. And in my case, people are NOT moving to the area; in fact, they're leaving as the base closure gets nearer. I want to get out of Dodge now, while the getting is good.

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