When homeowners are desperate to sell

[CountAllVotes]

By Marilyn Lewis

Margot Ray, a radio-ad saleswoman in Stockton, Calif., put her five-bedroom, three-bath house on the market in February for $480,000. There it sat, along with about 3,000 other homes for sale. She dropped the price to $465,000 in April. Nada. "We'd have an open house and maybe one or two people would come by. I had an open house where nobody came," Ray says.

In July, she had a brainstorm: Why not advertise on the radio? The ad put the house on the map. Now agents remember the address. The price is down to $427,000 and, at a recent open house where Ray raffled football tickets and a spa day, 15 groups of potential buyers showed up on a 107-degree day.

But it still hasn't sold.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/HomebuyingGuide/WhenHomeownersAreDesperateToSell.aspx

It is no longer a matter of when the housing bubble will go *pop*. The housing bubble has *popped* I'd say!

:dem:

[villager]

1. over $400,000 to live in Stockton? Is there a lot of land attached?

The mind of this native Californio continues to stay boggled...

[CountAllVotes]

3. no joke - I loath Stockton personally

Stockton = a pit - always has been always will be. :D

[ixion]

2. housing sales down 47% from last year in my area

the bubble is gone, and the market is free-freefalling.

[sarcasmo]

4. Am I wrong for finding this funny. I have no sympathy for someone

Who can't sell their $465,000 house.
My wife and I looked and Condo's, $200,000 homes and Modulars we settled on the Modular because we could pay it off quicker. I will be debt free at 52 and will not be crying to moneycentral because I can't sell my half a million dollar home.

[kimmerspixelated]

7. See that's what we want to do...

Sell our house and just buy a place outright, with the profit.I'm hoping we didn't miss our chance.Even N. Virginia a really hot market is stalling now.

[sarcasmo]

9. My theory is, do you really want to worry about a mortgage when you

are in your sixties?

[kimmerspixelated]

10. Exactly!

[soothsayer]

21. ok, but the prices are still just absurd

[seemunkee]

12. I would like to do that too

We could sell our house and buy a nice townhouse and be mortgage free. We will be empty nesters next year and my wife won't even consider it. I love this house but the idea of being out of debt, putting money away for retirement and being able to afford to travel would trump staying here.

[davidwparker]

16. That's smart. My plan is to keep my house until I'm about to retire and

then downgrade to a condo. By then, the housing market should be rebound, the depression over, and * only a nightmare that has passed.

[Porcupine]

22. Can't say I'm crying here either.

The people who own houses in this price bracket are generally a**holes IMHO. Whenever I have to work on their houses they more often than not treat me like crap. I can just afford a 2 bedroom apartment and it riles me to have people in Mcmansions cry poor when they need repairs done.

If the housing bubble pops people will still need repairs to the places they live in. Let it go.

[fed-up]

24. please see my post - #23 please see my post - #23

[fed-up]

23. Please don't bash all Californians that own a home in the $400K bracket

I slept in a closet for two years in the 1980's to afford my first home which cost $75K, then I moved 7 years ago bought a 3Br house on half an acre for $135K and did $50K worth of improvements. I was very ill for a few years and foolishly cashed the checks the credit card company kept sending me and ended up having to refinance instead of filing bankruptcy (yes, I felt I had to pay back what I spent), yes with a variable after two years and now need to sell.

Values were climbing here in California and I am hoping that I can find a smaller house, smaller lot in town that is affordable so I can eliminate my mortgage and not have to drive a vehicle if possible. I have other health issues and should have filed for disability 7 years ago, but was too stubborn to. I am in too much pain, most of the time to even think of having a full-time job.

Yes, houses are overvalued, but that is across the board, so that if I give mine away to make a quick sale, I then will be unable to afford something in town.

We are not evil people because the housing market got driven up by investors...

Please don't be so mean, we are all just doing all we can to survive in this totally f*cked up world, courtesy of Bush & Co.

[a la izquierda]

5. The median home price in California

is absurd. But hopefully the housing market will plummet and I can afford to move back. I know that's very selfish, but I think in many ways, the housing market was artificially jacked up.

[ima_sinnic]

8. a lot of my family is there so I have the same hope

... maybe I will get to enjoy my old age near my daughter and grandchildren. :)

[MADem]

14. I have to agree with you. The prices for a shitbox are absurd out there

And it's a similar story on both coasts, really.

But a correction is a good thing. And in the long run it will work out. It's a good time to save like mad for that downpayment, when the time is right.

[NMDemDist2]

6. the Real Estate angels were watching out for me in Phoenix

I had one Open House, only had 3 couples stop by, but one of them made an offer the same day and I'm happily living in NM with my PAID FOR mobile home on one acre

I thank Heaven every time I read one of these articles


and BTW I agree Stockton stinks--I went to college there and it's a pit

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

11. Soft Landing.

I fail to see what all the hubub is about. The economy is doing fabulous, and what we're seeing is just a normal slowing in the housing sector. After all, it's been booming or the last few years, so the fact it's beginning to settle is not a big problem.

:sarcasm:

I mean, it's not like people bought their homes at INFLATED prices during the last couple of years, and now their homes are worth less than they paid for them, or owe on their mortgage.

It's not like people have taken "Creative" financing loans on properties, because they bought them at prices they couldn't legitimately afford.

It's not like people have taken Home Equity Loans against their home's value, and now are watching interest rates increase, meaning higher monthly payments....while at the same time watching their float disappear as the home's FMV fast approaches their loans outstanding.

I watch CNBC and listen to the King george administration, so I am confident that they would not say anything that wasn't true, or try to make us think that things are EXCELLENT, when they're really not.

:sarcasm:

[HockeyMom]

13. Former for Sale Signs

are now turning into FOR RENT signs.

[villager]

15. seeing that here in L.A., too... "For sale" becomes "for lease..."

n/t

[abelenkpe]

26. Yeah, but

somehow I sincerely doubt that people can rent those houses out for the amount of the monthy mortgage payment. do you think people will pay that amount for something they wont even own? I mean, we are priced out of the housing market here in LA and both my husband and I work and have good jobs. we just don't want to pay half of our monthly combined salary to afford a dinky little house. That seems so irresponsible. Besides, I don't want a 30 year mortgage either. I'd be paying that mortgage until I was in my sixties. Screw that. Houses here are so grotesquely overpriced it's just not worth it. I think a lot of people are in our same situation. Who would want to take over someone else's mortgage and not have the benefits of owning?

[Alameda]

17. real estate prices

In my city (in the SF Bay Area) little one room bungalows were selling for $70--$90K 6 years ago. The same places are now going for $340K. They have only one room and a bathroom, no parking other than on the street.

IMHO a home was a place to make your home (place for family and roots), not an investment opportunity.

It seems to me we have lost our sense of real community. A very large percentage of communities are now inhabited by members who don't really have much history or real emotional investment.

[melnjones]

18. I bought my

1800 sq ft house for under $25,000. Still doing cosmetic repairs on it. I'll be lucky if it sells in a few years for much over $30,000 no matter how nice it looks by then, but at least I don't have to waste money renting.

Wanna see the housing market down the toilet? Come to Anderson, Indiana. I don't feel the least bit sorry for someone who can't sell their $400,000 house. Here people can't sell their $7,000 houses. The "for sale" signs went to "for rent" signs until the houses were sometimes too run down to rent...now we have crap hole houses selling for under $10,000, as well as actual decent livable houses selling for under $30,000. Hey America, see what you all have to look forward to?

on edit, http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListings.asp?locallnk=yes&frm=bymap&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnprice=0&mxprice=99999999&js=off&pgnum=1&lnksrc=&fid=so&stype=&mnsqft=&mls=xmls&areaid=3159&poe=realtor&ct=Anderson&st=IN&sbint=&vtsort=&sorttype=&typ=1&typ=2&typ=4&x=47&y=11

[Porcupine]

20. Wow. The lumber could be worth more than the house.

That's truly amazing. I didn't think anything in america was that cheap. If I didn't have kids I'd move there. There must be SOMETHING I could do that would make money there. Scrapping old houses maybe.

[upi402]

25. I'm sorry, and thanks for the eye opener n/t

[Warpy]

28. I don't think there are properties that cheap

anywhere in the whole state of NM.

A coworker of mine some years ago had an opportunity to buy his home, a two bedroom trailer on cinderblocks on half an acre of land 40 miles west of town in a depressed area with no employment sitting on parched desert land with no amenities. The price was $30,000.

I'm hoping he did it. Developers have now discovered the "pristine natural beauty" of that particular patch of desert scrub and have subdivided it. He'd be in fat city letting them bid up his property to get rid of the eyesore.

[kineneb]

30. we beat the price increases

due to the layoffs at WorldCom, we had to sell our home in the SF Bay Area. The sale price was over double for which we bought it. We moved to Lake Co. and bought a piece of land, had a manufactured home (fancy name for double-wide) put on it. Now our mortgage is $167.50/month, a sum we/I should be able to continue paying on for the forseeable future. Due to Hubby's health issues we just finished going through Chapter 7. Thus we have no debts outside of the mortgage.

If prices go down here, I will not worry. We bought the place as a home, not an "investment". I have no desire to move again.

[Spangle]

19. Same in Centeral Florida

"For Sale" signs are now "For Rent" signs. Even then, they can't rent them for what it costs to cover the morgage payment.

When the intrests rates dropped, it was a housing boom. Construction companys bought the property, built homes on lots that didn't sell quickly enough. And are now stuck with the note. granted, what they built and were setting on, did increase in value. Aghm... What ever!

The market price which was all ready rising, went up faster after 9/11. Alot of people from NY moved down here. Considering how much their houses are worth up there, these down here look like chicken feed. So they were willing to pay higher prices, without blinking an eye. That caused everyone to want a piece of the 'action.'

Sadly, the pay here doesn't cover what it cost to pay those prices. Then there is the major increase to home owners insurance, etc. No way it will be able to hold. You can drive down any street you want in my little neck of the woods and see TONS of "for Sale' signs. Some of them now turned to 'for rent'. Not the ones who are stuck in them and need to move else where. It's either sell it or don't.

Real sad.

[teryang]

27. Florida "Save Our Homes" tax limits in jeopardy

A sure sign of financial panic in the wings.

The high end real estate business in Florida is in big trouble. Increases in ad valorem tax asessments were capped several years back by the Save our Homes Act. Assessments increases were capped at 3 percent a year. So if you've been living in your property for just a few years since the huge real estate price increases there is no incentive to buy new property or to move. The reason? You'll be buying a huge new real estate tax bill and losing your Save our Homes tax protection at the time you buy.

What's the moral of the story? People who invest in real estate aren't protected. Land developers aren't protected. Middle class working families are. As the backlog of expensive condos and the market for second and third homes dries up with the unreasonable and unaffordable speculative prices, developers and others who made huge bad investments because of the availability of cheap credit are now trying to totally revamp Florida's ad valorem tax system to screw working people by taking off the cap and shifting the tax burden from themselves to people who actually live in their homes for years. They think this is going to cure their liquidity problem.

What are elected officials from local government to Jeb Bush doing? They want to remove the tax burden from their speculating land developer friends and place it on home owners by repealing the Save our Homes Act.

This is a sign of a huge liquidity crunch and economic crisis. Solution? Screw the ordinary working family. It won't save the land developers. Why not let them go broke?

[KayLaw]

29. ITA

I'm a native Floridian and resent the fact that these carpetbaggers are even considering this. My husband and I enjoy a simple, quiet life on a moderate income. We bought our home the old-fashioned way, with 20% down, 30-year fixed and view it as a place to live, not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's not our fault the builders have gone mad, throwing up houses left and right, and that speculators from all over have driven up prices out of proportion to fundamentals. We're being stressed by insurance rates and utility bills. If we have to pay taxes on some pie-in-the-sky valuation, what will we do? The speculators can pack up and go home, but this my home. My family has lived here since the mid-1920's.