Majority of States Report Declines in Home Sales, Incl. Former Boom Areas

[Human Torch]

Majority of States Report Declines in Home Sales, Including Former Boom Areas
Tuesday, August 15, 2006

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208413,00.html

WASHINGTON — The slowdown in the once-sizzling housing market is spreading, with 29 states reporting spring sales declines, led by big drops in former boom areas of Arizona, Florida and California.

Nationally, sales were down 7 percent in the April-June quarter this year compared with the same period in 2005, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday in its latest state-by-state look at housing conditions around the country. The Realtors survey showed that the biggest declines occurred in states that had been enjoying red-hot sales during the five-year housing boom.

The five biggest declines this spring compared to the April-June period of 2005 were Arizona, down 26.9 percent; Florida, down 26.7 percent; California, down 25.3 percent; Virginia, down 23.9 percent, and Nevada, down 23.5 percent.

The Realtors report depicted a tale of two housing markets, with former boom areas experiencing declines and other areas of moderate sales gains during the boom years experiencing strong growth.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "America's economy is rock solid." - Georgoe AWOL Bush

"Hardy har har, with enough corporate-republicon propaganda, the proles will believe anything I tell them. Some of them actually think I am a real Texan." - George Connecticut Preppy Cheerleader Bush

[ComerPerro]

2. You could tell real estate was gonna tank

when ads for products teaching you how to make money in real estate with no capital started appearing regularly on TV.

[redqueen]

3. Please please please let it be a slow, steady leak.

That's my mantra lately on this issue.

Let's all hope for a nice, gradual correction.

[Human Torch]

4. As long as it puts the "house flippers" out of business.

I have no wish to see the average homeowner hurt by a downward trend. But the house flippers and speculators who drove the process up? "A nice, gradual correction" isn't the first thing that comes to mind.



:patriot:

[redqueen]

5. I'm right there with you...

Those people disgust me... not only for their help making this problem worse (and it's happening in many countries, not just here)... but also for the pride they take in their greed.

*ptui*

[City Lights]

6. Me too!

One couple in particular. The couple who bought our AZ home for a song because that's all they could afford considering the changes they wanted to make to it (it was only 3 years old). Fearing a complete bust, we sold it to them. They didn't buy it to live in. They bought it for an investment. They immediately listed it for sale after raising the price by a HUGE amount (about $50K more than our original asking price, which we had dropped by the time they made their offer). They've since pulled it off the market. I hope they loose their shirts on it. Greedy Bush lovers (I know they love chimpy 'cause my kids went to school with theirs.)

[displacedtexan]

7. The bursting housing bubble affects everything.

When prices soared, so did property taxes, utilities and gasoline(Thanks, BushCo!).
Higher gasoline prices caused increases in groceries and other consumer goods.

Yet, income has pretty much stayed the same.

Now, hoping to hang onto their high-priced houses, flippers are raising
rents to cover their carrying costs (Feeding The Alligator). And let's face it:
if you've got a rental property in the same neighborhood as some higher priced ones,
what are you gonna do?

California added 60,000 new real estate agents last year. What's gonna happen
when they lose their jobs-- along with the other new-hires in real estate offices
across the country?

This is a huge damned mess.

Sorry for the rant.

[Lars39]

8. The developers are starting to take a hit.

I recently saw auction signs for 3 new houses by the same developer.
And this is in a county that has been 'booming'.