<p>I could care less what is written on Economy.com. Statistics, schmatistics. I see the real deal, every day, no matter what you read there in Seattle or Lynchburg.</p>
<p>I can get all the regional analyses on Economy.com through my office.</p>
<p>And yes markets vary–Seattle and Lynchburg are still going strong.</p>
<p>Newmass–I doubt your realtor is showing you every rundown house in the bad part of town and every former rental home on a busy street. The housing market is huge in every city and consists of much more than the cherry suburban homes an upper middle-class person would be seeing.</p>
<p>barrons, thanks. At least you can get less filtered, manipulated data.</p>
<p>Now if they can just find a way to deal with improvements by HO, we’d have a better picture.</p>
<p>Also, do you get separate access to the Case Shiller data? or is that integrated into their reports? Historically, the CS data, back when it was CSW, looked at the actual real estate records that included sales price data, and excluded states like Texas, where this data was not recorded. Do you know what they do now?</p>
<p>Barrons, aren’t sales prices overstated right now? Aren’t sellers having to pay closing costs, pay for upgrades, throw in cars, etc.?</p>
<p>No, we do only commercial re so our data in mostly related to that.</p>
<p>That would be mostly in new homes by big builders and that data is not in the same reports which are existing home resales only. Now certainly some individual sellers may be giving such items too but not broadly IMHO.</p>
<p>From today’s paper, Barrons: Not a myth after all…</p>
<p>Mass. home prices fall 6.1% as downturn gathers speed
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | September 26, 2006</p>
<p>The downturn in the Massachusetts housing market gained momentum in August, with the median price of a single-family home falling 6.1 percent, to $352,000, and the number of sales down 21.6 percent from last year, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors said yesterday.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/09/26/mass_home_prices_fall_61_as_downturn_gathers_speed/?p1=MEWell_Pos1[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2006/09/26/mass_home_prices_fall_61_as_downturn_gathers_speed/?p1=MEWell_Pos1</a></p>
<p>Ahhh quit your griping, you are still way ahead.</p>
<p>“Massachusetts experienced the most price appreciation of any state between 2000 and 2003, and the appreciation continued over the next two years and pushed sales and prices to record levels. The downturn is now in full swing, analysts and agents said.”</p>
<p>The west was still up a bit the last month and the rest of the country was down a bit. Still a soft landing so far and interest rates for mortgages should be heading DOWN shortly which will help stabilize things.</p>
<p>Barrons, it’s a house of cards starting to teeter…</p>
<p>Does anyone else watch the HGTV show that show prices in different housing markets. As a S. Cal resident, I was beyond shocked at wjat you can get in Seattle for $350K! What would cost $1.5M here in an iffy area. Emerald, can you freely convery a single family home to condos?</p>
<p>Our bubble has burst as has the bubble in my sister’s Bay Area community.</p>
<p>I watch the pattern of inventory and price reductions trek down my computer screen every morning. Ain’t gonna be no soft landing.</p>
<p>When my parents (Ohio) come out to visit my in-laws (Massachusetts), they always bring the home ads section of the newspaper. The moms like to sit and go through the ads together – my mother-in-law exclaiming about what you can get for $300,000 in Ohio and my mom being horrified about what you can’t get for $1,000,000 in Massachusetts.</p>
<p>I don’t think the game is that much fun (given that fiance and I will be in grad school for several more years!), but they seem to love it.</p>
<p>No soft landing; I think it is crash and burn time, coming soon.</p>
<p>Maybe if old Taxachusetts had some more favorable business attitudes it would not have lost so much employment the last couple of years which does drive the housing market to an extent. Seattle area prices still going up a bit due to strong economic fundamentals. Right now you just have to be choosy about where and what you buy.</p>