<p>LOL!!</p>
<p>I emailed the next door neighbor of my dad’s house. They said the word is out that the house is on the market. We lowered the price and are trying to get the taxes reassessed. I looked on the web and all the houses in the area that are on the market are lowering prices, and when we lower ours they lower theirs a smidge more… Sigh</p>
<p>“Come to think of it, where we live now, the neighbors on either side of us are moving. You think it’s me?”</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>A townhouse is coming to the market in the complex where I want to live…</p>
<p>I have been waiting for a year for something to come on the market in that complex.</p>
<p>I think the price may be a little higher than I think it is worth…but people have been known to pay more than I think something is worth.</p>
<p>And then if BCEagle91 is correct…the value of the townhouse could decline more in price…</p>
<p>I would buy it anyway…but…</p>
<p>But the real downside is…my wife no longer wants to move there. One of her best friends lives there…</p>
<p>And she has decided that she doesn’t want to live that close to one of her best friends.</p>
<p>And I have a hard time arguing this. I don’t want to live that close to my closest friends either. I think that changes things. People need their space. At least some people need their space.</p>
<p>A friend of mine moved a few doors down from me, and I told him …“Our situation isn’t going to be like the I Love Lucy Show. You’re not coming over any time you feel like it.”</p>
<p>Still…that close friend of my wife isn’t one of my closest friends…so I can suffer and buy the townhouse and live there. :)</p>
<p>We all need a place to live and I’d guess that a townhouse has less downside risk than a SFH. We had a big release from the SPR this morning - I’m having a hard time figuring out why. Crude has dropped 20% and gasoline prices are headed south.</p>
<p>Bernanke’s comments yesterday were deflationary (gold, silver, natural gas got clobbered today) and the dollar is getting stronger.</p>
<p>First-time unemployment claims were higher (no surprise there) and monetary and fiscal policy options are limited. The Fed says things will get better in the fall and next year.</p>
<p>Do you believe it?</p>
<p>I would certainly like to believe it.</p>
<p>We need good jobs for higher home prices.</p>
<p>How close apart are those townhomes? In some complexes, you could be half a mile away.</p>
<p>I have no idea if the economy is going to get better in the fall…</p>
<p>I have no idea why oil is being released…</p>
<p>“How close apart are those townhomes? In some complexes, you could be half a mile away.”</p>
<p>The townhouses are attached…and in this case…the one we would be buy happens to be attached to my wife’s friend’s place.</p>
<p>^^^ Ooooo – that might be too close for comfort.</p>
<p>^^^Oh, I wouldn’t buy that townhouse. That’s like the old adage of not being college roommates with your best friend.</p>
<p>The nice house on the corner is not getting any bites, despite the great condition and lower price, I think because it’s over 200K. Everything else in the neighborhood is under 200K. The short sale is 199K. </p>
<p>I always wish we had started out pricing my mom’s house at what we paid for it two years earlier. We didn’t because we had done so many improvements, so we were trying to recoup the money we spent not only on the house itself, but also on the improvements. We unfortunately bought the house at the height of the market, when people were actually paying more than the house was worth to outbid other buyers.</p>
<p>It’s amazing how things have changed in such a short period of time. We bought Mom’s house in 2004, and we sold it in 2007. Houses on her block are still for sale that were for sale in 2006. And this was and is a nice neighborhood.</p>
<p>Until people feel better about the economy, houses are not going to sell. I don’t know if lowering a price to the rock bottom is going to help matters any. I know many of you are saying, Oh, it’s a demand area, and feel confident of a sale, but I would not count my chickens before they hatch.</p>
<p>“^^^ Ooooo – that might be too close for comfort”</p>
<p>“^^^Oh, I wouldn’t buy that townhouse. That’s like the old adage of not being college roommates with your best friend.”</p>
<p>yeah…i was getting this bs argument that we couldn’t buy the place because it was 2 bedrooms and a den instead of 3 bedrooms…</p>
<p>and then…I heard the friend argument for the first time…and I can’t really argue that…</p>
<p>so i said let’s see the price…if the price is too high…there is nothing to discuss…</p>
<p>Money usually can’t fix neighbor problems.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think that houses are also not going to sell until a lot more of the foreclosure properties (not just the ones that the bank owns, but the ones where the homeowners haven’t paid the mortgage for years but the bank just hasn’t gotten around to foreclosing on them) come to the market. </p>
<p>Prices won’t go up while that shadow inventory is there. If I were a buyer, why would I buy now when I know that prices will be coming down.</p>
<p>Just glad that I don’t have to sell my home right now…</p>
<p>"Money usually can’t fix neighbor problems. "</p>
<p>probably not…</p>
<p>I recently talked to a neighbor in a nearby town that consists mainly of oil and gas industry workers. Probably 12 houses were for sale on the block, and he said most of them were owned by the bank. It was a nice neighborhood, not expensive, but certainly, not rundown. I suspect these were people who were laid off and had to relocate to find other employment. They just stopped paying their note and the bank took it over. I would guess you could probably get a good deal on one of those houses. And they were less than ten years old. So I would think someone would buy one of those over a fixer upper, which is what most of the individually owned properties for sale are in my neighborhood. Some of them just need a lot more fixing up than others.</p>
<p>
Aaaack! Unfortunately, we’re trying! Our home-selling saga continues. I won’t bore you all with the details, but we have buyers who have walked away 4 times – and COME BACK 4 times!!! So, we’re still hopeful this will all work out – but what H & I now know for sure is that these people REALLY want our house. If they would just stop playing games we could all get on with it and be done.</p>
<p>Goal for self: learn how to do the quotebox thingy. Until then, I must do it the old-fashioned way:
“Until people feel better about the economy, houses are not going to sell.”</p>
<p>Agreed.</p>
<p>But also – lending has tightened to the point where many people who would normally be able to qualify now don’t. Yes, this is all a reaction to the loose lending standards that helping create the financial meltdown, but now the pendulum has swung very far in the other direction. FHA, normally the “go to” place for people who couldn’t qualify for conventional financing, has also tightened lending standards. While I completely understand and support prudent underwriting, it has definitely shut people out of the market. People who would normally be buying your home.</p>
<p>I read that 30% of home sales are now cash buyers because of the tight-credit situation. That’s pretty amazing - you have a lot of people that are bottom-fishing, probably for income.</p>
<p>I think the there were 4 reasons my CA house sold in 3 months:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Priced low, probably $50,000 below other houses in area ( and sold 35,000 below that!)</p></li>
<li><p>Had full inspection done, and took care of repairs, e.g. loose roof tiles, replacing faucets, some painting like front door, cleaning windows (NOT painting exterior/interior of house), etc.</p></li>
<li><p>Used terrific realtors who were big in area. The second set of buyers were also their customers, so they worked hard to bridge the selling price, even throwing in a few of their own dollars. Their pool of buyers was probably key factor. Even in a bad market, the are doing very very well.</p></li>
<li><p>I had no positive emotional ties to this house; I just wanted to be free of the house and the guy, so I didn’t argue over price.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>We are (maybe) four years away from retirement, and I want out of this house ASAP, but we have an aging dog, electric fence yard, and neither of us is available to walk her the way she would need in an apartment. Meanwhile, we are starting to declutter, discussing what will not be moved, and exploring retirement locations. Every box I process from the closets and the basement makes me feel like I should get a badge! This thread is keeping me motivated, so big thanks!</p>
<p>We are decluttering in a big way. The house renovations start mid-July so must get rid of “stuff” we have been accumulating in the house for twenty-two years. </p>
<p>So far we’ve gotten rid of a huge old computer desk, a huge 1990’s entertainment center from the family room along with the big ol’ dinosaur TV and vcr that lived in it, an old antique sewing machine that was serving as a tv stand for another old tv we got rid of too. We also got rid of lots of books. I cleaned out both kids closets and spent an inordinate amt. of time on a big ziplock bag full of old photographs deciding what to pitch and what to save. </p>
<p>We have a long way to go but it feels good to have made a start. We plan to put the house on the market next Spring but have to really clean out now to get ready for new paint and carpet to go in next month.<br>
Our neighbors down the street sold their house (got two offers) after having it on the market for about five months. Neighbors directly across street have had theirs for sale during the same time period and go nothing so far.</p>
<p>In some possible good news, Lewis Ranieri, the “father” of sub-prime, is getting back into the market. </p>
<p>[Mortgage</a> Pioneer to Revisit Subprime - WSJ.com](<a href=“Mortgage Pioneer to Revisit Subprime - WSJ”>Mortgage Pioneer to Revisit Subprime - WSJ)</p>
<p>This might help counteract the move by Congress to force banks to require 20% down for Qualifying Residential Mortgages (QRMs) as part of Dodd-Frank.</p>
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</p>
<p>I thought that the oil and gas industry was doing well (except for those parts hit by the BP oil well blowout).</p>
<p>My sister bought her house from the bank the last time there was an oil industry bust…she got a great deal!</p>
<p>The nice house on the corner has dropped its price to 205K now, after about a month or two on the market. It went from 233K to 223,500, and is now down to 205K. It is a nice house, well maintained. I am watching this house closely, as it is the same model as my house, though in much better shape. </p>
<p>The short sale next door is listed at 199K. It is in terrible shape, being mostly abandoned since Katrina in 2005. Some work has been done, but not enough funds were paid off by the insurance to complete the work. I can’t imagine that they would be able to get 199K if the well kept house is listed at 205K. The short sale is a different model, but not too much bigger, in square footage or lot size.</p>
<p>We are in a good public school district, so usually, houses are snapped up in our area. It is staggering how many for sale signs there are in the surrounding blocks.</p>