<p>Called the agent on a nice little 3BR 1.5 BA home that just came on the market in a nice part of Lynchburg. I was hoping to take advantage of the depreesed market and make a low-ball offer. Well, it was already sold at full price. The agent said the market is still very hot and there is a shortage of homes for the buyers they have.</p>
<p>Don’t they read the papers in Central Virginia??</p>
<p>How much has the market appreciated in Central Va in the run up? Has it been lagging the national average and hence not really experiencing the bubble effect?</p>
<p>Things have definitely flattened a bit in southeastern PA.</p>
<p>Barrons, I know you don’t like to acknolwedge the 22% loss of value in MA since you still believe the real estate market is booming. It’s painful, but moreso for those of us who actually own real estate here.</p>
<p>It has appreciated about 35%-50% over the last three years and had lagged the market before that due to some large local layoffs in 2002. Just shows that markets are still local… Homes in Seattle are still moving well at good prices.<br>
Sorry about that loss in Taxachusetts but you earned it. Keep driving away business and that’s what happens. But 22% seems an exxageration. Latest data show more like 8-10% in the last year.</p>
<p><a href=“http://business.bostonherald.com/realestateNews/view.bg?articleid=159288[/url]”>http://business.bostonherald.com/realestateNews/view.bg?articleid=159288</a></p>
<p>barrons:</p>
<p>I think you’re behind the times with Taxachusetts. MA is not the most tax-heavy state, and has not been for a while. But real estate is still high.</p>
<p>Move to Florida. No hurricanes this year! (so far :/)</p>
<p>I was really talking about a general anti-business ethic. Today companies can be anywhere and Mass is no longer that attractive for a variety of reasons including, irony, high home costs for employees and aren’t the property taxes sky high too?</p>
<p>barrons…are you sure you aren’t talking about CA? High home costs, property taxes sky high, you forgot to mention the state income taxes and the ridiculous cost of owning a small business…</p>
<p>barrons:</p>
<p>Yes, real estate is high in MA. Didn’t I just say so? And if real estate is high, so are property taxes.</p>
<p>It should be obvious that it is more likely that bubbles have formed in high-cost areas. There is more margin for error on the upside when prices are higher to begin with.</p>
<p>Prices are getting weaker all over…</p>
<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061003/ap_on_bi_ge/troubled_housing;_ylt=AoqAVpJOVlART49.z9IDRLoDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBhZDhxNDFzBHNlYwNtZW5ld3M-[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061003/ap_on_bi_ge/troubled_housing;_ylt=AoqAVpJOVlART49.z9IDRLoDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBhZDhxNDFzBHNlYwNtZW5ld3M-</a></p>
<p>“was really talking about a general anti-business ethic. Today companies can be anywhere and Mass is no longer that attractive for a variety of reasons including, irony, high home costs for employees and aren’t the property taxes sky high too?”</p>
<p>They’d really prefer Burma, but child labor in Pakistan, and bonded labor of 10-year-olds in Bangladesh will just have to do. For now.</p>
<p>In my local southern CA area, homes tripled in price over 10-year span ending earlier this year. Now the prices haven’t fallen far but sales have dried up. No one could accuse CA of being a low-tax pro-business state during the housing run-up. Conversely, the states been in a little better shape this year, so we’re not really responding to any change in the relative business climate. </p>
<p>The most signifcant factor here is probably the increase in mortgage rates although these could move down again next year. However, I think that the lull in acitivity will probably cause some people who would otherwise be panic buyers into taking a second more measured look at the situation.</p>
<p>In any market, hot or cold, property will sell quickly if it is priced appropriately. It isn’t a sellers market anymore. I live in San Diego and I am quite happy to see things settling down a bit.</p>
<h1>13. The child labor now can eat and perhaps the family can accumulate some capital to achieve dreams.</h1>
<p>A lot of kids in our neighborhood worked in the fields during the summers. I started at 6 yrs. My sis started at 4. Of course we didn’t get much done but I guess Mom wanted to get out of the house.</p>
<p>They were eating just fine, and even had a surplus until the World Bank moved in to subsidize multinational shrimp farms for export, the Norwalk virus wiped out the farms, the land was turned to gray chemicalized wasteland, the watertable was destroyed, and the fish spawning grounds polluted, and the children were sold as bonded laborers to textile factories making cheap goods for Wal-Mart. All so you could have shrimp at the Chinese buffet.</p>
<p>Want details? I got 'em. Acre by acre. (That’s where my second home is.)</p>
<p>Six weeks ago, I helped redistribute 1,061 acres of land to landless families. This will just bring them over the poverty line of roughly $250 a year, but it isn’t enough to bring the daughters home. Wanna do that? I’m collecting funds for goats. </p>
<p>Xiggi contributed generously; you can too, with all your savings from Wal-Mart. PM me if you’d like info.</p>
<p>a realtor literally rang our bell and asked if we were selling our house…</p>
<p>we get letters all the time hobo from ( “private parties”). Ive also noticed people taking pictures of our house who don’t live in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>However even if we could afford to move, I wouldnt want to contribute to the “flipping” that is going on in the neighborhood ( when someone buys a single family home- paints it inside and out- does some landscaping and sells it 6 months later for double the price- which supposedly increases the worth of all the houses on the street- but for sure increases their taxes)</p>
<p>The market has really cooled in Dallas. We are still trying to sell our house there (moved to TN) and are close to bailing and taking the company’s relo buy offer. There just isn’t any activity, and we are, unfortunately, right next to a big construction site.</p>