U.S. housing market prepare yourself for the "tsunami" that's coming

[Whispering Winds]

Quote:
Amen to that. And, btw, I stopped doing BPO's when they just decided not to pay me for them and ignored all communication. They sure wanted something for nothing. And, yes, they were usually depressing.

I didn't get paid for one, because I had inadvertently not realized it was up to ME to notified them that I had done one on the same property before 90 days were up with another company. WHAT!!! This is what sends my broker into a snit, they have spent $$$$ on different Realtors doing the SAME thing coming up with the SAME value . . .and then if you don't "match" what everyone else is putting in for value, they ask you to "readjust" it so they all match. What a crock!!!! I put a value of $130,000 on a gorgeous old turn of the century brick two story that I KNOW was as pretty on the inside as it was on the outside, and it was too high . . .listed it for $113,900 and whoever gets it is going to get a gem. It made me sick to have to lower the value so much to make "the client" happy. We live in a crazy country.

So true about the tax values too . . .taxes aren't going to do anything but go up . . .especially with the troubles all the counties are having keeping their heads above water. BUT saw in the paper where the Supervisor of Highways got over a $7000 a year raise . . .someone has money.

 

[ChikeeMomma]

I like to look at the local real estate for fun. I hadn't looked for a month or so and just earlier this week I was back on looking. I told the hubby that I cannot believe the nice homes for sale for $85,000 or less right now. And they are not even in foreclosure yet -- short sale maybe. This summer you'd find many foreclosures that needed much work, but now there are homes that are move in ready or maybe some little cosmetic updates. It is sad. And, yes, there are some who should have never been given the loan amount that they were given.

 

[Mattemma]

So many of the houses around us are selling for 20k to 70k. Great deals,but it kind of hurts since we are struggling to pay for a house that would sell for less than we bought it for,and to boot we put an additional 17k worth of improvements in the home! So we are stuck here,or we loose thousands selling and buying another house.In the meantime people buy(and pay off) houses better than ours while we struggle to keep ours.

Realtors list houses around here starting at maybe 100k and then you see a steady dropping in the price.A lot of homes start as FSBO,then relator,then sometimes auction. I remember one house by us was a FSBO and they were asking 122k.I thought *good luck*,but you know what-they sold for 123k! If a realtor would have listed they would have valued the same house at 100k or less due to looking at recent sales/ realtor listings.One house was just listed at 39k.No one looks at the FSBO house and figures it in.

I love looking at listings.Well I did.Right now it is just to darn painful to see those great deals.We thought our house was a great deal 5 years ago,now we just feel suckered.Live and learn I guess.

 

[Organics North]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

This needs to happen.

A free market can only function within the safe confines of property and contract law. When those are no longer upheld you get , well you get what we've got.

Geithner is warning that if we stop foreclosures the whole economy will grind to a halt. What? Now we have a foreclosure based economy??

It is blackmail again, only this time it is too late, the warning that if we hold banks accountable they will destroy the economy doesn't work any more. The economy has been destroyed and we all know it.

Like a fever this needs to be allowed to happen. We cannot heal until we get rid of the illness. We need to get a whole lot sicker before we can hit the reset button.

This is not about politics, because neither political party is out of the hands of big money. This has been going on under every administration since the Reagan years.

Watch the films by Adam Curtis called The Trap. especially the one called The Lonely Robot. The roots of this become sadly clear.

edited to add: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1087742888040457650#

Yep let the "bug" run it's course.. Stop bailing out the "infected" entities.

Matter of fact I am ready for a good ole depression to reset our broken system... It will hurt the rich more than us.... Let the greedy dogs go down....

(For the record I am a Liberal, leaning Socialist...

)

ON​

 

[SparksNV]

I was reading this with alot of interest. I live in Northern Nevada - top of the heap for foreclosures and unemployment (with the exception of Southern Nevada). We bought our house in 2002 before the prices went sky high and we took a small second to finish the backyard. We pay our mortgages on time (even pay extra to pay down the loan). However, as conservative as we are, our house will appraise for about 30-40k less than we owe (I know someone who walked away after their home depreciated over 60%). What we want to do is to sell our house and buy another with some land - not much just about 5 acres. However, while we don't owe alot (unlike people who bought at the height of the bubble) we just don't have any equity in our home. We want to "move up" and we can't. I would even like to refinance our loan to a 15 yr note but because we have "lost" equity we can't refinance our home unless we have the cash to pay it down to what it is valued at. I just want to refinance what we owe - I don't care about reappraising it for less to pay less- I'll pay what we owe! I tried calling our mortgage finance company and was told unless we have not made a payment in XX number of months they will NOT talk to us!

Any suggestions on this scenario?

 

[churchx3]

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I hear all the time that now is the time to refinance with interest rates so low. I have a 30 yr fixed at 6% and when I originally bought my home I had alot of equity in it from the get go. So I did not have to have PMI which saves alot every single month. BUT now with the drop in values, the house would appraise for considerably less which means even IF I were able to get a lower rate the amount of equity in the home is reduced so therefore I would most likely have to carry PMI on the new loan. I have talked with my bank about this and that is the first thing our of their mouth...less equity = mandatory PMI = less savings on the refinance. Catch 22.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
When I bought this place two years ago, I chose a 10 year ARM at 6.75%. That was pretty much the best rate I could get at the time and I figured we'd refinance before the 10 year mark, when it would convert to the adjustable rate. When the interest rates hit record lows a few months ago, I called our existing lender and asked about refinancing. They said that for $200 they would convert it to a 4.75%, 15 year mortgage, otherwise I'd have to go through the whole refinancing process to get a rate any lower than that. I signed a single paper and wrote a check for $200 and it was a done deal. That $200 saved us over $200,000 over the life of the loan.

 

[SparksNV]

Mac:


lucky you!

carol

 

[1dude]

The debt is getting worse, unemployment appears to be getting worse there will be no recovery! No matter what kind of stories are planted in the media, how much funny money is pumped into the stock market there will be no recovery. Its all about debt that is killing our country.

 

[HeatherLynn]

The key to this really guys is the American people have to change how they think before we can ever hope to get ourselves out of this mess. As a nation we thrive on debt so why would our government be any different. How often I hear, Oh we have decided that life is too short so for now on its only the best. I have a brother who said that and now they are facing losing their house. I have a friend who said the same thing and her husband turned down a really great job stateside and is serving as security overseas for the huge amount of money they can make simply so they can pay off the crippling debt they are under. Money comes in, lots of money goes out and yet still there is no pressing need to cut their debt and unnecessary expenses. Sounds familiar doesn't it. The government is a mirror to the people and the people need to learn the concept of a budget and living within our means. I feel the need to slap people when they talk stupid like that. It drives me out of my mind. But honestly how can we expect the government to make the hard choices if we are not willing to ourselves. I personally don't look to the government for leadership. We started out as a country that was led by its people. Right now the peoples leadership skills and financial skills are not good. No fix until that changes. If we have to wait for a politician to save us we are in deep deep poo.