This cannot be a good way to sell a house. Give buyers the impression of downside momentum in prices and they could become quite patient. What are these brokers thinking?
"Give buyers the impression of downside momentum in prices and they could become quite patient
this is why you see the relisting game going on, however unethical it may be. if a potential buyer sees a bigger gap between original and current asking the perception is a falling knife so why get under it?
I just hope that our bubble market in DC / Northern Virginia shakes out by the time my lease expires in August 07. I'm worried that the market may still be out of whack then. I'm sick of renting, and sick of looking at a home purchase as a risky "investment" rather than a place to live and make into a "home" at a price that is at leat competitive with renting.
usually housing busts take several years to unwind. You can't time the bottom.
Housing always seems expensive (almost always - in '96 I thought housing was reasonably priced)
Buy when it makes sense for you and your situation. Buy when you like the house, you plan on staying, the financing makes sense, etc. Never buy hoping for future appreciation.
Last year was probably the only time in my life that I considered selling and renting - because I thought housing prices were so far out of line. In the previous boom / bust in SoCal, I didn't even consider selling - it just never made enough sense.
A nasty thought occured to me: Could some buyer be crossing out the price and penciling a lower one? Or even a compeating realtor? Games are played on the way up and I think also on the way down.
Enjoy
CR, Coming from one who DID sell in an area near where cirrus clouds form, I'm glad to hear you seriously considered the argument. I readily admit, if we hadn't had such a LARGE % of our assets in our house, we'd have been tempted to stay put. A comfortable house in a wonderful neighborhood is much more than a commodity.
So, hats off to you for your admission that "Last year was probably the only time in my life that I considered selling and renting - because I thought housing prices were so far out of line". Keep up the great work, your Blog remains fun & is appreciated.
The large percentage of ARMs could unravel the housing market much more rapidly than in the past. Check out the graph on percentage of ARM mortgages at this link:
I live in Carlsbad, CA in north San Diego county. We listed our home in March on Craigslist. We got a full price offer in two weeks (we probably priced it too low, or landed a whopper and didn't know it) and then chose to stay put. Sure we could have rented for the next three to seven years and had very nice gain and avoided the very real paper loss.
Also given that our equity is not a significant percentage of our net worth, we figured, "Heck, we only paid X$ for our home, owe about half that at 5.25%, who cares if its worth four times what we owe?" Depending on what inflation does to the dollar over the remaining life of the loan, we're probably going to pay it off with dollars worth two-bits or less. The other big factor: we didn't want to hassle packing, moving, only to live in someone else's property that wouldn't have anywhere near the details and upgrades our house has.
As baily wrote above "A comfortable house in a nice neighborhood is more than a commodity." The final clincher? My wife has too many rare and unusual flowers in our garden that she couldn't part with. I guess it was me or the flowers, and the flowers won. lol.
CR wrote:
"Last year was probably the only time in my life that I considered selling and renting - because I thought housing prices were so far out of line"
The problem is: where to invest the money without risk?
10y Bonds?
The relisting game will eventually land all the participants in court for unfair business practices or fraud. It is an outright lie to say that a property has been on the market fewer days than it really has, and this is a material fact in determining value.
A return to the mean in San Diego should translate to a 50% -60% price drop.
Yes, it's only just begu
This cannot be a good way to sell a house. Give buyers the impression of downside momentum in prices and they could become quite patient. What are these brokers thinking?
"Give buyers the impression of downside momentum in prices and they could become quite patient
this is why you see the relisting game going on, however unethical it may be. if a potential buyer sees a bigger gap between original and current asking the perception is a falling knife so why get under it?
I just hope that our bubble market in DC / Northern Virginia shakes out by the time my lease expires in August 07. I'm worried that the market may still be out of whack then. I'm sick of renting, and sick of looking at a home purchase as a risky "investment" rather than a place to live and make into a "home" at a price that is at leat competitive with renting.
JLA, a few of my personal guidelines on housing:
Last year was probably the only time in my life that I considered selling and renting - because I thought housing prices were so far out of line. In the previous boom / bust in SoCal, I didn't even consider selling - it just never made enough sense.
Best Wishes.
A nasty thought occured to me: Could some buyer be crossing out the price and penciling a lower one? Or even a compeating realtor? Games are played on the way up and I think also on the way down.
Enjoy
CR, Coming from one who DID sell in an area near where cirrus clouds form, I'm glad to hear you seriously considered the argument. I readily admit, if we hadn't had such a LARGE % of our assets in our house, we'd have been tempted to stay put. A comfortable house in a wonderful neighborhood is much more than a commodity.
So, hats off to you for your admission that "Last year was probably the only time in my life that I considered selling and renting - because I thought housing prices were so far out of line". Keep up the great work, your Blog remains fun & is appreciated.
The large percentage of ARMs could unravel the housing market much more rapidly than in the past. Check out the graph on percentage of ARM mortgages at this link:
The Big Picture
I live in Carlsbad, CA in north San Diego county. We listed our home in March on Craigslist. We got a full price offer in two weeks (we probably priced it too low, or landed a whopper and didn't know it) and then chose to stay put. Sure we could have rented for the next three to seven years and had very nice gain and avoided the very real paper loss.
Also given that our equity is not a significant percentage of our net worth, we figured, "Heck, we only paid X$ for our home, owe about half that at 5.25%, who cares if its worth four times what we owe?" Depending on what inflation does to the dollar over the remaining life of the loan, we're probably going to pay it off with dollars worth two-bits or less. The other big factor: we didn't want to hassle packing, moving, only to live in someone else's property that wouldn't have anywhere near the details and upgrades our house has.
As baily wrote above "A comfortable house in a nice neighborhood is more than a commodity." The final clincher? My wife has too many rare and unusual flowers in our garden that she couldn't part with. I guess it was me or the flowers, and the flowers won. lol.
Best,
CR wrote:
"Last year was probably the only time in my life that I considered selling and renting - because I thought housing prices were so far out of line"
The problem is: where to invest the money without risk?
10y Bonds?
The relisting game will eventually land all the participants in court for unfair business practices or fraud. It is an outright lie to say that a property has been on the market fewer days than it really has, and this is a material fact in determining value.
CR,
Your link to Nouriel Roubini's blog needs to be updated.
RGE - Nouriel Roubini's Global EconoMonitor
island42, thanks.
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