Frustrated at the housing market!

[HelenePA]

Last month the house 3 doors up from me was for sale.. It sold in less than a week. I didn't even have time to see how much it was going for!

 

[a1tinkfans]

Because my industry really only exists in L.A. and possibly NY and there's no way I'm living in NY.

I am also born and raised here, and I have ALL of my family here. I make a nice living but we can only afford an apartment for now. We're working on it and have looked at a lot of okay places just above our ceiling. We'll get there! (But I'm not going to be stupid and buy something we can't afford).

If I told you my rent, you'd faint. I could probably buy Binny's house in Boise as an investment! (actually, we've been thinking about buying in Palm Springs to have a retirement home and rent it for now).

HEY, what wrong with NY??
Too High Taxes, Too High Food, Too High Gas, Too HIGH everything, okay, you're right, it is not easy here... but I wouldn't move to Ca

Houses here are still selling (not like they used too though) but all around me they seem to start to be selling more...so maybe looking upwards....

sometimes sellers just want the "easier" sale, ie cash, no big mortgage requests, no "issues" to possibly have the sale fall thru......It is not uncommon for people to pay OVER sale price to "get" the sale thru....could it be something else? Have you checked your credit rating to be sure there is no issue that maybe someone else is seeing??? Could there be an error???

Good Luck in your search, It'll happen, hang in there!!!

 

[a1tinkfans]

Because my industry really only exists in L.A. and possibly NY and there's no way I'm living in NY.

I am also born and raised here, and I have ALL of my family here. I make a nice living but we can only afford an apartment for now. We're working on it and have looked at a lot of okay places just above our ceiling. We'll get there! (But I'm not going to be stupid and buy something we can't afford).

If I told you my rent, you'd faint. I could probably buy Binny's house in Boise as an investment! (actually, we've been thinking about buying in Palm Springs to have a retirement home and rent it for now).

My sis pays 2400/mos for a 1 bedroom with a kitchen that is really....a CLOSET, well, it COULD be a closet, seriously! But she loves it!!!

 

[mamacatnv]

Market here sucks - nothing selling and values keep dropping.

In the big markets that "always" bounce back the investors are having a field day.
In markets like mine where some speculate the values will never come back nothing is moving and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. People are now walking away not because they can't afford it but because they feel the hit to their credit is better than spending 30 years paying for a house that is only worth a fraction of what was originally paid for it and all the "expertS" telling us that our property never will be worth what we paid.

1800 sq. ft. 4+2 single story, 3 car garage - 13 years old - Bought for $175,000 13 years ago, current estimated value $145,000 or so with no potential buyers on the horizon - value at the top of the bubble $350,000

Good luck house hunting........if i were you I would do everything I could to assure the seller that the deal would go thru and it sounds like you need to be padding the asking price to be considered. I remember when LA was like that years ago before the recession of the early 90's, people were having bidding wars on their front porches and running to the banks with their "winnings".

 

[kydisneyfans]

Billy Gillespie's 1.5 million dollar mansion sold in 6 days. Thank god he is gone now.

3 houses were for sale on our street, all 3 sold in March, all within 3% of the asking price. Our county had a 25% year to year increase in number of homes sold. 2 of the 3 had set empty since Christmas. I know of 1 foreclosure current in our subdivision of over 1,000 homes, although some homes have been on the market for awhile.

My parents area in NE Ohio had homes selling around 135K. That market totally dried up and the last home sold for 95K in their subdivision. Many are upside down by thousands in their subdivision due to the collapse in real estate there. What is happening in that part of Ohio is really sad.

 

[MoniqueU]

As far as i know Riverside county SE from LA is moving slow. Lots of foreclosures. Not sure

 

[DznyLvr2005]

There's houses for sale left and right here in Staten Island. Most have been for sale for more than a year. Of course it's because people here want tons of money for their houses. The house down the street 3 berdoom 2 bath no yard $700K.

 

[LilyWDW]

Heh, my boyfriend and I have a friend who lives in San Diego. One day they were talking about the housing markets and our friend inquired on an average price for a single family home where we live (NE Tennessee). So, my boyfriend looked it up and let him know... his response? "Hey, I could buy that right now!"

This is a college student with a full time job, just like I was. He still lived at home because he COULDN'T afford anything out where he was with the money he made... but he could flat out BUY a home here.

This was BEFORE the market crashes btw....

Goes to show you just how different it is across the country.

 

[JR6ooo4]

Houses are sitting months and years here. except entry level, foreclosures and the top 5%.

MIkeeee

 

[DMickey28]

Both southern and northern NH seem to be awful. A house near me just sold after being on the market close to two years. Sold for almost $100,000 below the original price. Another one sold after on 18 months for about 1/3 of the original price. There is a third that is for sale and has been for about 18 months - not sure what the builder has dropped the price to on that one.

I know at least one beautiful home in southern NH that the builder will practically give away - all he wants is to walk away from the closing not owning any cash to the bank. The interest carrying costs are killing him.

Glad to hear the market is getting better somewhere though. Maybe it is a sign that better days are coming here as well.

I am going to PM. The towns that we are looking at in S. New Hampshire seem to have a lot of new developments and I am wondering if we can get a good deal on a new house.

I think a lot depends on whether or not the house is priced competitively and the actual area of the city where you live. I happen to live in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in my city (I'm in Southern NH). Its desirable for the elementary, middle and high schools, as well as being easy access to a major highway, shopping and entertainment. Houses in my neighborhood don't stay on the market long, unless they're way over-priced. There's also not much for sale in my neighborhood and it doesn't have a high turnover rate. When we bought our house 12 years ago (buyer's market at the time) there were only about 8-10 homes on the market that had all three of the schools we wanted (elementary, middle and high). I work in a law office that does a lot of real estate closings and all of the realtors say that its still that way, very little inventory in our neighborhood and its not unusual for there to be a bidding war, even in this economy. In the other areas of the city there have been houses on the market for a long time before selling.

I am going to PM you as well. We are looking at lots of towns in that area!!

 

[RadioNate]

NO! My best friend's house has been for sale for more than a year with no offers. No lookers. Things that ARE selling are selling at losses.

Come to FL. I'd be happy to sell you my house for what I paid for it 2 years ago!

 

[Colleen27]

Nothing like that here. We paid 16% of what the house we just bought sold for in 2001. No, that is not a typo. We paid 20K for a 1700 sq ft, 4 bedroom, 2 bath house that sold in 2001 for 125K, and it is in liveable condition. It needs minor work, cosmetics & windows mainly, but the structure, roof, and mechanical systems are solid and the work it needs is minor enough that we can happily live there while restoring it.

I don't see anything that makes me think we've hit bottom here yet. Houses in the 10-20K range are selling fairly quickly, but even at the 40K price point inventory is sitting on the market for months.

 

[java]

My MIL sold her house in 3 days in Florida! I couldn't believe it. She priced it right and made a profit(she bought about 10 years ago) She closed within a month and moved back to NY! bought a condo. But she's happy.

I'm in NJ and stuff is sitting here. Only the cheap ones are sellling- under $300,000 type houses.

 

[RN4Babies]

Hi all, I was just curious as to what the housing market is like in your area? My wife and I have been outbid 3 times, and the latest house we went 15k over listing and lost (again) to what we think is an all cash offer. The house was only on the market for 7 days, and had 10-15 offers . Needless to say this process is extremely frustrating, as we've been searching for months. Is it like this at all where you guys are? We're in the Los Angeles area, looking near Cerritos.

Before I bought my house in 2000, I took a home-buying class. One of the best pieces of advice was that if you find a home that's underpriced, bid the absolute most you think it's worth. My house was listed at $119,000 back in 2000; it was on the market for five days, and I was the 6th offer by the day after Memorial Day. I offered $125,000, more than 10% over the asking price, and it was still a bargain (it was for sale by owner; like homes in the neighborhood were selling for $150-160k).

Homes here are moving; I think a lot of people are being motivated by the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers. The homes in our area haven't lost much value, and I don't see many foreclosure signs (this is a very conservative town, and I doubt many people bought more house than they could afford over the last few years).

If you're talking about houses in the $500,000 range, going $15K over isn't much percent-wise, and would make almost no difference on your mortgage payment. Maybe think about going at least 10% over if the house is worth it, and perhaps you won't get outbid again.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Wow! I can't believe that you are having that much trouble. I bought my house last month. It is move in ready, a wonderful house in a great neighborhood at a great price and had been sitting for 42 days. We offered 5k under the asking price and they accepted it right away!

 

[Angrypenguin]

Before I bought my house in 2000, I took a home-buying class. One of the best pieces of advice was that if you find a home that's underpriced, bid the absolute most you think it's worth. My house was listed at $119,000 back in 2000; it was on the market for five days, and I was the 6th offer by the day after Memorial Day. I offered $125,000, more than 10% over the asking price, and it was still a bargain (it was for sale by owner; like homes in the neighborhood were selling for $150-160k).

Homes here are moving; I think a lot of people are being motivated by the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers. The homes in our area haven't lost much value, and I don't see many foreclosure signs (this is a very conservative town, and I doubt many people bought more house than they could afford over the last few years).

If you're talking about houses in the $500,000 range, going $15K over isn't much percent-wise, and would make almost no difference on your mortgage payment. Maybe think about going at least 10% over if the house is worth it, and perhaps you won't get outbid again.

The problem is slapping an extra 50k on top is not an insignificant amount for us. We're first time buyers are well, but any small % increase in price will start to add up very quickly. It's a lot easier to offer 10% more on a 150k house than to offer 10% more on a 530k house :-\.

Hopefully we'll find something soon; inventory has been very low lately, which makes the process all the more frustrating.

 

[disykat]

I wonder if looking 10% OVER your budget would enable you to offer 10% less than asking because those houses are out of the target glutted market? You know, better house, same final price. Has your realtor told you the most popular price point and where are you in it?

Trying this strategy would only work if you knew you could stay firm on what you could actually spend and not get caught up in wanting more than you could afford.

We ran into this problem 11 years ago when we bought our house. It just happened that the price point we were looking at was close to the edge of the glut and when we went up a few thousand dollars and it opened up new houses for us to look at without the bidding over issue. If you can find some homes that have been sitting that are a just a bit over your price it might work.

 

[Angrypenguin]

I wonder if looking 10% OVER your budget would enable you to offer 10% less than asking because those houses are out of the target glutted market? You know, better house, same final price. Has your realtor told you the most popular price point and where are you in it?

Trying this strategy would only work if you knew you could stay firm on what you could actually spend and not get caught up in wanting more than you could afford.

We ran into this problem 11 years ago when we bought our house. It just happened that the price point we were looking at was close to the edge of the glut and when we went up a few thousand dollars and it opened up new houses for us to look at without the bidding over issue. If you can find some homes that have been sitting that are a just a bit over your price it might work.

That's the problem. Our budget is around 500-530k, so we go see houses listed at 530k and under. Going an additional 10% to 550-580 is just too much more than I'm comfortable with. Things now are flying off at list, or higher, in 550k and under price range it seems.

Oh well, keep your fingers crossed we'll find something! Hopefully more inventory will pop up and prices don't climb too high. I'm in that minority where I don't want the real estate market to recover yet

 

[Arielle22]

My brother and SIL just sold their house in a Boston suburb. They decided with their DDs grown they wanted a house with more land and less urban problems.

They had 2 open houses a week apart and got an offer after the second one. They had been looking at houses at the same time and put an offer on one.

The house they put an offer on was a short sale so the bank had to approve what would be an 80k loss to the bank (difference between old owners current mortgage and selling price).

Time from decision to sell their house to offer was about 1 month.

After some glitches they moved in last week. The new house has a pool and lots of land so they get to host the BBQs for the family.

 

[CPT Tripss]

It's a crazy market here in suburban Phila (NJ) . . . DD is looking to buy. Had three deals fall though because the sellers backed out after "informally" agreeing. Oh how I dislike the process that real estate brokers use here. One step too many with informal offers going back and forth before formal offers.
First one, owner was mad that she had an attorney . . . wouldn't sign the agreement until she dropped the attorney. DW and I figured "good riddance."
Second one, one the market for months. Seller would not sign the formal agreement because they had not found a place to live . . . at no time prior to the formal offer (after an informal agreement) did they mention any contigency.
Third one, again on market for months, offered their asking price . . . they then decided to ask for more.
Also, ran into quite a number of sellers who put up all kinds of roadblocks to looking at the house.