State of the US housing market

[Seakony]

I don't know how the new home market is doing here. But I do know that if you want a new house...you will have to travel pretty far out in the subburbs to get one, For us, that was not an option...we did not want to live in bumfum egypt.

[Mikey]

[quote=Seakony;853264]Another problem with the market is getting buyers to qualify for the loan. Too many Americans have too much credit card and car debts or just have bad credit. The mortgage compainies have tightened their requirements on loan approval. They do not want to re-possess homes.[/QUOTE]

We do that for them then sell them on the courthouse steps every first Tuesday....I have to post the notices tomorrow......I am amazed that there are still so many foreclosure..I started thirteen years ago and have been with the same firm and the number of fourclosures for my counties seem to always be going up.....We use to post once a month and now we post every Monday....

[Mikey]

Originally Posted by Seakony

I don't know how the new home market is doing here. But I do know that if you want a new house...you will have to travel pretty far out in the subburbs to get one, For us, that was not an option...we did not want to live in bumfum egypt.

Amen.....

[jsotherj]

[quote=Mikey;853272]

Originally Posted by Seakony

Another problem with the market is getting buyers to qualify for the loan. Too many Americans have too much credit card and car debts or just have bad credit. The mortgage compainies have tightened their requirements on loan approval. They do not want to re-possess homes.[/QUOTE]

We do that for them then sell them on the courthouse steps every first Tuesday....I have to post the notices tomorrow......I am amazed that there are still so many foreclosure..I started thirteen years ago and have been with the same firm and the number of fourclosures for my counties seem to always be going up.....We use to post once a month and now we post every Monday....

We (they - not me anymore) are getting in foreclosures transactions everyday! And the amount needed to get out of some foreclosure is so little - but I guess if you don't have 20k it may as well be 20mil! It is really sad that so many people have gotten themselves into these situations.

[Seakony]

Yep...all that creative financing wasn't such a good idea. And the fact that too many people buy more than they can afford.

[jamesblonde]

Originally Posted by Mikey

We do that for them then sell them on the courthouse steps every first Tuesday....I have to post the notices tomorrow......I am amazed that there are still so many foreclosure..I started thirteen years ago and have been with the same firm and the number of fourclosures for my counties seem to always be going up.....We use to post once a month and now we post every Monday....

There are so many foreclosures currently, because buyer's were getting into homes on ARMS and now the rates have adjusted and they can't afford what they shouldn't have bought in the first place. You're going to see foreclosures skyrocket over the next 18 months, especially if the market is relaxed. Think job security Mikey Maybe that's what I should look into.

[jsotherj]

The other really big trend that we started seeing was the 'reverse mortgage' - not a bad idea for some people, but others really don't know what they are getting themselves into.

[jamesblonde]

Originally Posted by Seakony

Yep...all that creative financing wasn't such a good idea. And the fact that too many people buy more than they can afford.

Well, we said the same thing....you just did it in far less words

[jsotherj]

Originally Posted by jamesblonde

There are so many foreclosures currently, because buyer's were getting into homes on ARMS and now the rates have adjusted and they can't afford what they shouldn't have bought in the first place. You're going to see foreclosures skyrocket over the next 18 months, especially if the market is relaxed. Think job security Mikey Maybe that's what I should look into.

Lot's of refi's going on because of the ARMS. So many people just don't pay attention to the long term affect and are just shocked when their interest rate skyrockets.

[Mikey]

They also dont pay their taxes....We foreclose on alot fo homes because people have not paid their taxes in years....Most people think that they dont have the money to pay their note....Like SK said they over extend themselves with the floating rates and credit card debt....There are very few cases where there is a grandmother alone on a fixed income that are loosing their homes.....But there are cases where people get sick or loose their jobs....And those are really tuff......It really sux around the holiday's...

[jamesblonde]

Here's a brief example of the newspaper articles for the last couple of months. This doesn't even include last week, which had doom and gloom forecasts for each day.

Real Estate | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

and here New home sales fall yet again | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

[Seakony]

This happened in the mid 80's when interest rates skyrocketed. Lots of foreclosures. That also brought down the prices in the hood making it difficult for homeowners to sell. I saw new neighborhoods turn into slums. The craziest part of it was the fact that people were buying new homes to get out of their neighborhood before selling theirs and then letting the old house go into foreclosure. ( back then they could do that). Also alot of the non-qualifying assumptions also ended up in foreclosure.
It doesn't worry me though. The housing market comes and goes alot and it will always do that. Buyers just need to be more educated about what they are getting into and have extra money in their savings to keep them afloat during the bad times, like loss of jobs, illness, etc.

[jsotherj]

Originally Posted by Mikey

They also dont pay their taxes....We foreclose on alot fo homes because people have not paid their taxes in years....Most people think that they dont have the money to pay their note....Like SK said they over extend themselves with the floating rates and credit card debt....There are very few cases where there is a grandmother alone on a fixed income that are loosing their homes.....But there are cases where people get sick or loose their jobs....And those are really tuff......It really sux around the holiday's...

We just did the tax foreclosure reports for the tax dept. and in our whole county there were only 7 properties being foreclosed on for that reason. But yeah - the biggest share are the over-extenders - oh and some of the meth heads that somehow bought a house

[Mikey]

Originally Posted by jamesblonde

There are so many foreclosures currently, because buyer's were getting into homes on ARMS and now the rates have adjusted and they can't afford what they shouldn't have bought in the first place. You're going to see foreclosures skyrocket over the next 18 months, especially if the market is relaxed. Think job security Mikey Maybe that's what I should look into.

About six months ago my boss quit his job of fifteen years and started his own firm.....Took two of our senior attorneys and one junior.....He is getting our leftovers and a few clients on his own and is doing really well....This time next year they will being doing really great....They are saying the next five years will be really good years for the foreclosure business.....

[Seakony]

Buyers also don't take into consideration that taxes and homeowners insurance also go up. When we bought our first home our insurance was less than 400.00 a year....when we sold it, it was 1500.00 a year. And got alot less coverage for the money. We were lucky enough to have a 250.00 deductable. Now the average deductable is 1% of the value. Having to fork over the first 3000.00 can really hurt.