Buy Low. Sell High.

[lawrocket 3]

The housing market is low. So why aren't people buying?

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Rookie120 0]

My guess is people are waitting for prices to fall further or they cannot get financing because the banks have tightened up there lending standards. Thats my theory.

If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!

[labrys 0]

Recession?

Owned by Remi #?

[lawrocket 3]

Lending standards? Well, somewhat. But the FHA just raised its limits. But also look at it this way:

There's a house that was $300k 2 years ago. People could get 100% financing on it.

Now the house is worth $250k. People can get 80% or 90% financing on it.

There are ways, my friend. Plenty of them. The tightening of the lending standards just means that they've gone back to practices of ten years ago!

Buy low. Sell high. People bought and bought when the market was high. They won't when it is low.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[masterblaster72 0]

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The housing market is low. So why aren't people buying?

Don't look at me -- I bought. Great deal too.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[shropshire 0]

Apparently, many Brits are... with your house prices low and the Dollar on it's knees.. property in the States looks like a good buy at the moment.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[idrankwhat 0]

My guess is that people are still worrying that they will buy a home and it will lose value over the next few months. Also, banks are being a little more tight with their lending these days.
The stock market on the other hand is intriguing. There are some good values out there. I think the Oracle has is right: "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."

[PLFXpert 0]

For current homeowners:

Not enough equity anymore in their current home to put down on an upgrade.

Problems selling or renting their current home. (Not everyone can float two or more properties.)

Owing more on their current home than it's now worth.

Same or less income coupled with rising cost of living = riskier to take on more debt (i.e. higher mortgage) than one already has.

Tighter lending

First-time home buyers:

No idea.

Paint me in a corner, but my color comes back.

[tmaricle55 0]

- Possible layoffs - unsure of employer future.

- Unstable Stock Market.

- Rising costs of EVERYTHING so it's harder to float 2 major loans.

- Credit is tighter even with banks.

Muff Brother # 3883, SCR # 14796 ICD # 1 - Pres.
Yeah, I noticed and I think it's funny!

[PhreeZone 20]

I'm actually looking to sell my house at the same price I bought it for a few years ago hopefully this year to upgrade to larger property that has its value depereciated right now. I've put almost $8000 into upgrades that I had hoped to recoup when this house appreciated but I'm looking to make that money up on the next house with its value being knocked down to late 90's pricing right now.

Yesterday is history
And tomorrow is a mystery

Parachutemanuals.com

[SkyDekker 1,465]

Better risk - reward balance in commercial real estate.

Little capital floating around

In many cases there is such an abundance of real estate available, that is is almost impossible to sell. I know this sounds odd, but would you buy a condo in a building that is sitting empty.....with three other empty buiildings sitting beside it.

People don't want to sell at a loss and can't afford two properties at the same time.

Different and tighter mortgage standards for investment properties, even if they are residential

General lack of confidence in the market. Many may feel that the housing market will drop quite a bit more.

[FreeflyChile 0]

I want to save some money first...in about a year, though, I'll probably be looking.

[nathaniel 0]

The bubble mentality is diminished. Now that enough people have lost their shirts, or are in the process of doing so, the whole "it can only appreciate" mentality is bust.

It'll take at least a couple years of growth before random losers will go all in on depreciating real assets in droves.

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

[Andrewwhyte 1]

When the Japanese real estate bubble burst the market was depressed for about ten years. In their case it was commercial real estate, but it shows that a quick recovery is not a given.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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The housing market is low. So why aren't people buying?

Because they do not have money and/or secure long term jobs?

It will be interesting to see what happens to the skydiving industry if this economic blip turns into something much more serious. No extra money in the whuffos pocket equals no once in a life time tandems adventures for them. No tandem adventures equals less business for the dropzones. Since the dropzones rely on tandems, they could be forced to scale back or close. No dropzone business is bad mojo for those who have cut away from society and decided to be full time skydivers (many of them do NOT have savings). Now look outside of the skydiving world to all the other niches in society. Not a pretty picture.

As long as the DZs are open and I have spare money I will continue to jump when I can. But I am scaling back my spending to make sure there is at least one affordable roof that is over my head and food in my belly. It would be nice if I was independently wealthy, but while I am financially stable, I am not filthy rich where I can run around buying new investment real estate.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[piper17 1]

My home will be on the market by the end of the month. Just as soon as I lock in a deal, I will be purchasing a larger home in Florida. I'm hoping to relocate by June. Here in the northeast, the housing market didn't see the excessive run-up in housing prices (in most places) and I should get a good price for mine.

It's a great time to buy in the areas that have experienced "irrational exuberance" during the past few years and have now crashed!

"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"...Rudyard Kipling

[kelpdiver 2]

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There's a house that was $300k 2 years ago. People could get 100% financing on it.

Now the house is worth $250k. People can get 80% or 90% financing on it.

But that house was "worth" only 200k (or 130) 2 years before that. Usually the definition of low entails more of pullback, or a fear of the dead cat bounce. Where I am the drop hasn't really happened yet, and/or the sellers aren't getting the point. I got million.5 condos nearby where I'm renting a 2/2 for 1700.

And for people in high cost areas like CA, the pricing on the jumbo loans is pretty bad right now. Whenever the higher conforming loans come, they too will be more expensive than regular conforming ones.

The stock market has long proven that people tend to buy high and sell low, so it's no surprise that they are hesistant to change their living arrangements in this economy.

[lawrocket 3]

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"irrational exuberance" during the past few years

And the responses that I am seeing are leading me to believe that there is an equal and opposite reaction to the "irrational exuberance" - "Irrational disspiritedness."

The credit crunch? There's money out there to be lent. But the banks are, of course, also participating in this irrational dispiritedness because they don't want to risk anything - regardless of whether it is bonded.

But still, I was able to get a loan on a place. The money is there if you look for it. Last month we looked at getting another loan, but were considered to have too much money loaned to us already (we guaranteed a large sum of business debt, too). Now that the business debt is paid off, there is one for sale three doors down. Hmmm..

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[lawrocket 3]

As another note:

The fed is also seeking to add liquidity and credit. It did so when cutting the federal funds rate by 3/4 of a percent a couple of days ago. That allows banks to borrow money for its reserves and lend money out.

Look at it this way. Let's say a bank wants to issue ten billion in mortgage loans. To do so immediately, however, would whittle its reserves down to below, say, 10 percent of its demand deposit accounts. Instead of waiting for the revolving payments to come in, they can borrow the money.

So the banks can borrow these funds at what now is 2.25 percent. These borrowed funds can fund mortgages at a higher interest rate. That's why the mortgage rates have not fallen similarly.

I have to wonder whether this lowering of the funds rate is kind of like a back door bailout.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[kelpdiver 2]

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I have to wonder whether this lowering of the funds rate is kind of like a back door bailout.

The fed is rarely as transparent as they were this week. But the action is less about opening the spigot as preventing a few more from following Bear.

[Misternatural 0]

sup bud..
I know what you mean, my phone is starting to ring again after months of being dead. Funny that it started this week when the analysts are officially calling a bottom on CNBC.it's more media psychology, I'll take what I can get, but around here the market is still overpriced and sellers are not letting go of their dreams of a profitable real estate market...a painful correction in market prices has to happen before the buyers come out of hibernation.

Beware of the collateralizing and monetization of your desires.
D S #3.1415

[idrankwhat 0]

Ok lawrocket, I've had enough of this song going through my head all day. Time to share
"Buy low sell high. Take your piece of the pie. That's the Wall Street way".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSg22ewWGks

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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The housing market is low. So why aren't people buying?

1) Prices have gotten way out of line with rents. While I rent a property I'd like to live in for $1500/month, buying something would run $5000 for the mortgage + taxes.

2) The rate of decrease in prices is increasing.

3) There are still years of rate resets left that will force more sales and create a larger imbalance between supply and demand.

[headoverheels 334]

You can rent a house in Menlo Park for $1500?

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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You can rent a house in Menlo Park for $1500?

No and even a 20% downpayment won't let you buy one for just $5K a month either :-(

If you shop around you can find a nice one bedroom unit in a triplex with a garage so you can do wood working. Not caring too much about square footage and neighbors sharing walls does wonders for ones' housing costs :-)