Real Estate Prices? (Medina: insurance, brokers, buying a house)

[greenrph]

I was wondering if there are any realtors out there that can give me some insight into the trend here in Ohio. I live in Medina County and have watched the houses tumble. I will be listing the house in the Spring but I have to sell it myself because the prices have fallen so much I have lost all my equity and then some.So handing out another $15,000 to a realtor isn't condusive to my situation.

I am just wondering when they are forcasting the prices will quit falling?

Thanks!

[hairmetal4ever]

Give it a year or two. We're experiencing an adjustment because prices rose too quickly. At least here, we lose $15000. In parts of CA they're losing $100,000.

[Cosmic]

It is not so much about price, it is far more about a weird system that has been cultivated to get those prices.

Like most things taken to extremes. The game was played to always be able to get a premium for even the most pedestrian level home. So you are probably not seeing what people are calling price reductions but more a change in culture about how people view a house when buying.

Part of that was every house had to be perfect, every house had to have all the glitz in the World heaped on it and then Yes, those devils in the Real Estate industry priced it to the max and more. The buyers would play the game because they believed it could go on forever, who cared it was like Monolopy Money. Totally risk free, the next buyer would always bail you out.

You get all the principals employed, cycling dollars. I put a small amount in and get this huge multiplier on the final selling price. All about "Flip This House". I buy a house, put some glitz into it, resell quickly, make huge profits. More based on a Hollywood approach at selling an illusion.

But like all good things, it hits limits. For many areas, that was the buyers ability to pay the freight. Two working folks could not afford it any more. Wages were not going up anywhere close to the rates of price appreciation.

It was always that charge a Premium deal that made the house of cards so shaky. The buyers were always so far under water and desperately needed the game to continue at the same pace, so they could play another round.

Couple that with good olde greed and many, many hands out to get paid just one more time. The banks, the brokers, the taxman, the contractors, the agents, insurance folks and all the other they's. The buyer paid for it all and was so sure it would be their turn to get the gravy next. Once you get to a certain level the game becomes impossible for the average working bear.

It used to be you just bought a house to live in. The simple roof over the head morphed into something totally unheard in their parents time.

So like with most Boom - Bust scenarios, first you have to get rid of the demands for a premium to the price. Then maybe they have to fix a lot of what is broken. Maybe just go back to buying a house to live in. Unless you drop the price levels a lot, can never play again with the same rules. Will always hit the same limits only far more quickly.