Moving to Colorado no matter what!

[CosmicWizard]

Dreaming of Hawaii wrote: And why not? Isn't one of the reasons that we buy (and invest in) real estate is to make a profit when we sell? When I was growing up many years ago, I always heard that I should buy rather than rent so that I could build equity.

I think that it would be foolish of me to sell my house at a lower price than the market will bear. The first thing I did when selling my house recently was to look at comparable sales in the neighborhood. The price we sold at was equivalent to what other similar houses sold for. And, yes, we made a nice profit.

Agreed! For better or worse, GREED is the fuel that drives the capitalistic system. I wrote what I wrote to correct the fallacy that well-to-do Californians are to blame for driving up real estate prices. While that is partially the case, the GREED of the seller also plays an equal part in driving up prices. Without GREED, capitalism would collapse over night.

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by coloradoalimony

The point jazzlover was making was that the real estate market here will be crashing in the next ten years.

I happen to agree with him. This *is* a dead-cat bounce, and once the Fed backs off and interest rates go back to normal, we'll be seeing foreclosure after foreclosure all over again. As he points out, the economy in Colorado does not justify the housing prices in most areas. Also, the financial means of retirees do make a difference and drive up the prices in most areas. Take a look at the areas where retirees do *not* flock, and you'll see prices more in line with the local economy. You can buy a decent house, (not a trailer, a house) in Julesburg, or Wray or LaJunta for under $60,000.

I agree with most of what he says as well.

In my opinion having watched the CO real estate market my whole life, is that we are in a demographic bubble right now. You have a baby boomer generation much larger than the generation coming after it. These boomers enjoyed 25 years of economic prosperity in the prime earning time of their life. Many have done well and even with the downturn many have pensions, 401K, IRA's, other investments, real estate, businesses, etc. and they've got enough to retire where they want and build what they want.

The X gen and the Y gen are going through Great Depression 2 with the longest economic downturn since the first one, depressed wages and a lame-o job market. A lot of us are hitting our prime earning years in a flatline economy. The government regulatory costs, taxes, destruction of our dollar and so on shows no signs of abating nor does the obama economic malaise. Within 10 years medicare goes bust with social security not far after, so the lasting history boomers will have left society with is the generation that ate their children.

So you've got many boomers moving where they want, buying or building what they want and much of it is vacation type or rural property of a significant value that their descendents are going to be ill prepared to afford to keep up and maintain once they pass to the other side.

I still think there will be steady population growth so small cities and big cities will probably do OK, but it's what I would term "non essential real estate" out there in rural or vacation areas that will get hammered on value. That demographic bubble, when all these people croak or are in nursing homes, is going to supply an excess of that type of real estate to the market.