[rpow53]

I don't think this is a buyers market because there are no buyers out there. they are all afraid to purchase. Where are they? What kind of market would you call this if there are plenty of sellers and no buyers? Where will it all end and at what expense?

[JimKing]

When you get some time, go read various housing bubble blogs. When and where will it end? I think a lot worse than almost anyone thinks.

There is a perfect storm brewing of negative factors for much of Florida real estate....and this is hardly even the beginning.

[MrTudo]

We're trying to buy one and are willing to pay a profit of 40% over what the seller paid in august of 2003.

They said we insulted them.

Wait till next month

[JimKing]

Originally Posted by MrTudo

We're trying to buy one and are willing to pay a profit of 40% over what the seller paid in august of 2003.

They said we insulted them.

Wait till next month

It is amazing how delusional some sellers still are. Perhaps your offer next month should be even lower.

[tallrick]

The market was already overvalued in many places by year 2000! Simple fundamentals, take your gross household income and multiply by 3, that's the highest price you can pay. Do that with the incomes of an area and that's the median home price. The real estate market is not going up any more, except for ultra-desireable luxury properties, the limit has been reached. Florida has a few problems that will crash things in the future:

1) Extremely high property tax rates

2) High risk from natural disaster, high insurance

3) Reduction in "creative financing" which will cut the potential homebuyers by 60% in a few years

4) Energy crisis, when gas reaches 4.00 a gallon who will be able to afford to drive 1 hour in traffic to the "suburbs"?

5) The comming collapse of the dollar will first inflate than blow up the real estate market. You will get the cheap house of your dreams but by then you may not want it!

[magellan]

The markets got PUMMELED today on more credit freezing, with the Dow dropping 387 points:

French banking group BNP Paribas said Thursday that it has suspended three funds with exposure to the U.S. credit markets as it has become impossible to accurately value them after "the complete evaporation of liquidity."

MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks Slide As Subprime Woes Go Global (broken link)

But seriously, real estate is ALL LOCAL. Nothing to see here.

[Kingsnkali]

Amazingly, the Fed is still concerned about inflation!

We are facing a deflationary collapse/contraction of historic magnitude and our Fed is worried about "inflation".

The US market is hardly alone in this real estate debacle. Most foreign countries are in the same boat. Even South America.

I guess the only way out is to watch the USD free fall and encourage every foreigner to buy real estate here in the Banana Republic of America.

[MrTudo]

Originally Posted by JimKing

It is amazing how delusional some sellers still are. Perhaps your offer next month should be even lower.

I was thinking the same thing. What's even more laughable is the realtor from CS Edwards used some comps from 2004 and 2005 to show me how I was wrong.

[House4Sale]

We'd be thankful for that offer, Mr. Tudor! We've lowered our price from 239,000 to 198,500 and it's a new '06 3/2/3c gar w/two spare rms. on a 1/3 acre over looking a serene no build. It has 17,000+ in upgrades etc. Then again, we had the misfortune of dealing w/realtors who did not do their jobs. Just sat back and thought it'd sell by itself. Not knowing the area well, we trusted the ratings etc. Watch out for those as they can be very deceiving. Even the best can mess up if they've a bad attitude. One lady realtor was a man hater and started an arrgument w/a guy. He walked out. Hell, I could've done that myself. Sheesh!

In this market, a realtor and seller must be aggressive. We are running (going in on cost of ad) a 1/2 page ad in one of those color realtor books w/current agent so maybe that will inspire some look-see's.

[JimKing]

Originally Posted by House4Sale

We'd be thankful for that offer, Mr. Tudor! We've lowered our price from 239,000 to 198,500 and it's a new '06 3/2/3c gar w/two spare rms. on a 1/3 acre over looking a serene no build. It has 17,000+ in upgrades etc. Then again, we had the misfortune of dealing w/realtors who did not do their jobs. Just sat back and thought it'd sell by itself. Not knowing the area well, we trusted the ratings etc. Watch out for those as they can be very deceiving. Even the best can mess up if they've a bad attitude. One lady realtor was a man hater and started an arrgument w/a guy. He walked out. Hell, I could've done that myself. Sheesh!

In this market, a realtor and seller must be aggressive. We are running (going in on cost of ad) a 1/2 page ad in one of those color realtor books w/current agent so maybe that will inspire some look-see's.

Best of luck. We got lucky, we were forced to sell our house in 2005 due to relocation and it turned out to be the best financial move we ever made.

I will repeat some simple advice I was given. You know your price is right when you get offers within 10% of your asking price. No showings or offers within 10% means your house is not priced correctly for today's market conditions.

That leaves you with 3 options, which may or may not fit your situation. Become a landlord, take it off the market, or lower the price until offers come within 10%.