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It was also common sense that areas with a median income of $40,000 could not support a median home price of $300,000!
True ... although I wondered how retiree income was counted in that data. One of the reasons the Florida market got so inflated despite lower incomes was because you had all of those wealthy northeast retirees moving there ... something like 200,000 new residents a year ...
I agree with you that they (retirees) did help drive up the prices. However even larger factor was the availability of credit. None verification loans i.e. ARMs and the like played a even larger part. Just look at the number of fore closures happening across the state, this in and of itself tells the story. If people didn't have the money to pay these high asking prices then this would have put a downward pressure on the housing market, naturally correcting itself early on. However you get someone making 35,000 a year and they get a loan for 300,000 because they fudged on their application this means homes will continue to sell for these absurd prices.
State Info
Updated: 12/01/07-- 9:45 PM
Preforeclosures:--64,595
Sheriff Sales:--1,912
Foreclosures:--5,663
Bankruptcies:--16,651
FSBOs:--13,087
Tax Liens:--156,992
Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. Being in the housing industry (construction side) we get speculatory data to go along with these hard stats...Might double those numbers next year for sure. True turnaround "supposedly" 2010. 2008 will be the bottom...all the dropout from the bad loans. 2009 mainly starting to rebuild, but a much smaller buying pool due to all the "foreclosures" (less people to qualify and buy) 2010..should see decent turnaround. The market will probably never be what it was for those few years. That isn't a real market. Good news though..it shouldn't be this bad (once we hit bottom) again for more than 20 years. it is cyclical. (This happened in Texas a while back when people couldn't give their homes away).
Lastly, not sure where I stand on government bailouts...we have to be careful this doesn't spin out of control and effect the rest of the economy. The housing market directly links many things success and failures. You really can't put all the blame on a consumer. Research is different for everyone, and the amount of trustworthiness people are willing to put into the "so-called" industry experts landing many unknowing souls in this situation. Some people are in the situation b/c of lost jobs...They weren't all intentionally trying to buy more than they could afford. It wasn't explained properly to them. Not everyone is wise...thus, since the fed helped get them there, they might need to do something so it stops effecting the people who aren't in that situation, but still reap the consequences. Tough call really.
Well, I drove by the old joint in St. Pete today and a foreclosure notice was tacked to the door. Spoke with my old landlords and they can't sell or rent (inevitably headed for foreclosure, no doubt)... add to that I finally dug through the county website and learned my current landlord has an ARM (and not the kind you can swing a bat with).
I went to several waterfront restaurants this weekend and was seated right away.
Who knew that swirling the drain could be so much fun; it's the new Florida lifestyle.
We are on vacation in the Ft. Myers-Cape Coral area....I've read about the areas probs from afar in Chicago for a while now. We just had to see for ourselves how bad the prob was by taking a little drive around when we got here. Man, I've never seen anything quite like this, ever anywhere. EVERY street has signs for days, every side street, cul-de-sac, you name it. You almost get the feeling that people are evacuating from some environmental disaster like Chernobyl. I mean EVERYONE wants out all at the same time. VERY few people are in the local restaurants or stores, and we are talking the prime Christmas shopping season. I'm not gloating here. I really feel for these poor folks here, and I don't want to point fingers per them getting in over their heads or whatnot with the mortgages. For whatever reason, these people out here are in some serious trouble. It's all you overhear people talking about at beaches and restaurants. Folks out here are really scared for their immediate future here. Its one thing to read about this stuff in stats, but to actually see it, its almost like the aftermath of a hurricane, a financial hurricane. I'm not a religious man, but I want to pray for these people. If this is a harbinger of where our country is headed, we are in some serious sh*t here. No lie......
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20071129/i/r3116469515.jpg (broken link)
We are on vacation in the Ft. Myers-Cape Coral area....I've read about the areas probs from afar in Chicago for a while now. We just had to see for ourselves how bad the prob was by taking a little drive around when we got here. Man, I've never seen anything quite like this, ever anywhere. EVERY street has signs for days, every side street, cul-de-sac, you name it. You almost get the feeling that people are evacuating from some environmental disaster like Chernobyl. I mean EVERYONE wants out all at the same time. VERY few people are in the local restaurants or stores, and we are talking the prime Christmas shopping season. I'm not gloating here. I really feel for these poor folks here, and I don't want to point fingers per them getting in over their heads or whatnot with the mortgages. For whatever reason, these people out here are in some serious trouble. It's all you overhear people talking about at beaches and restaurants. Folks out here are really scared for their immediate future here. Its one thing to read about this stuff in stats, but to actually see it, its almost like the aftermath of a hurricane, a financial hurricane. I'm not a religious man, but I want to pray for these people. If this is a harbinger of where our country is headed, we are in some serious sh*t here. No lie......
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20071129/i/r3116469515.jpg (broken link)
Exactly, the down cycle is only in its beginning stages. I am shocked when I still find people who don't see what is headed our way.
I am glad the prices are falling,but It's so sad so many people bought houses acting like if they didn't buy then they would never get a house.Now a couple years later struggling with payments or losing their homes.
As I said in my other post, it IS really sad. When you are actually right there with the people, rather than reading about it from afar, its all different. I can actually sense the sadness people carry around with them here in Cape Coral. When you have a foreclosure looming in your near future, and a family to support, its quite hard to hide. Lots of zombie-ish looking people around here for sure, looking like they are about to lose total hope in their future. If the US as a nation doesn't wake up quick, we may soon ALL be in that boat. Let's pray it isn't so......
Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. Being in the housing industry (construction side) we get speculatory data to go along with these hard stats...Might double those numbers next year for sure. True turnaround "supposedly" 2010. 2008 will be the bottom...all the dropout from the bad loans. 2009 mainly starting to rebuild, but a much smaller buying pool due to all the "foreclosures" (less people to qualify and buy) 2010..should see decent turnaround. The market will probably never be what it was for those few years. That isn't a real market. Good news though..it shouldn't be this bad (once we hit bottom) again for more than 20 years. it is cyclical. (This happened in Texas a while back when people couldn't give their homes away).
Lastly, not sure where I stand on government bailouts...we have to be careful this doesn't spin out of control and effect the rest of the economy. The housing market directly links many things success and failures. You really can't put all the blame on a consumer. Research is different for everyone, and the amount of trustworthiness people are willing to put into the "so-called" industry experts landing many unknowing souls in this situation. Some people are in the situation b/c of lost jobs...They weren't all intentionally trying to buy more than they could afford. It wasn't explained properly to them. Not everyone is wise...thus, since the fed helped get them there, they might need to do something so it stops effecting the people who aren't in that situation, but still reap the consequences. Tough call really.
lewlew, good points. The situation is unfortunately so dire that you have do to what is best for the most people at this point, or face the much more unpalatable scenario of a hard national recession. Blame it on many macro things. Our country is a "disinvestment" society, run almost entirely on credit and spending, for starters. Hoping that solvent international currencies continue to prop up our FED and dollar is wishful thinking regardless of the housing crisis, which is actually just collateral damage when you look at the big picture. If things unravel per international financial markets, with Euro revaluations for petrol and Asia liquidating dollar reserves enmasse, we could be entering a quasi-depression, maybe a full fledged one. Again, housing is just a symptom of our macro mentality of a disinvestment, pay-me-later society, where some even have to "pawn off" their paychecks at check-to-go stores to make ends meet. We need a collective Three Stooges slap across all of our faces in this spend now-pay later society........who would be willing to administer it? The new democratic prez in 2009? Possibly....Wonder if Hillary or Obama would have the b@lls to do it? Somehow I think Hillary ironically would. Sometimes it takes a village, or woman, i mean, to set things right, unfortunately.............
FROM THE HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT CAMPAIGN-2008(KIDDING! lol!)
Lastly, not sure where I stand on government bailouts...we have to be careful this doesn't spin out of control and effect the rest of the economy.
1. A $2 Trillion dollar total eventual write-down already's affected the economy. Citigroup alone loses $11 Billion. This is already a global issue, so no worries about local ripples.
2. The reason this happened is the Fed. It's been printing cash out of thin air for decades. In short, paper is not money.
3. The new Bernacke cycle is well underway: "Stimulate" the ailing debt economy by printing more cash. More cash devalues the dollar. A devalued dollar needs stimulation. Re-stimulate as needed with even more cash. Repeat.
The problem is in effect already a government problem. The worst possible long term treatment is therefore government making it all go away by way of stimulating not the economy, but the very thing that's ruining the economy.
The US government and private sector have no hard currency. Every dollar in the nation is an instrument of debt, going back to the $9,000,000,000,000 national debt.
Without other nations trading us their goods for our debt, what do we have?
well buying a house is an investment and like all it is risky and requires long term for any good return. we bought a nice house a few years back before all the frenzy price increases that also drove up insurance and taxes. We certainly did not buy expensive as we wanted a house that one salary could afford. unfortunately many young couples do not think about long term affordability. We are now trying to sell in this crazy market. We decided (hopefully not a crzay one) to relocate to where I would recieve a higher teachers salary and the cost of living was considerably lower including the housing. We have been on the market for abou 8-9 months and not much luck.People love our house but then nothing. We too realize that proerty valuse were inflated. We ad an appraisal done and if we sold at that price would walk away with almost 125,000 after four years in the house. Insane. So we went to a price where we thought was more reasonable- after all if we could not qualify for that who else would? Whta frustrates us now is that all the cause put togther is hurting everyone - over development of houses, people who overpsent and took out bad loans, realtors and banks looking to make money of the market did more damage than anything else. We will never work with a realtor who pushes us to go higher than we know we can afford. Any way we have seen homes sell, and we are priced very well for 2008 sq ft home so we are praying a sell after the holidays. We think long term we are better off where we moved to. I do agree that it is going to take for the market to recover in FL and it will be PAINFUL!!!! Hopefully everyone learns from this mess including the realtors.
I am still very angry that this housing bubble has taken thousands of dollars from my pocket, and I did not take out a loan, or speculate on any properties. There is no way I can forgive anyone for this real estate bubble. The bubble has destroyed some of my favorite places, chased most of my friends away, and turned me into an angry person. The only home from the front line is a hard, swift crash. Right now it's like peeling duct tape off your skin, slowly. Just soak it in alcohol and rip it off. Get the pain and suffering over with.
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