[2manysullivan]

Hi Im new i'm looking for information where in lakeland Florida i can find,

High school year book year from 1965 or 1966 or newpaper from that years

if anyone know i Apperiate it, I'm trying to find for the scapbook

Deeply apperiated

Sincerly 2 Many Sullivan

[House4Sale]

That prices are now leveling not dropping more. If everyone ignored the "economists" (each one says something different anyways), maybe there wouldn't be such a panic and we wouldn't be in this mess.

[MrTudo]

[quote=Need_affordable_home;153013]Hello, this news was in my Sunday newspaper! House prices forcasted to drop 20-25% another says 30% My own predictions put the price drop at 33% or one third. The drop will extend till 2009

Which newspaper is that?

[MrTudo]

Go to realtor dot com and type in the city you are thinking about just to get an idea of jusy how many places are listed on that directory. It's amazing when you type in port charlotte, ft lauderdale, miami, tampa, pensacola etc and then type in a different state.

In fact the amount of listings is stunning. There's more than a years supply just on realtor dot com.

Wait till the trillion bucks in arm's adjusts in 2007. You think that the 300 billion in 2006 had an effect? Ha!

[exhdo1]

Originally Posted by Need_affordable_home

Hello, this news was in my Sunday newspaper! House prices forcasted to drop 20-25% another says 30% My own predictions put the price drop at 33% or one third. The drop will extend till 2009 then itll bottom out and prices will rise at or slightly above the rate of inflation. For those selling their house, if you arent desperate, may be better to rent it out till the market bottoms out and begins to turn. Those looking to buy, wait till the market bottoms out then you can get that nice $500k house for something like $350k plus inflation will make it seem even cheaper. Interest rates may be a little higher though but the huge price drop well makes up for it.

Do you think the market will be ripe for speculation or is it that over priced where a 20% correction would still leave homes higher than they should be? I saw a national study about a week ago and it said Sarasota will correct about 14%. I didn't hear about the rest of the state. It did report that N.J. would be aprox. 5%, which I think is on the low side.

[firemed]

Florida has always depended on homes in other states being valued more than the homes here. People would sell thier homes up north come down here buy a home and a couple cd's and retire. It's been that way for many years, but now the rules of the game have changed. Florida's real estate has had healthy gains untill the housing bubble struck. I know some of you are saying it's not a housing bubble but when you can get 125% returns in two years what else could it have been? The problem wer'e facing now is that in the last couple of years amature speculaters were sellling to amature speculaters creating the price increase we see today. Yes there are a lot of people buying, cashing out of areas where the homes were valued more than the homes in Florida, CA., NY, etc. and moving to Florida. Unfortunately sales in those areas have slowed dramatically which leaves the amature speculater and developers holding the bag. Most of these people were using interest only loans with the expectation of flipping the property in a short period of time. But as we know now the foreclosures are achieving record highs and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Everybody likes to think real estate can't go down much, but that's truly not the case. I had a guy the other day tell me he has water front property and that it will never go down much if at all. Well somebody should have told this to the Japanese when thier market dropped like a rock. And if I recall Japan's an island. So what it boils down to is fundamentals which are not in line with the property values. So decreases of up to 30% are not unlikely. The comparable prices of homes are not correct either. When you buy a new home and they throw in a car and a pool just because they really like you, you have to come to the reality that if you deduct the price of the car and the pool from the overall price of the house you would see the price of the house has dropped tremendously in comparison to last years prices. This type of reduction in price is not being reflected in the comparable prices, because they don't change the sales price on paper. Add in the arms that are going to be adjusting. So when these deals are over, hold on to your hats cause it's not going to be pretty.

[verobeach]

Originally Posted by Muggy

Please do not confuse lazy with due dilligence. I am waiting for home prices to become aligned with fundamentals again. It will happen.

Whose fundamentals? Yours? Since when has real estate been alligned to anything?

[DeLaSalle]

The Homes in My FL neighborhood have held on to their value and are selling well when priced apropriately...

[Need_affordable_home]

Originally Posted by bamboosmom

That is a hard choice if you need to move or want to move.

The prices are lower now, but you can't predict what they will be in 3 months or longer from now. If you find something you like and can afford it, then just do it.
If you keep waiting, you just may not get that dream home.

We sold our house and got a great price! I sold it myself too!
I just didn't listen to all the statistics that were being thrown around online and in the media.
If somebody wants your home, you will get the price you want as long as it's realistically priced!!

I wouldnt mind staying but theres no way ill ever see a nice big house for less than $100k in Florida so out I go. Even if I won the lotto, why should I stay in Florida? Theres alot of cheaper places that are great.

Originally Posted by ponytail

How can you believe what's printed in the newspapers? Just last week the Moody Report reported that Florida had reached it's trough and that prices are leveling off.

If you're waiting for the economy to adjust downward to your income level so you can afford a house then that's just lazy. Get another job, save your money, go without... That's how you buy houses in America.

I believe houses will drop down to $120/foot in south Florida and to like $80/foot in the more northern parts of Florida. You can get a house for $80/foot in south Texas today and thats what houses should be worth. What does it have to do with laziness? People work hard and still cant afford a house because the price is not in touch with reality. When Florida drops to about Texas price then reality will have set.

Originally Posted by verobeach

Home prices ARE leveling off. Realtors are already reporting slight stirs in the market. I agree with the above. If you're waiting for a home to fall in your lap then that's just plain lazy.

Not here in Florida. The sellers are getting "motivated" now and one seller wants "only" $399k for 2420 square feet. That comes out to $165 a foot and its a nice almost new house in a nice neighboor. Still overpriced but not as overpriced as many of the others. Those sellers will need to face reality.

Originally Posted by mystree66

Prices will continue to fall,it is silly to over pay,home prices are unrealistic in too many areas...remember the saying a fool and his money...

Thats what most of us predict. I still dont understand why some countinue to pay crazy prices in Florida when Texas is the better deal. Florida should be worth slightly above Texas, not way above!

Originally Posted by House4Sale

That prices are now leveling not dropping more. If everyone ignored the "economists" (each one says something different anyways), maybe there wouldn't be such a panic and we wouldn't be in this mess.

The problem is 90% of people cant afford south Florida! They refuse to buy, either renting and waiting for prices to fall or leaving the state.

Originally Posted by exhdo1

Do you think the market will be ripe for speculation or is it that over priced where a 20% correction would still leave homes higher than they should be? I saw a national study about a week ago and it said Sarasota will correct about 14%. I didn't hear about the rest of the state. It did report that N.J. would be aprox. 5%, which I think is on the low side.

The speculators have left. There will be light speculation once the house market bottoms out and as more people can afford houses, the market will appreciate at a normal healthy 3% to 5% annual rate, not 15-20% like what happened in the bubble boom. If you take a look at house prices 20, 10, even 5 years ago and adjust for inflation, you can see how much prices have gone up! We will never see 1990s prices(even adjusting for inflation) but a 33% drop is enough to normalize the market. A 2000 square foot house in south Florida costs $360k on average. A such house should be worth $240k. 1 bedroom condos should be near $100k, not $150k! If you look at the prices in Texas, youll realize how overpriced Florida is.

[pslOldTimer]

I'm not sure I understand your method of pricing a property by the square footage of the house.

First of all, that completely ignores any difference in the value of the underlying land. It also ignores differences in the size of the lots, closeness to appealing features, etc. And, of course, it ignores differences in the quality of the house and the materials used.

Are you saying that a house with marble foors and 3-zone Air conditioning with a paver driveway should be the same cost per square foot as a house with linoleum, no A/C and a dirt driveway?

What about condition of the house? What about amenities such as a pool?

Your 2000 square foot house could easily be worth 3 times more than mine -- or 1/3 as much -- depending an a nearly endless list of variables.