Cape Coral - cost of home ownership

[Augie]

While a spectacular steal/deal on a house is always possible, I believe prices in the area are beginning to bottom out. Anybody who must sell is petrified and a lot of the fat has already been trimmed off the nice stuff, right now.

No one is unaware of the present market conditions, so there are buys out there. I bought my house in 2002 for $385,000 and they are now going for $475,000 after having hit in the neighborhood of $700,000, just 2-3 years ago. Certain areas, like PGI, are holding up pricewise, but have come down to a more reasonable range while having a lot of the "goodies."

There is $$$ out there, despite the crying, so the real nice stuff will disappear soon.

[Catchsnook]

I agree with you

[kberr32]

Originally Posted by njkate

Good grief, how much lower can some of these homes go?
I've seen decent homes listed as short sales for under $80K

Some of these homes in cape coral are already dirt cheap. (3/2 1300-1700 sq ft for 80k to 100k) Just a year ago they were 160k or better. don't think they could get much cheaper. hopefully they do though, i'll be buying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Augie]

Originally Posted by justNancy

There are so many different sections of the Cape that I don't think anyone can say "a house costs $XXX." I mean, you can buy a used, rusted car for $500 or a new Ferrari for $250,000. There are still plenty of million dollar homes on the market, although the number of lower priced homes for sale is increasing.

I'm not a real estate or mortgage broker, but I have had some experience in financing, so I think I can answer the poster who asked "how can someone lose a home with only a $60 to $100,000 mortgage?" Many of the people buying homes were employed by builders or in construction related jobs and were laid off. The only jobs available to some of these laborers now pay $7 an hour. Also, for years some lenders used very liberal debt to ratio guidelines. For example, back in the 80s when I bought my first home, 25% or approximately one week's pay was equal to the mortgage. Some mortgage brokers over the past several years were using up to a 50% DTI, depending on the lender. I trained at a mortgage company for a week and quit. They were pushing interest-only loans and the 1% option ARM and not explaining the consequences to the borrowers. The average shopper, whether buying a home or a car, looks at one thing - the monthly payment. One time I asked a couple if they understood what percentage a mortgage that changed from 4% to 6% would increase, and they answered 2%! I said "No, it's 50%." Some people just don't get it. If you have a drink that is 10% alcohol and another one that is 20% alcohol, then the second is double the strength (or 100%) but many people will say "it's 10% more." 1% to 2% isn't a 1% increase, it's a 100% increase, but many people who bought homes during the housing frenzy never did the math or asked the right questions. If they were stretched to the limit and then had an emergency or were out of work for even a few weeks, they were unable to handle the mortgage payment, and it really exploded when the adjustable rates increased. Right now there is a record number of automobile repos too. Between the home loans, car loans and all the credit card offers, a lot of people who had bad or marginal credit got themselves into very deep debt.

Edit: I also agree with #3 of Mr. Tudo's comment. American has definitely lost its sanity.

1% to 2% is a 100% increase of what???

I did a financial analysis of a $100,000 mortgage for 5 years at 4% and got a monthly payment of $1841.65.. The same mortgage at 6% for the same time required a monthly payment of $1,933.28. That's a monthly increase of $91.63. Where do you get 100% ? I think you scared the pants off those people with bogus mathematics!!! Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Augie]

Where are you?

[Donna-50]

Originally Posted by Augie

1% to 2% is a 100% increase of what???

I did a financial analysis of a $100,000 mortgage for 5 years at 4% and got a monthly payment of $1841.65.. The same mortgage at 6% for the same time required a monthly payment of $1,933.28. That's a monthly increase of $91.63. Where do you get 100% ? I think you scared the pants off those people with bogus mathematics!!! Please correct me if I'm wrong.

They never did that kind of math in my accounting classes.

[jeffabb]

Good luck getting the 80-100K houses. Most of them are short sales and the many of the Realtors are "holding" the bids in attempt to get higher bids (sometimes for months). Also, the term "short sale" is misleading. It take just as long (or longer) as a regular sale. There has been an up tick in buying, via bargain hunters, or foreigners (UK pound is 2 to 1, the Euro is 1.68 to 1 and the Canadian dollar is like 1.4 to 1).

[Lincolnian]

As intriguing as this area is in terms of relatively inexpensive homes and apparent access to the beach and other recreational opportunities, it always comes back to my personal experience with Florida, it's great when I get there, but I can't wait to get back home to the NE by the end of two weeks.