Lee County-Second-Largest Drop in Population in FL (Cape Coral, Fort Myers: short sale, houses)

[hiknapster]

It's nice to see people were thinking of me while I was away! No, I don't have the unemployment numbers. I'll go get them.

Okay. Bad news. Crap. It's 13.5 for Cape Coral/Fort Myers.

Table 1. Civilian labor force and unemployment by state and metropolitan area

mrcoolmrcool: Thanks for giving me the lovely news that when the nine-year-old gets through college and finally gets the good-paying job she is still going to borrow money.

It took me awhile, but I finally figured out how to tell the difference in the weather. It would be the same heat and humidity but would feel cooler here and I couldn't figure out why. It's the dew point. That's what makes the difference.

There's a chart on here that explains how the dew point feels.

Dew point - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I got up in the middle of the night but hopefully I'm going to go back to sleep. Good to hear from you firemed! We sure missed ya!

[nhkev]

Lee counties september's foreclosure numbers are now out and there were 1610 in september of 2009 this is in comparison to 2462 in september of 2008. I believe this is the lowest number in about 2 years. Sales figures are not out yet but I would guess they would also be down. Hopefully they offset and inventories remain under 6 mos. Most homes under $250k have low inventories, low days on the market, and sell close to listing price. moderate to higher end homes are still not moving. I'm usually against gov't intervention but I wonder if they did expand the home buyers tax credit to anyone and increased up to $15k if it would be enough incentive for people to start looking at the higher end homes.

[twobums]

Here are my reasons for letting the 1st time home buyer tax credit expire:

* it is expensive ~ according to the IRS, 1.4 million families have already taken advantage of it. This could cost us taxpayers anywhere between $11 billion & $15 billion.
* mortgage rates are at almost an all time low, benefitting from the bond buying of the federal reserve
* FHA is guaranteeing billions of dollars in new mortgages (probably not too smart)

This massive subsidy is costing taxpayers too much... we need to be fiscally responsible as a nation and allow the credit to expire.

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by nhkev

Lee counties september's foreclosure numbers are now out and there were 1610 in september of 2009 this is in comparison to 2462 in september of 2008. I believe this is the lowest number in about 2 years. Sales figures are not out yet but I would guess they would also be down. Hopefully they offset and inventories remain under 6 mos. Most homes under $250k have low inventories, low days on the market, and sell close to listing price. moderate to higher end homes are still not moving. I'm usually against gov't intervention but I wonder if they did expand the home buyers tax credit to anyone and increased up to $15k if it would be enough incentive for people to start looking at the higher end homes.

Bingo. I'm all in.

Everywhere across the country, the higher-priced homes are not moving. I don't think they'll do all that, but $8,000 to all would be nice. Ponies for everyone!

[hiknapster]

Originally Posted by twobums

Here are my reasons for letting the 1st time home buyer tax credit expire:

* it is expensive ~ according to the IRS, 1.4 million families have already taken advantage of it. This could cost us taxpayers anywhere between $11 billion & $15 billion.
* mortgage rates are at almost an all time low, benefitting from the bond buying of the federal reserve
* FHA is guaranteeing billions of dollars in new mortgages (probably not too smart)

This massive subsidy is costing taxpayers too much... we need to be fiscally responsible as a nation and allow the credit to expire.

At this point we have to do something. Knocking down a few of the poorly-made homes has come to mind, as well as the Chinese Drywall ones.

One quibble. The FHA does not guarantee loans. They insure them. The borrower pays mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) upfront and monthly to the FHA. It's not a huge difference and one could argue that if everyone were to default then the FHA could go bust, but there is a small difference that I wanted to point out.

Carry on.

[nhkev]

Originally Posted by twobums

Here are my reasons for letting the 1st time home buyer tax credit expire:

* it is expensive ~ according to the IRS, 1.4 million families have already taken advantage of it. This could cost us taxpayers anywhere between $11 billion & $15 billion.
* mortgage rates are at almost an all time low, benefitting from the bond buying of the federal reserve
* FHA is guaranteeing billions of dollars in new mortgages (probably not too smart)

This massive subsidy is costing taxpayers too much... we need to be fiscally responsible as a nation and allow the credit to expire.

Maybe you could explain this to me... for every person that takes advantage it cost the gov't an avg of $40k Why is this if it's only an $8k credit?? And I want the first time credit to expire as well, houses are low and rates are low enough. The inventory of homes they would be buying is already fine. It's the homes over $250k that they won't buy and rates alone don't seem to be enough to jump start this end to get inventories down to below a 9 month supply. Maybe a credit to purchase a blighted property?????

[tommy-105]

Originally Posted by nhkev

Maybe you could explain this to me... for every person that takes advantage it cost the gov't an avg of $40k Why is this if it's only an $8k credit?? And I want the first time credit to expire as well, houses are low and rates are low enough. The inventory of homes they would be buying is already fine. It's the homes over $250k that they won't buy and rates alone don't seem to be enough to jump start this end to get inventories down to below a 9 month supply. Maybe a credit to purchase a blighted property?????

Knock down the inventory and maybe create jobs for the construction trades at the same time? Sounds good to me!

[Mrs. P]

Originally Posted by twobums

nhkev ~ the 1st time home buyers credit will harm the RE market in the long run. It is a serious blunder. Since those buyers can use the $$ as their down payment, they have no skin in the game. And we all know what happens when home buyers have no skin in the game ~ walking away is oh so easy.

Give it a year or so and there could be another market crash of those homes.

It will be interesting to see how bleak housing #'s are after the credit expires.

Really? See I was under the impression it was MUCH harder to get a bank loan for a mortgage. Meaning these people can not really do 100% financing (which is what caused many of the foreclosures in my area of the US) ....and that all the "ahem" fudging of eager beaver mortage companies and some banks has all but stopped. It would appear to me the people taking advantage of the 8,000.00 have to prove they are a bit more financially sound, then in the hey day of build 'em, sell em' no down payment required' we'll fudge your credit history and income" mortgage lending days.

Or are they still giving 100% mortgages (minus the 8 grand?) Even at that, they've got at least some downpayment, and they are not paying for overly inflated property as well...giving them some instant equity.

[Ruby24]

It's very hard to get a mortgage today. You certainly need excellent credit and a stable, good income to get one.
The $8,000.00 tax credit doesn't change that.

[Taratova]

I bought a home in January 2009 and live in it in the winter months. I am now in NJ heading down to Cape Coral in Nov.

I know many foreclosed homes are going on the market but they are selling quickly. The REO homes that are owned by the banks will sell as I read statistics = they sell in an average of 11 days.

There was competition when I walked through homes ,other realtors were there with their clients checking out the homes that went on the market.

I believe it will work out in a few years. Mortgages will be lower because of the drop in value , giving a home buyer more money to spend in the marketplace. Retired baby boomers coming to the area will contribute to the economy and don't need a job.

Values will climb when the foreclosures stop. The sunny days in winter will always be the reason for many to come to the area.