Selling Home in Adams neighborhood (Huntsville, Madison: for sale, real estate market, mortgage broker)

[ZKing]

Hi all!

So, my wife and I put our house on the market about 2 months ago, and have not been getting much foot traffic. We're located in Lanier Lakes, and we've contracted a new home to be built in another neighborhood with a contingency contract.

We received some pretty devastating news this weekend: Adams has decided to drop the prices on all their floorplans in our neighborhood by $20k+. This has eliminated the chance of us getting anywhere near our asking house for our home. There are many other houses for sale in this neighborhood in the same situation.

If we drop our price enough to be competitive with the new Adams prices, we're not going to be able to put 20% on the new house. We can afford the payments if we have to finance 90% instead of 80%, but PMI is a game changer. We just can't make that work.

Short of just walking away from the new house and looking for something else, I'm looking for options.

Does anyone know if Adams has done this before and if it might be short-term? Or are we looking at prices being that low for a year+?

Are there mortgage brokers that will do a 90% LTV without PMI? I have a very good credit score (~770).

Anything in local news that might suggest that the market has any hope of a recovery in the near (6-month) future?

[E Limestone Dude]

Bummer. Looking at that neighborhood it looks like a 8% price cut.

To be honest, I think this real estate market is unprecedented (especially in the real depressed areas). Not sure you will get any answers other than wild ass guesses.

[Seth Parker]

Originally Posted by E Limestone Dude

Not sure you will get any answers other than wild ass guesses.

That's the foundation of real estate

[Elizabeth_G]

Yes, Adams has started lowering their prices...they had to compete with Breland. I don't suspect this will be short term, but as stated above, I'd be guessing. Adams was the only game in town for quite some time, but now they have competition...they had loads of inventory on the ground and needed to get rid of it. For new homes, they had to meet the competitors prices, or they would never make it. Same product basically and buyers know that. My personal opinion is that this will be permanent, as long as they have competition.

Have your Realtor recommend a good lender. There are a few that may still do no PMI with 90% LTV.

[HB2HSV]

Do you want to take a loss selling an existing home just to get into another one? Not sure what the driving needs you have, but I would wait a few years. I think the Huntsville real estate "boom" with BRAC is over and now we have overbuilt inventory with very few buyers.

[ZKing]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

Do you want to take a loss selling an existing home just to get into another one? Not sure what the driving needs you have, but I would wait a few years. I think the Huntsville real estate "boom" with BRAC is over and now we have overbuilt inventory with very few buyers.

Selling at a loss may be what it comes to. We need to move before my older child starts school, so the longest we can wait is 14-15 months.

[Marc45002]

Originally Posted by ZKing

Selling at a loss may be what it comes to. We need to move before my older child starts school, so the longest we can wait is 14-15 months.

There aren't schools in your current neighborhood? Why take a loss on a house and go through hassle of moving just because of which school your child will attend for elementary school?

I am probably just naive. There are plenty of reasons to sell a home and move to a new home but just switching schools does not seem like a good one to me.

Marc

[LCTMadison]

Unfortunately, you are having to compete with both Adams and Breland out there. Typically a buyer will pay 10-15% more for a new house than a resale. Both builders are also throwing out lots of "goodies" such as granite in those homes.
Lanier Lakes is going to be a rough resale anyways with the amount of inventory out there, new construction with AL Heritage right next door (lots more amenities and better builder in my opinion, getting ready to open up about 120 more lots in Stonegate), and the issues that Providence schools have had recently. The schools are affecting sales...I have had several buyers in the past year that would not even consider a home zoned for Providence.

There are still some 80/10/10 loans out there with piggy back mortgages, but they are extremely hard to come by. When running the numbers, it has actually come out better for the buyers I have had that put less than 20% to go ahead and take the PMI, but you need a lender to look at your individual circumstance and future plans. Usually credit score must be at least 720, so you are good there.

[ZKing]

Originally Posted by Marc45002

There aren't schools in your current neighborhood? Why take a loss on a house and go through hassle of moving just because of which school your child will attend for elementary school?

I am probably just naive. There are plenty of reasons to sell a home and move to a new home but just switching schools does not seem like a good one to me.

Marc

There are a lot of great schools in the Huntsville/Madison area. We're going to move so that we can be zoned for one of those. Losing 10-20k on a house isn't much compared to the cost of putting two kids through private school.

[ZKing]

Originally Posted by LCTMadison

Unfortunately, you are having to compete with both Adams and Breland out there. Typically a buyer will pay 10-15% more for a new house than a resale. Both builders are also throwing out lots of "goodies" such as granite in those homes.
Lanier Lakes is going to be a rough resale anyways with the amount of inventory out there, new construction with AL Heritage right next door (lots more amenities and better builder in my opinion, getting ready to open up about 120 more lots in Stonegate), and the issues that Providence schools have had recently. The schools are affecting sales...I have had several buyers in the past year that would not even consider a home zoned for Providence.

There are still some 80/10/10 loans out there with piggy back mortgages, but they are extremely hard to come by. When running the numbers, it has actually come out better for the buyers I have had that put less than 20% to go ahead and take the PMI, but you need a lender to look at your individual circumstance and future plans. Usually credit score must be at least 720, so you are good there.

When we originally built, we had every intention of staying until the neighborhood was built up. The house fits our needs and we like the neighborhood. Because of Providence, however, we don't consider that to be an option anymore.