Why so many homes for sale? (Allentown, Reading: hardwood floors, transplants, renting)

[2kidsimdone]

It seems like so many people are moving to the area, but when I look up my price range ($300-400,000) and the area I would like to live (Lower Macungie), I get close to 70 homes for sale on Realtor.com.

Why so many homes for sale? I thought this was a developing area.

Any insight would be great!

[TristansMommy]

Probably the same thing that is happening in a lot of places.. with the market being so soft.. maybe htey had ARM mortgages and need to sell or they are upside down on their homes cause prices have come down.. I'm not from PA so I don't know what the deal is, but that's what is happening in NY.. LI particularly.

[KristyLiz]

We just moved to Lower Macungie in October, and when we were house hunting this summer there were not that many resales on the market. Fast forward 6 months in such a poor market and houses are sitting longer and longer.

This area has lots of transplants, so you have people coming in and out all the time. We are transplants as well, but I am done moving.

[Coastalminded]

I am a native for 37 years and have a bit of information about this area.

It is getting way too expensive to live in the Lehigh Valley. Home prices doubled in last 5 years at least. We bought our first home in 2000 for 102,500. nice single, 1300 square, new construction. Just sold it Friday for 191,000 and we could have held out and gotten 209,000 but we want out of here. At least I sure do more than anything else but that is for personal reasons that have to do with a criminal act commited against me. Overall, though, I want out of PA. and have had enough of winters. But the LV area has morphed into a huge huge transplant area, I know firsthand. It is no where near what it once was, its now a ghost town, literally, and prices for everything have gone through the roof. Trust me, taxes? Schools? Of course they went way up, so many transplants from NJ/NY escaping their heavy loads came across the bridge so to speak and we needed bigger, better schools, more infrastructure by far and more of everything . So, we pay for all this, together. I noticed many, many transplants from nj.ny have placed their homes up for sale within 2-3 years of living here, I notice this all the time.

You have to realize, PA. is in my opinion a old time/old school state that is very stuck in a rut.

At one time, Bethlehem Steel, Mack Trucks, The CEMENT industry which began HERE (look it up), RAILROADS, MAJOR HEAVY MANUFACTURING has all moved out or closed up shop here....I know, I was a history buff for many years until honestly, this whole area became "history". And it is re-vitalized in a very few select areas but why anyone would want to live here, and I mean set out to live here solely for the purpose of "living in Pennsylvania" is absolutely beyond me. For what would you want to move here? So you can ski? On fake snow? I don't know, there are reasons people move here but it totally escapes me why.

From 1900 until around 1975, this area, the entire Lehigh Valley was booming big time. Huge amount of secure work with nice pensions, anyone could get a job, and a good job. Now the Lehigh Valley is simply a WAREHOUSE, one big warehouse along I-78 out in Iron Run. And by coincidence, just yesterday in the Sunday Morning Call Buisness section (look it up online free) there on the front page " VALLEY LOSING WAREHOUSES-COMPANIES PRICED OUT" or similar was the headline. It stated large national companies bypassing the "corridor" of the L.V. (rte I 78) due to what? PRICES FOR LAND AND TAXES/POOR LABOR FORCE.

This is a fact, like I said, look it up. Even the life blood that did in fact keep the LV on the map, warehousing, light industrial plants out along I-78 are relocating or choosing to settle and build north of here or west of here as it is just too expensive.

If you work in the healthcare field, of course there is work as is most states. But if not, do not expect to make a huge living here, thats not the way it goes. Natives Know this and wonder at the influx of people. It is mostly to escape Jersey taxes but they get here thinking its all rosey, and will in time be faced with super high gasoline bills because of their commute to Jersey where MOST still work, take that into account and factor in the taxes going up here too now, catching up with the boom of people, and what do they do? Get bored with PA., realize their hearts and friends are in Jersey perhaps, for many, and move back as it is becomming a "wash" financially.

Yes, I may be biased to some degree but I am also very realistic and speak from being born and raised right in the heart of the LV, Allentown PA. . Lived here 37 years, seen other states and want out of the winters, cold people as well, and higher than ever cost of living.

I seen the decline coming, we all did, and things have never rebounded anywhere near what it once was like to live here. This WAS one of the top 5 best places to live/work way back when . Many many industries rooted here or started here, my town is named Cementon...CEMENTon....thats right, I live in the birthplace of cement/concrete. Atlas Cement had 5 plants here and closed completely in 1982 and moved out along with all the other GIANTS...And they were the real Giants. We have Lucent Technologies here which is contantly laying off people by the thousands.....and the malls are out dated and old. They just finally updated the Lehigh Valley MAll this year and I am not impressed although it is a welcome change, there also is very little parking as they built it IN the old parking lot. its simply a couple of high end stores built off the old mall and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the old areas of the facilities. Strange, money talks though and there is plenty of people to fill those stores, that is for sure.

Traffic here is insane, pollution? Forget it, don't buy into numbers on some forum, pollution here is as bad as it is in Philly, NY/NJ. as we are only an hour away from all 3 don't forget.

And I noticed the one deciding factor that really made me decide to get out was the icing on the cake. People and their very selfish attitudes here. It is a rat race everywhere because you have to be a rat to live here....its expensive, so a rat you must be. And backstabbing people are abundant. Someone from the South would most likely come here and spend some time and think they were in A major city where people are quite self absorbed etc...its no different here. And it was not always like this but it may be getting like this most places, I don't know.

PA. was awesome, now it is hollow and forgotten about. Flame me IF you have lived here as long as me, if you have not, save it. Move here and enjoy yourself, I just would stay on the outskirts and avoid the immediate LV area. Buy some country land while it is still affordable, or better yet, move up to the Poconos where land is cheap as heck and you can escape the madness of traffic, congestion and Ozone action days that are becomming the norm. On those days public bus transportation is FREE, to cut down on smog and congestion as there is NO rail service out of here......years ago in 1982 the passenger service ground to a halt with the last train leaving out of Allentowns Union Station I believe, and future rail service is lip service.

Wow, i do need a change. best of luck.

[TristansMommy]

Wow Coastalmiminded.. your post ..well is depressing me..
First, the way you feel about LV is how I feel about LI.. but I would believe that LI is worse. Lookign at your home prices I'm amazed at how affordable and what I could get in PA for what I paid for my house on LI.. AND your taxes are FAR less than mine. Considering PA to escape LI high taxes, overpriced EVERYTHING, congestion (Nassau is starting to become like Queens) and .. well self absorbed NY who have no time to meet their neighbors. Your input into LV gives me some help.. I'm narrowing my search by SD first in a few counties.. Lehigh Valley, Bucks ,Berks, Deleware, Chester, Montgomery and possibly Lancaster. In your opinion, which one of those is the best county to live in.

I like the idea of quiet rural..community feel, but not so rural that I feel like I'm living in the middle of nowhere.

Oh.. and you have given me great insight into RE there too.. apparently you have had a "bubble" too.. which leads me to believe that prices will decline soon, if not already, to more sustainable levels.. I will keep an eye out because I overpaid here on LI.. am trapped in an ARM and I made aHUGE mistake.. will take YEARS to recover and I will probably have to short sell my house.. but it is what it is.. and the next home I buy I will be much smarter and it will be the home I raise my kids in for the next 20 or so years..

So.. where in PA is a good place to live.. in your opinion, out of the counties i mentioned.

[2kidsimdone]

Wow Coastalminded..bitter much?? Sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but are you trying to stop everyone from moving to LV?

I'm sure that you can find something nice to say.

[Icy Tea]

Cities like Allentown and Reading were admired cities nationally 50 to 100 years ago and can be that way again. Likewise Berks and Lehigh were 2 of Pa's powerhouse counties in many industries as well as agriculturally. Areas that were the boonies or wastelands 100 years ago have become boomtowns. What happens to many boomtowns?
I think Pa has the infrastructure and resources to always be a desirable place to live. 200 years ago it was the place to settle to farm, lumber, mill, manufacture, etc. It can be that way again and it is becoming that again. And IMO, Pa's culture and set in its ways mentality is a positive.
Estern Pa has had some negative influences from people moving out of eastern cities, but companies are realizing that it's cheaper to do business here than in New York or New Jersey. Cheaper to live and you're not giving anything up as far as schools, quality of life, etc.
The grass is always greener.

[toobusytoday]

My husband and I have lived in five different states and four different counties in Pennsylvania so I think I have a pretty objective view of what is good about Pennsylvania.

First off, I love the beauty of the area. I grew up in Lower Delaware where many of my classmates lived on chicken farms. Flat and boring. I also very much appreciate our schools. I didn't realize how lacking my education was until my kids started schools. We've lived in three different school disticts (Downingtown, Garnet Valley and now Southern Lehigh) and all were excellent.

I love the people here. When we moved in we had half a dozen neighbors come to our door with their whole family to introduce and food to share. I love Friday night football games, Easter egg hunts and the halloween parade. I love hanging out with my neighbors on the weekends or watching an Eagles game together.

My husband has always had a good well paying job. The company he works for has been a family business for four generations and many people never work for anyone else. They start there and they stay there.

Yes, the area is growing faster then I would like but I won't begrudge anyone the opportunity to share the good life that we have found. BTW, I work in a public library and while we have many new residents, they are coming from all over, not just NY and NJ.

[ScranBarre]

Getting back to the topic at hand, I believe the reason for the massive amount of resales in the Lehigh Valley (and much of the nation for that matter) is due to over speculation from home builders and developers who thought they could ride the coattails of a booming economy forever. Now that President Bush has literally destroyed our nation's integrity, our currency's value is plummeting, gas prices are soaring, the stock market is shaky, war with Iran looms, the subprime mortgage crisis has reached epidemic levels, etc., there just aren't as many people in the market for a home. Those speculators that were slapping up homes left and right now have a large inventory of new construction homes sitting in half-empty subdivisions while those in homes being sold for resale vie for the same dwindling pool of home buyers.

This is simple economics. When you bring too much of a supply (housing) to the demand market (home buyers), the market will have to correct itself. If I were in office in the Lehigh Valley I'd be investigating ways to put a temporary hold on new housing permits for developers until the very oversaturated housing market began to stabilize. I'm seeing this problem right now here in NEPA. New McMansions are popping up left and right in our suburban townships at the same time as more homes than ever before are going up for sale in our cities and boroughs. Meanwhile the pool of buyers has remained relatively steady. The result? People who would have been considering purchasing resales now have too many options available to purchase newer construction homes instead, leaving those seeking to sell existing homes out of luck.

If you are trying to sell your home in the Lehigh Valley right now, my personal expertise (which you can take with a grain of salt since I'm only a 21-year-old realtor-in-training) would be to stage your home to the best of your ability. This goes for both existing homes and newer construction homes. Developers should invest a few thousand dollars in renting furnishings for their new homes---just enough to permit prospective buyers to walk through and see a possible usage for each formerly-vacant room. Buyers like to walk in and feel a sense of coziness, not sterility.

For existing homes, staging can be much more difficult, but here are some general tips:

-Paint walls in softer, more netrual colors and tones. You may think the deep cabernet walls in your master suite improve your sex life, but buyers may find such colors to be too "loud."

-Clear clutter to the best of your ability. This includes cleaning the magnets, pictures, memos, etc. off the front of the refrigerator, packing away excess knicknacks (nobody cares to see your giant stuffed elephant collection in your curio), and organizing closets to permit buyers to see just how spacious your storage areas are. After all, if they see a lot of clutter everywhere, they're automatically going to assume that you don't have a lot of closets (a bad thing).

-Make your buyers feel welcomed. Put some fresh flowers that are appropriate for the season (mums in Fall, poinsettias in winter, etc.) in vases in select locations throughout the home and in pots on your front porch. Baked goods sitting on the dining room table (especially Christmas cookies this time of the year) can be a real deal clincher; people are happier when they have fuller stomachs, and happier people tend to be more prone to buy more stuff (which is why so many grocery stores offer free samples in hopes that those sampling will want to buy more). It might be nice to have place settings on your dining room table with a bottle of wine and two half-filled wine glasses in the middle.

-If you happen to live in an older home where faux paus trends (such as covering beautiful hardwood flooring with wall-to-wall carperting) are evident, be sure to modernize to existing trends. Refinish those hardwood floors; they're popular right now in main level living areas. Upgrading kitchen counters to granite can add much in value, as can upgrading to stainless steel appliances and fixtures---people still seem to love them. Kitchens and bathrooms sell home; make sure yours are spotless, modern, and fresh (burning a nice candle in the bathroom could always help).

[toobusytoday]

Originally Posted by SWB

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If I were in office in the Lehigh Valley I'd be investigating ways to put a temporary hold on new housing permits for developers until the very oversaturated housing market began to stabilize.

Sounds great! What office would this be? The slow down development wizard?