I think my realtor is full of it....prices going up in spring? (2010, renting)

[Chrisk327]

Also, you should be counting household income, not single person income. Nowadays, everyone buying a house has to have two incomes. take too of those people making 60K and now we're at 120K

[Mjeacoma]

Originally Posted by Elke Mariotti

Two years is a long time - I doubt it would still be on the market. BTW, overpriced in relationship to what, today's prices?
And if it's really his dream home, isn't he planning on staying in it for an extended period of time? Hasn't he had the benefit of enjoying his dream home for the past two years?

IMHO too many people nowadays think of their home more as a short term investment, rather than a home that - over time - will appreciate.

If you're thinking investment, just look at what the stock market has done... do you think the market has performed better? Just something to think about

So let me get this straight.....it was wiser for him to buy this place 2 years ago and for the most part lose out on the awesome houses on the market now? When I say this was his dream home I speak with a tinge of sarcasm as I don't buy into those real estate buzz words. He made an $150,000 error and everyday he regrets it....I am hoping not to be that person...

[Elke Mariotti]

Originally Posted by Mjeacoma

So let me get this straight.....it was wiser for him to buy this place 2 years ago and for the most part lose out on the awesome houses on the market now? When I say this was his dream home I speak with a tinge of sarcasm as I don't buy into those real estate buzz words. He made an $150,000 error and everyday he regrets it....I am hoping not to be that person...

Where would he have lived during the past two years? It's all about long term.
Hindsight's always 20/20, and no one knows where the bottom is until it's behind you. Even in the stock market, market timers don't do as well as long term investors...

Good luck on whatever decision you personally make.

[Lancet71]

Originally Posted by ianwaters

She has said over and over again that if we wait the prices will go up in the spring and I just don't see that happening. I DO think the interest rates will go up a little but prices will go down! I know she wants to make a deal but I feel she is doing the whole high pressure sale and that doesn't work with me.

Anyone else here have an opinion about that? Am i completely wrong?

Think about this: With the banks getting bailed out they're going to be more strict about lending and with alot of people out of work and loss of money not as many are buying;so less buyers means buyers market! The prices will drop!!!

[Smash255]

Originally Posted by I_Love_LI_but

When you mention incomes, do you mean median salaries of people actually living and working on Long Island or are you including people who live on LI and work in NYC?

It includes both, it includes people whose primary residence is on Long Island regardless if they happen to work on LI, NYC, Jersey, Westchester, etc. Being right outside NYC is a major reason why LI has among the highest median home values in the nation as well as the highest median incomes.

[Huckleberry3911948]

yep its ye old, this is he last one
shuffle.

[Smash255]

Originally Posted by jamie1219

Can this be because the foreclosure process in new york takes significantly longer then in other parts of the united states?

Maybe a little bit, but even the early stages of forcelosure the rates are quite a bit lower here (despite its increase) than many other parts of the country.

In most of these areas the income to home value disparity was even greater than Long Island. For example in some of these areas in Florida, Vegas & Arizona you had home values which may have bee 75-80% of what they were here on Long Island, but the incomes were 55-60% of what they are on LI

[mathjak107]

the driving force behind home values shooting upward is now gone and maybe gone forever... the baby boomers and most of their kids at this point either own a home,lost a home or dont want a home.... the market went into a speculative bubble with people buying 2 and even 3 homes forcing prices into areas they should never have gone

nasdaq went to 5,000 and should never have been at that level and may never get back to that level in my lifetime . MARKETS HAVE NO MEMORY
they dont remember what they once were ,only what they are at the moment

to many people started thinking of a home as an investment... a home is not an investment its a place to live

if you want a home buy a home and stop worrying about where the bottom is.

[mathjak107]

THIS IS WHY I SAY DONT LOOK AT YOUR HOME AS AN INVESTMENT :although we call a home an appreciating asset its part of a much larger picture called your overall housing costs... because you live in it these costs are all paid by you and accumulate over a lifetime unlike rental property or investment property which you pay off the income . . the rise of the house in value over time merely offets the giant lifetime expenses of all the costs a homeowner has for the priveledge of owning that home..... your taxes, mortgage interest, repairs,renovation,maintaince,landscaping,insuranc e ,the gardner,the snow plow guy, the list goes on and on.

a lifetime in housing costs are really measured in who lost the least the buyer or the renter, not who made the most as those expenses whether you rent or buy usually eclipse the value of home appreciation over a lifetime. it never stops accumulating even if you sell a home and buy another... like rent just keep adding it all up over a lifetime.

soooooooo if your buying a house think of it as a consumption item, not an investment, think of it as a collector does of fine art, or your jewelry. its something you use and consume and costs you money. the fact a home rises may or may not mitigate the expenses to put you ahead of renting

buy a home for all the things a home can give you (good or bad)

the joy of owning something
doing as you please
the security of owning a payed off home
relatively fixed costs compared to renting

the fun of renovating and changing

etc

while technically a renter appears to be at a dis-advantage because hes not buying anything with his rent that may not be true in alot of areas or situations . here in the greater new york area the cost between renting and buying initially is 1/3 to 1/2 less a month and no massive down payment... it takes about a decade for the rent to equal the costs of buying at the 2 to 3% a year rent increases. each year though the renters advantage grows smaller and smaller as the rent goes up . all though just real estate taxes in alot of areas see bigger jumps the costs are offset with tax deductions on some expenses so its all about what the renter did with the money saved each month and down payment money that determines most of how a renter does.

you cant compare renting vs buying unless you have the renter putting equal amounts of money as well into an appreciating asset. thats where most comparisons fool us, they rarely do this. historically equities have outpaced home appreciation by 2x with alot less expenses in the early years of renting.

i can tell you because home real estate appreciates long term just above the rate of inflation in most markets a person who invests the money he planned to buy with and the money he saves each month compared with buying in nothing more than a mix of diversified index funds stands a great chance of coming out further ahead ...

infact i can say with my own expierience that if you were going to pay cash for the house like i did when i bought my house back in 1987 in queens ny and instead put that money in that same mix of funds (i did that also) i can tell you that today you can subtract out all the rent you would have paid for all those years and still have enough left to buy over 2 houses .....

you have to take a step back and stop looking at just one aspect of your overall cost of housing which is where everyone fixates THE HOUSE
and look at the total costs over a lifetime to know if you spent less renting or buying..... chances are they both cost you and took money out of the ole piggy bank and not made you richer .... housing costs are like food costs, they are expenses not gains

for a eye opening idea of expenses look at only 2 of the many components of expenses a homeowner has , taxes and mortgage interest,,, those two alone usually need the house to appreciate at least 3x and probley more in 30 years just to clear the after tax deduction amount you paid in...

most people pull out one piece of the puzzlel the house cost and what its worth without looking at the big picture namely a lifetime of housing costs and merely look at one aspect without the other parts... since we dont know how much future appreciation will be, we dont know rent increases, we dont know your future expenses or how many times you will sell a house and buy another and incurr more costs there is no answer.. in fact the biggest part on the renters behalf who chose to invest else where and rent is we dont know future market returns..... your trying to predict an outcome thats impossible... we dont know who will spend more in housing costs when all is taken into consideration.

picture it as if you were an investor.. you made big bucks on one investment (the house) but all your other investments tanked.... overall your down , the big gains of the one investment merely mitigated the overall loses


the jury is still out as far as whether the age old debate, is it better to buy or rent financially ?... there is no answer and probley never will be

[corky101]

A real estate agent told me the same thing the other day; that the market hit bottom. "Trust me," he said, "I've been doing this a long time."
I don't believe it. We had a bubble and now it's over and the prices will continue to sink to where they should have been before the whole subprime mortgages & mortgage backed securities were common. THEN (I predict) it will go down further because of job loss. Eventually it will even out to where it should be. I'm glad this happend, because it was unrealistic for a young couple to ever afford a house. On the other hand, I feel very sorry for the people who took the leap and ended up in over their heads.