NY Housing Article: Any thoughts? (New York, York: new house, job market, buying)

[MiddleIslander]

Selling prices are far more valuable than listing prices.

[Egobop]

I can't help but to wonder if there are other people like me out there. I actually bought my house to live in, not as an investment. I bought it around 12 years ago. The house was $128,000 at the time and I had it appraised around two years ago and they appraised it at $240,000. I can care less if it drops back down to the $128,000 again. I bought it to live in not to make money off of it. The only thing that makes me know I will be moving to another state in the future when my children have grown has nothing to do with the value of my home but has a lot more to do with the general cost of living on Long Island. The insane property taxes alone will be the thing that drives me away. My mortgage for just my house payment is $800 each month. With the taxes being the biggest of the add on to the mortgage my monthly payment is $1,700. That is truly insane. Then when you look at the ridiculous electricity bills each month; it truly drives you crazy. People were actually fighting against a power plant that is being built off of Horseblock Road which they tell us will give us a 17% break in my area (Yaphank) with property taxes. I personally say build 20 more of them near me and keep giving me tax breaks. Then again; I am sure they will raise the taxes accordingly so within two years I will actually still be paying more in property taxes than I am now.
As far as the bad economy goes; the way I see it is it will get worse then slowly get better. Years and years from now it will be amazingly good again and then the economy will turn to crap again. This is a cycle that has happened before and will happen again. We just have to ride it out. As for the gas prices; I do not know if that will ever go down. There are too many people here and abroad making money off of the fuel issue and a lot of special interest groups that would like nothing more than to see gasoline rise to $20.00 a gallon so that everyone will go "green". The president and the democrats in the Congress and Senate are no exception.

[TomMoser]

Originally Posted by Egobop

I can't help but to wonder if there are other people like me out there. I actually bought my house to live in, not as an investment.

Rep points for you.

[djdairyp]

Originally Posted by Egobop

I can't help but to wonder if there are other people like me out there. I actually bought my house to live in, not as an investment. I bought it around 12 years ago. The house was $128,000 at the time and I had it appraised around two years ago and they appraised it at $240,000. I can care less if it drops back down to the $128,000 again. I bought it to live in not to make money off of it. The only thing that makes me know I will be moving to another state in the future when my children have grown has nothing to do with the value of my home but has a lot more to do with the general cost of living on Long Island. The insane property taxes alone will be the thing that drives me away. My mortgage for just my house payment is $800 each month. With the taxes being the biggest of the add on to the mortgage my monthly payment is $1,700. That is truly insane. Then when you look at the ridiculous electricity bills each month; it truly drives you crazy. People were actually fighting against a power plant that is being built off of Horseblock Road which they tell us will give us a 17% break in my area (Yaphank) with property taxes. I personally say build 20 more of them near me and keep giving me tax breaks. Then again; I am sure they will raise the taxes accordingly so within two years I will actually still be paying more in property taxes than I am now.
As far as the bad economy goes; the way I see it is it will get worse then slowly get better. Years and years from now it will be amazingly good again and then the economy will turn to crap again. This is a cycle that has happened before and will happen again. We just have to ride it out. As for the gas prices; I do not know if that will ever go down. There are too many people here and abroad making money off of the fuel issue and a lot of special interest groups that would like nothing more than to see gasoline rise to $20.00 a gallon so that everyone will go "green". The president and the democrats in the Congress and Senate are no exception.

The difference is that when you bought your home for 128,000 ... you did not just witness it skyrocket from a few years prior. Lets just say you were looking at a hypothetical market in 1992 and houses cost 50,000 which was roughly 3 times your salary and then 4 years later you were ready to buy and houses they were 128,000 but your salary had not changed much. You would be a little more leary and possibly expect a correction. People look at housing as a place to live but you have to put a large chunk of money into it as well so you should also consider if that huge chunk will be more or less in 2 years time considering you have the flexibility to wait. Why buy an iphone at $600 when you have a feeling 6 months later it will cost $200

[scottzilla]

Originally Posted by Egobop

I can't help but to wonder if there are other people like me out there. I actually bought my house to live in, not as an investment. I bought it around 12 years ago. The house was $128,000 at the time and I had it appraised around two years ago and they appraised it at $240,000. I can care less if it drops back down to the $128,000 again. I bought it to live in not to make money off of it. The only thing that makes me know I will be moving to another state in the future when my children have grown has nothing to do with the value of my home but has a lot more to do with the general cost of living on Long Island. The insane property taxes alone will be the thing that drives me away. My mortgage for just my house payment is $800 each month. With the taxes being the biggest of the add on to the mortgage my monthly payment is $1,700. That is truly insane. Then when you look at the ridiculous electricity bills each month; it truly drives you crazy. People were actually fighting against a power plant that is being built off of Horseblock Road which they tell us will give us a 17% break in my area (Yaphank) with property taxes. I personally say build 20 more of them near me and keep giving me tax breaks. Then again; I am sure they will raise the taxes accordingly so within two years I will actually still be paying more in property taxes than I am now.
As far as the bad economy goes; the way I see it is it will get worse then slowly get better. Years and years from now it will be amazingly good again and then the economy will turn to crap again. This is a cycle that has happened before and will happen again. We just have to ride it out. As for the gas prices; I do not know if that will ever go down. There are too many people here and abroad making money off of the fuel issue and a lot of special interest groups that would like nothing more than to see gasoline rise to $20.00 a gallon so that everyone will go "green". The president and the democrats in the Congress and Senate are no exception.

Good post. It's very strange that so many people base their real estate opinions on 8 years of never-before-seen activity rather than on a long history of hard stats and real knowledge.

[jmax]

Anyone watch the show Real Estate Intervention on HGTV? An agent takes a couple that is selling their house to see other houses in their area that have recently sold or are also on the market. After the showings he asks them what they think the asking price is for each house. They always say 10's of thousands more than what their house is listed at - and it is always 10's of thousands less that what they are asking for their own home- They are always shocked - its hilarious. The show last week - the seller kept saying - well this house or that house doesn't have new windows - we have new windows on our house - he must of said it 3 or 4 times during the show.

[djdairyp]

Originally Posted by scottzilla

Good post. It's very strange that so many people base their real estate opinions on 8 years of never-before-seen activity rather than on a long history of hard stats and real knowledge.

Actually the history of housing is exactly what people are basing their opinions on. People that think housing has bottomed or should stabilize are the ones who are looking at the last 8 years and ignoring the anomaly in light of historical gains. (the last 8 years dont match history, there is a massive spike)

People who think there will be further price declines are 100% basing it on a long history of housing stats and affordability and predictions that these should return ... check all the graphs.

[TomMoser]

Originally Posted by jmax

Anyone watch the show Real Estate Intervention on HGTV? An agent takes a couple that is selling their house to see other houses in their area that have recently sold or are also on the market. After the showings he asks them what they think the asking price is for each house. They always say 10's of thousands more than what their house is listed at - and it is always 10's of thousands less that what they are asking for their own home- They are always shocked - its hilarious. The show last week - the seller kept saying - well this house or that house doesn't have new windows - we have new windows on our house - he must of said it 3 or 4 times during the show.

Most sellers believe that they used golden nails when they built their house.

[seren77]

Originally Posted by Egobop

I can't help but to wonder if there are other people like me out there. I actually bought my house to live in, not as an investment. I bought it around 12 years ago. The house was $128,000 at the time and I had it appraised around two years ago and they appraised it at $240,000. I can care less if it drops back down to the $128,000 again. I bought it to live in not to make money off of it.

This is exactly what should happen and what people hope will eventually happen. For that, prices need to come to normal, i.e. should reflect the incomes of the relevant population and be affordable for the average Joe out there.

[scottzilla]

Originally Posted by TomMoser

Most sellers believe that they used golden nails when they built their house.

So why do you take the listing?
Or, at least take the listing and don't show the house. You aren't helping your customers by showing them grossly overpriced properties, yes?