AZ is not fairing well (to rent, houses, construction)

[dc1225]

Originally Posted by twiggy

New home construction lowest since 1991, our unemployment is up. People still aren't buying homes.
Arizona is one of the hardest hit in this economic disaster. Does anyone ever think of moving to a more stable area of the country? Some states such as Oklahoma are fairing pretty well. Just curious to see if this is effecting anyone or is it mainly people in the construction or home improvement industry.
Thanks

Yeah, its pretty crappy everywhere...even in Chicago...even the big nice houses in nice areas...they are selling, but not like it should, not like it used to..

[altus2006]

When we moved to a small town (20,000 pop) in Oklahoma 2 1/2 years ago, we only had 2 houses in our price range to look at. One was a dump and the other was nice and we bought it.

We just sold our house here and are going to close next week, and we are VERY fortunate. Our competition was about 25 houses and even our buyers went to 7 houses 3 times each in order to decide which to buy.

Our Realtor told us that she is not seeing buyers and the difference in sales between this year and last is dramatic. She sat floor duty twice this week and did not receive any calls about company listings either time. There are some very nice, well priced, homes on the market here that have been listed for over 6 months.

We chose to sell our house here before the housing downturn impacted OK negatively and we are so glad that we did. And to answer someone's question about renting, I think there are a lot of pro's about renting during this time, especially if one is not flush with cash and cannot withstand a further downturn.

altus2006

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by twiggy

New home construction lowest since 1991, our unemployment is up. People still aren't buying homes.
Arizona is one of the hardest hit in this economic disaster. Does anyone ever think of moving to a more stable area of the country? Some states such as Oklahoma are fairing pretty well. Just curious to see if this is effecting anyone or is it mainly people in the construction or home improvement industry.
Thanks

Other than the rustbelt cities and some areas of Florida, it appears to me that the east coast is back in action.... Places like Pittsburgh, PA are doing quite well.

[shiphead]

I can't find any call center jobs, but im sure it's because im not putting enough effort into it.

[dc1225]

Originally Posted by w1ngzer0

I can't find any call center jobs, but im sure it's because im not putting enough effort into it.

dude, you should be able to find call center jobs, even in your nightmares!

[YAZ]

It sucks to be us...we were planning for two years to sell our condo here in Phoenix. Ya know, use the equity for upgrade to a bigger home with a yard & pool.

Ooops. Wrong time to do that. We'd be lucky to sell our place for what we owe on it. The only folks that are interested in a condo are the ones looking for a "good" deal.

It's A - OK though, as we can use this time to save some cash....

[sheena]

Originally Posted by twiggy

New home construction lowest since 1991, our unemployment is up. People still aren't buying homes.
Arizona is one of the hardest hit in this economic disaster. Does anyone ever think of moving to a more stable area of the country? Some states such as Oklahoma are fairing pretty well. Just curious to see if this is effecting anyone or is it mainly people in the construction or home improvement industry.
Thanks

All I have to say is I moved to the Carolinas and talk about an ecomonic disaster? If we could make money there I'd be there.

Hubby and I are making well over 100,000 here in this state. If not I'd be at that beach baby!

[twiggy]

Originally Posted by sheena

All I have to say is I moved to the Carolinas and talk about an ecomonic disaster? If we could make money there I'd be there.

Hubby and I are making well over 100,000 here in this state. If not I'd be at that beach baby!

Well, better to eat in the desert then to starve in on the beach. Glad things are looking up for you here, maybe you'll have your beach in a few years.

Still trying to figure out why people think families bought houses they new they couldn't afford, why husbands and wifes had jobs they didn't know wouldn't exist in a few years and payed five years into a house they new would soon be selling for under what they paid for. I don't understand how people could really comfort themselves out of having pity for these people like that. But, I guess we do what we do to justify who we are. In the end, after this fall out there will be a different America. A new pessimistic view of the future and the people who sit and judge American families will have there "I told you so's" at the expense of hungry children, grieving moms, and under insured fathers with untreated health problems. It definitely won't be that of the baby boomers glutteny, lets hope this hard lesson has a happy ending. Those who house bought up houses and really did know they couldn't afford them will turn them into rentals and make their money anyway, they will be the new winners and those who rent will be the new American Family. In 10 years we will all be the wiser.

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by londonbarcelona

Other than the rustbelt cities and some areas of Florida, it appears to me that the east coast is back in action.... Places like Pittsburgh, PA are doing quite well.

Remember too that most of your '4 season' cities in at least the Midwest (Pittsburgh is close enough) never had the huge run ups in prices from 2002-05 either so they really cannot decline...........short of the Armageddon that was Detroit courtesy of the imploding auto industry.

Too; many people including myself will not even consider areas that are below Climate Zone 8; Wash DC cured me of real winters-----------permanently. The one exception I would entertain if $$$ were not an issue would be Prescott, Az.

[Alt Dach]

Not to worry , the US debt will be hyper-inflated soon, maybe houses at 3-4 hundred
million will sell better-if not i'm sure Pres. Palin will lead us out somehow.Keep the Faith.