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rabdella, so what you are saying is 1 out of every 6.5 homes sold in wake county is a foreclosure? That seems more than a "tiny fraction" to me.
1860/12000 = ~1/6.5.
Sorry if I was misleading - I was not saying that of the 12,000 homes sold, 1,860 of them were foreclosures. I was only trying to make the point that 1,860 foreclosures (many of which did not make it to the sales market as foreclosures) do not have as much influence on the sale prices of 12,000 homes sold per year. Not all those foreclosures were competing with those 12,000 sales - many were bought on the court house steps, fixed up, and hit the market as non-distressed sales.
This paragraph from the TBJ is not sensible:
"Raleigh had the 137th highest foreclosure rate nationally, with 0.68 percent of its housing units receiving a foreclosure filing. The Bull City’s rate of 0.33 percent clocked in at No. 179."
Foreclosure and filing are two different things.
Mike is right - a foreclosure filing could be many different things - it could be an HOA just trying to collect assoication dues, or the county trying to collect back taxes. A lot of those are settled before actually going to foreclosure.
Up 49% YOY, but only up 5% over the second half of 2009.
Deferred foreclosures will skew numbers, just like the 1st time buyers credits skewed numbers. So, the 1st halof foreclosures were pushed later and the numbers are affected.
When you push and pull results artificially from one time period to another, the data will follow.
Agreed! If you mortgage balance is more than double your annual household income then you are more than likely over-extended!
Just because the bank tells you that you qualify for a certain mortgage amount, doesn't mean that it is a good idea...
This is so true...and so depressing. I know that the majority of people in this area make enough money to buy a house. But our annual household income is around $50k and we are a family of 6. There simply aren't housing options in this area for people like us. I've made it a goal to stay as close to the 130's as possible, but even at that my husband has to commute almost an hour to work. We actually tried that (buying out in the country) several years ago before the huge gas hike. We ended up paying hundreds of dollar extra every month for gas. Right now we're renting...and paying more for rent that we would if we bought a 150k house. There just aren't that money options out there.
My buddy and his wife bought a house in Garner for $125k in a nice blue collar neighborhood. Also look at used VW Jetta TDi's w/manual trannies, they get 50+ mpg. Down here in the summer you can even run straight used vegetable oil in them, so your gas cost is $0. You just have to allocate a weekend day to collect and strain the oil from local restaurants.
My buddy and his wife bought a house in Garner for $125k in a nice blue collar neighborhood. Also look at used VW Jetta TDi's w/manual trannies, they get 50+ mpg. Down here in the summer you can even run straight used vegetable oil in them, so your gas cost is $0. You just have to allocate a weekend day to collect and strain the oil from local restaurants.
Those are good thoughts. I've looked into the VW's. They have really bad reliability ratings...way too many unexepected repairs. The best cars for people in our financial situation are older European made cars...BMW, Mercedes, Volvo. You can pick them up for $3k in good shape and they last forever.
I do love the idea of a veggie car. My husband and I are mechanically challenged and have alot on our plate right now. But maybe in the future sometime when my kids are a little older we can research how to do something like that.
I'm a master at living on a small budget. I probably should write a book and increase my income.
My wife has a '98 VW and I have a '95 Volvo. I like my Volvo. In fact I kinda love it. Probably won't ever get rid of it ever. However it requires a lot of TLC. I bought a parts car for it to fix it inexpensively. In fact I was actually paid to take the stuff off I needed (pulled the engine/tranny) and resell it.
I tore into my wife's VW and fixed the a/c, replaced the compressor and dryer, for under $300. Learn to work on cars, it will save you a bundle. VW's aren't much worse than Volvo for reliability and longevity provided you take care of them. If I was commuting an hour each way a day I would be driving a VW TDi. Hands down.
If I could figure out how to swap in a diesel engine in my Volvo 850 I'd be driving it.
Garner is great for that stuff, lots of blue collar folks who don't mind you working on your cars. I had a nazi neighbor complain about my air tools and went thru the HOA who called me up. Whatever. At least I know where I fit in for the future when I buy a house.
Oh and just wanted to also say Volvos in our area are way overpriced. Check out FL. Lots of low mileage ones for 1/2 the price. I'm looking to pick up another 95 850 and refurbish it for the wife to drive long term, and we might even start importing them from FL - they are that much lower priced.
Charlotte is a good place for used cars as well as there is a much greater supply.
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