Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
For the third straight month, Charlotte-area home sales registered double-digit increases compared with the same month of 2008. December prices also were up about 5.7% compared with last year.
Final month brings hope after sour year (http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/1175163.html - broken link)
Foreclosures could soar in Mecklenburg County this year after declining slightly last year. A surge in filings to start foreclosures hints at a backlog in cases that could drive the increase.
Mecklenburg home losses could skyrocket
(http://www.charlotteobserver.com/topstories/story/1171171.html - broken link)
Yep. I just heard on CNN that they are predicting that foreclosures soar into 2011, due to folks being out of work and no possibility of getting jobs.
They said we need 20 million new jobs to solve the unemployment problem in this country.
The folks who are buying houses are trying to get in on the President's rebate plan (wh/ was extended and now ends 4/2010). The majority of these purchases are in the under $250K range.
This leaves houses sitting on the market all over this region. Eventually, if folks are out of work and use all their resources, they will have to either 1. rent out their home and go into an apartment or move in with friends/relatives or 2. go into foreclosure.
There are still some folks being recruited from other areas for jobs here, which seems really strange with all the recent newcomers who are out of work and certainly very qualified (don't know why these companies keep hiring from outside the region . . . ????) So there will be some homes sold to those incoming relocators. However, many of them continue to want a new home and no one is curbing building permits, b/c this keeps folks employed. It is crazy stuff . . . building new houses with hundreds in every area of the city on the market for bargain prices, but it is a mentality (I gotta have a new house!!!) and it seems some folks are not gonna sway from that desire to "build their own."
We have not seen the worst of it with housing here.
Yeah, the CharlotteObserver continues to prove how clueless they are with that article title... "... brings hope..." Hope for what?!
I mean I guess it's a nice article for the price point that ani mentions (<250k), but if you're needing to sell in the mid to high price points you're still in for a big hurt. It will be even worse when all the inbound foreclosures hit.
I'm not so sure. The majority of other places have seen bad foreclosure times already. I'm not going to call it the worst, but it's sure as heck bad. For instance, the City I left in Central Florida in 2007 had over 2,000 foreclosures in the city alone...a city of barely 30-40k people! I forget the numbers now, but Central Florida as a whole had insane foreclosure numbers back in 07/08...and I'm sure they're still putting up disheartening numbers.
Not to call Charlotte immune to it, because that's blatantly foolish, but I don't get the feeling that we're going to be hit by that tsunami of foreclosures like other places have seen. I think we'd have seen it by now. Even if there are more folks "coming online" right now realizing they need to do that unfortunate process, I think the banks have learned a lot from the other cases of mass foreclosures and are better prepared to handle it, if not work with the people. I'm not saying they'll be a pushover, but it's not a cut and dry black and white process still. I've heard everything from moving all the missed payments to the end of the loan to accepting SOME level of payment all as opposed to flat-out foreclosing and letting the house (aka: investment) sit empty and hopeless.
I'm not so sure. The majority of other places have seen bad foreclosure times already.
We haven't seen the worst of the foreclosures, yet... There's been several articles about how there's another wave to come in 2010.
The lousy investors and the sub primes that are going to fail have pretty much failed at this point... what's incoming are the prime folks who've been holding on to dear life hoping things will "turn around". They can't afford it and they are running out of time to either get a job or sell.
And let's not forget folks who do not WANT to refinance their homes. I think it is true (as Metallisteve said) that banks are handling those situations better (I sure the heck hope so!). But so many folks who will go into foreclosure (or a short sale) have their homes on the market b/c they are LEAVING the area. They don't want to refinance - they are going elsewhere for employment. I know of 2 familes that are dealing with that right now. They are going to end up just "walking away" from their homes soon (which are both in the over $350K range) b/c hubby has a new job elsewhere and they can't get their house sold - and can't keep on paying for that mortgage PLUS rent and expenses in another city.
These banks should be made to take care of the upkeep of the foreclosed homes. The blight brings down the already low value of current homes in the area. I saw many online that were up for sale. Some had paint, taped toilets, overgrown lawns, and many looked like they had been trash. Soon I hope the economy will turn around for all.
Yep. I just heard on CNN that they are predicting that foreclosures soar into 2011, due to folks being out of work and no possibility of getting jobs.
They said we need 20 million new jobs to solve the unemployment problem in this country.
The folks who are buying houses are trying to get in on the President's rebate plan (wh/ was extended and now ends 4/2010). The majority of these purchases are in the under $250K range.
This leaves houses sitting on the market all over this region. Eventually, if folks are out of work and use all their resources, they will have to either 1. rent out their home and go into an apartment or move in with friends/relatives or 2. go into foreclosure.
There are still some folks being recruited from other areas for jobs here, which seems really strange with all the recent newcomers who are out of work and certainly very qualified (don't know why these companies keep hiring from outside the region . . . ????) So there will be some homes sold to those incoming relocators. However, many of them continue to want a new home and no one is curbing building permits, b/c this keeps folks employed. It is crazy stuff . . . building new houses with hundreds in every area of the city on the market for bargain prices, but it is a mentality (I gotta have a new house!!!) and it seems some folks are not gonna sway from that desire to "build their own."
We have not seen the worst of it with housing here.
Agreed Ani. The mentality of I gotta have a new house kind of sickens me. It seems pretty wasteful with all of the houses on the market. My wife and I would really like to take advantage of the 6500 tax credit if you were to buy a 2nd home. There are a lot of great deals out there for someone that has the means to scoop up some extra property. Like most people however we are afraid to take such a risk especially with the wife out of work right now. There are more and more for rent and short sale signs popping up in my hood and I don't want to be one to add to those numbers. I guess we will just play it safe for now and sit tight.
I have a friend who is still working, has always been paying his mortgage on time, but is just treading water... recent months actually going into the red. He's so far upside from buying near the peak, a sale isn't possible and the loan mod options aren't going to help long term because he has too much house and needs to downsize. It's actually more cost effective to stop paying the mortgage to force a short sale / walk away and move into a rental...
So even those with good credit and jobs (currently) are having very serious issues. That is what is most troubling about this coming year - it's not the investors and sub prime folks only anymore. I guess one could argue that it was too much house and he should never have bought it, but he's been holding on as long as he can and running out of time.
Elaborating on Mikey's post...which I agree with...
I still hold my opinion that Charlotte was never bitten by the boom bug...at least not as badly as other cities. (I won't bore us all with repeated stories of Central Florida!) Because of this, the scale of folks being upside-down with loan-to-value ratios is much much smaller; dare I say recoverable. How someone is supposed to recover from being $100k or more upside down, I don't know. Recovering from a few ten thousand dollars upside down, now that's something that just simply waiting 5 years will cure.
None of this keeps folks from having to walk away from their home though...which I fully acknowledge is bound to happen in any city in the US, especially the metros like Charlotte. But I still contend that we have it relatively easy compared to other places. For as many stories that I can round up on these forums of folks having to ditch Charlotte for another location to get work, I see several times more people coming to Charlotte with work in hand to take their place...something that is not happening in a lot of other places.
I think all these positives outweigh our negatives and our net outcome will be for the better...not for a dooms day event. Of course, this is just my opinion...no better than some writer's at the Charlotte Disturber or any other media outlet. While I don't have fun charts and stats to back me up, I have a gut with feelings, which again, is just as good of a source for conversation than any other preditcion (if not better).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
