[Cambium]

Better start buying homes....

1. Rates WILL NOT stay this low forever! They will soon go up..Bank interest rates will again be near 7%.
2. Inventory will soon to be less.
3. Sellers will realize they dont need to lower their prices.
4. The scared, underwater, in trouble home owners are almost cleared out

Good luck to all....see you in North Dakota.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/13/real...dex.htm?hpt=T2

[JayCT]

Actually here in Glastonbury the inventory is already low. We have friends that are actively looking and there is very little on the market that interests them. Homes here are selling, some I hear with multiple offers.

What is happening is the problems have reached their peak and are now mostly going to drop off. Some areas will be better than others, some worse.

I am not sure if anyone else saw 60 Minutes the other night. It was about people that are walking away from their homes that they can afford but have lost a lot of their value. They bought at the height of the market and can afford to pay the mortgage but because prices have dropped and they decided that they don't want to wait for prices to rise again, they stop paying their mortgages and just eventually give the house back to the bank. They seem to think there is nothing wrong with doing this but to me it shows a lack of pride and commitment. They bought a home and signed a contract that obligates them to something. Now that it did not work in their favor they are walking away and sticking the problem to someone else. Guess who wil pay for this? It just does not seem quite right ot me. Jay

[Rich Lee]

I saw the segment, too. It's unbelievable. We're not experiencing it that much, if at all, in Connecticut since our market didn't appreciate/depreciate as much as some markets in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida.

[Yankeerose00]

Historically, when interest rates go up, home prices go down. Higher interest= less buyers= less demand.

Prices are still coming down. At the same time, because there are so many homes that have been sitting on the market overpriced for the past 1-2 years, as soon as a well priced homes hits the market, it's gone.

There was a gorgeous well priced home that came on the market. We went and looked but it was a wee bit too far out for us. But it was sold within 2 weeks. I wouldn't doubt it had multiple offers. Had it been the house for us, I would have been happy to get into a bit of a bidding war because it was priced so low to being with.

Then in the same town, there are a couple foreclosures, some short sales, homes that need extensive renovations, and over priced homes. Those will continue to sit.

Thank goodness CT doesn't have the problems AZ and FL have.
I don't know if I already posted this but recently my parents' old house in Florida came on the market as short sale. My parents had sold the house in 2001 for 160k. It sold in 2005 for 350k-ish. I don't remember exactly. Now it's listed as a short sale for 149k. Nobody can sell their house down there unless they've owned it forever and they are willing to sell for peanuts.

[larsm]

The foreclosure problem is going to be with the real estate market for the foreseeable future. Government policies of "extend and pretend" are to blame. The plan has been to thus far restrict the pipeline of foreclosures. All that will do is ensure that the real estate markets will be in turmoil over the next several years.

How bad the problem of REO will be on any particular area will, of course, be a function of local economy and % of overextended borrowers. But it is an issue in Greenwich, therefore, it is safe to assume it is a problem for most CT communities.

[dazzleman]

I hate to rain on the parade, but there are a few other factors at play here:

1. There's a large number of homes in pre-foreclosure. They have non-performing mortgages, but the banks haven't yet taken possession because the market has been so poor that they calculate they're better off leaving the house occupied since they wouldn't be able to sell it in a timely manner anyway.

2. There has been unprecedented government support for the housing market, with mortgage assistance that delays (if not prevents) foreclosure, tax credits, and federal reserve intervention to keep mortgage rates unnaturally low. Most of this intervention can't continue indefinitely, at least at this level.

Time will tell, but I don't see us going back to the 2006 market any time soon. And we shouldn't, because that was clearly a market in which people were buying houses they couldn't afford.

[seymourct]

Read somewhere, can't find the link right now, that while foreclosures are easing nationally, they are actually still increasing in CT. Will look for the link, but others can help out if they saw the same thing.

[dazzleman]

Originally Posted by seymourct

Read somewhere, can't find the link right now, that while foreclosures are easing nationally, they are actually still increasing in CT. Will look for the link, but others can help out if they saw the same thing.

The state's mediation law passed in 2008 slowed down foreclosures, but will probably not be too effective at preventing all that many of them. If you can't afford the house, you eventually have to leave. Little can change that.

[Lincolnian]

Originally Posted by JayCT

Actually here in Glastonbury the inventory is already low. We have friends that are actively looking and there is very little on the market that interests them. Homes here are selling, some I hear with multiple offers.

What is happening is the problems have reached their peak and are now mostly going to drop off. Some areas will be better than others, some worse.

I am not sure if anyone else saw 60 Minutes the other night. It was about people that are walking away from their homes that they can afford but have lost a lot of their value. They bought at the height of the market and can afford to pay the mortgage but because prices have dropped and they decided that they don't want to wait for prices to rise again, they stop paying their mortgages and just eventually give the house back to the bank. They seem to think there is nothing wrong with doing this but to me it shows a lack of pride and commitment. They bought a home and signed a contract that obligates them to something. Now that it did not work in their favor they are walking away and sticking the problem to someone else. Guess who wil pay for this? It just does not seem quite right ot me. Jay

I totally agree with your view. I've ridden out paper equity losses before and most likely will do so again as RE has up and down cycles just like the stock market.

[seymourct]

Ok...so here is one of the quotes I read recently

"Foreclosure activity in Connecticut rose 17 percent during the first quarter of 2010, and was up 19 percent from the same period last year. In all, the state reported 6,991 properties with foreclosure filings during the quarter"

Connecticut Foreclosure Activity Rises in First Quarter