[macguy]

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I own a small rental in the SW section of Fort Lauderdale and there have been quite a few houses for sale in the neighborhood. I have been tracking the prices and sales an not much has been selling in the last 5 or 6 months. Well two on the street my house is on have sold in the last two weeks, why, price.

One was listed near us for $499,000 earlier this year, I just met the new owners, my wife was nosy and just went over there, they paid $339,900 for the house. Did the owner give it away, not really they paid $210,000 only like 4 years ago so they made a cool $129,900 for the investment plus had a nice place to live to the last few years. It all seems to come down to the people wanting crazy prices for their properties, or greed if you want to call it that. Once the prices are set back to a normal level they begin to sell again. Where did they ever get the idea a house they paid $210,000 for was all of a sudden worth $499,000?

People have gone a little crazy with their prices. I just heard on TV that homes sales are up 5% meaning sellers may be coming back to their senses about the value of their properties and setting more realistic prices. My neighbor a realtor who had not sold a house in I don't know how long, I ran into last night and she was on her way to close a deal, I am betting that her seller came to their senses and she was able to sell their house for a fair price. At some point people have to either take their houses off the market or be realistic.

I just noticed I misspelled Fort Lauderdale in the title of the thread but there is a little Freudian slip to the mistake.

[josephhawkinson]

That house should have sold for $265K tops with normal appreciation (2%+inflation). Thank God this buyer does not represent the entire pool of buyers who are waiting for the prices to come down to reasonable levels. Most buyers now are more educated and NAR president David Liaaar (misspelled intentionally) cant fool them anymore with his BS.

Considering the fact that wages has gone down 3% in real dollars (against inflation) since our president took office, price appreciation cannot be justified with wage increases. I think we are in the early stages of the so called housing bubble burst. FL being one of the leaders in overpriced housing will be affected sooner. Some RE cheerleaders may tell us otherwise but very few will have the face to come up with any solid argument in their favor. At this point many foresee a sharp decline by mid 2007 and continues declines through 2008 and may be 2009. All the recent sales data points to this direction.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by josephhawkinson

That house should have sold for $265K tops with normal appreciation (2%+inflation). Thank God this buyer does not represent the entire pool of buyers who are waiting for the prices to come down to reasonable levels. Most buyers now are more educated and NAR president David Liaaar (misspelled intentionally) cant fool them anymore with his BS.

Considering the fact that wages has gone down 3% in real dollars (against inflation) since our president took office, price appreciation cannot be justified with wage increases. I think we are in the early stages of the so called housing bubble burst. FL being one of the leaders in overpriced housing will be affected sooner. Some RE cheerleaders may tell us otherwise but very few will have the face to come up with any solid argument in their favor. At this point many foresee a sharp decline by mid 2007 and continues declines through 2008 and may be 2009. All the recent sales data points to this direction.

The area I am talking about is Croissant Park in Fort Lauderdale and it doesn't follow a formula. It is the hottest area in Fort Lauderdale even in this down market. You put a house on the market even a fixer upper under $300,000 and it will be gone in a day. 5 minutes from the beach, shopping, airport, convention center and downtown which is undergoing a big development, close to the performing arts center and art museum. This museum is one of just a few that hosted the King Tut tour a few months ago. The house is worth it but just not worth $499,000 they tried to get, maybe some day but not now.
There really is no normal, not all properties are created equal or follow any formula, beach front for example.

[lulu]

Great news...Fort Lauder-deal is dealin' and wheelin' - at least there's some money out there to buy.
Send some of that luck down here.
Those 2 homes that I have talked about, around my home, are still sitting, I'm watching them like a hawk. Plus, others I see when I go out and stuff. Wish I had guts to knock on those doors & see what's going on.

[bamboosmom]

I listed our home on the free sites for homes for sale. I had the price at $286,900 with the realtor and listed it at $275,000 by owner. We ended up with $273,000 which, in this market is very very good! We sold it on our own for a difference of $2,000.
We originally listed it back in May with another realtor for $339,900 but we missed the good market by about 6 months. We started chasing the market down
Got rid of that realtor in Aug. and resigned with a new realtor that agreed to let us sell on our own also. We made an adendum for him to sign. If we sold on our own, he would get 2% comm. which let us lower the price to $275,000. The buyer said he got a steal on our home for $273,000.
We did stand out from the rest of the homes in our community also.
The buyer and his realtor friend that he brought along for guidance said everything they had been looking at was garbage. When they walked into our home the buyer knew our home was outstanding and
PRICED RIGHT!

It's funny, the first agent that listed my home said we should be in the $250,000 range to sell. HA! I SOLD THIS BABY ON MY OWN FOR MORE!

[lulu]

That's fantastic! See... one can sell it for sure.
We're seriously thinking of buying a second home & keeping this one. I guess the key is to be patient & persistant - and that you were. If one gets desperate, especially now, then one loses in the selling game...