[firemed]

Originally Posted by Shores9

SunshineState

Real estate is no different than any other business. It has cycles just like any other and just like any other free enterprise if you work hard and are good at what you do you will be successful over time.

I’m not suggesting that everyone in real estate was just taking advantage of what was a booming market or looking for an easy buck – far from it! There are loads of great realtors with high ethical standards and good business practices and they will surely survive. There are some with all the best intentions but lack the competitive skills and business savvy needed to survive and then there are those that I certainly would like to see go – and there are a lot that fall into that catagory!!!

This is a strange cycle never seen before. The New York Times. “Five years ago, the United States economy went through a recession that did virtually no damage to the housing market. In 2007, the question is whether the economy can emerge unscathed from a housing recession.”

“In the bond market, however, the outlook was cloudy at best. Prices in the futures market showed that investors expected that the next move by the Federal Reserve would be to reduce the interest rate it has raised 17 times since mid-2004. That indicates worry about a slowing economy. And another traditional indicator, the yield curve, says the same thing.”

“So the stock market says a boom is here and is going to stay, housing notwithstanding. And the bond market expects a recession — but one that does not damage those who are financially stretched before it begins.”

“‘We think of markets as forecasters,’ said economist Robert J. Barbera. ‘But it is very hard to come up with a model’ that makes sense of the current forecasts.”

“With prices falling in some regions, home builders reported a surge of cancellations of purchase contracts. Housing starts plunged, and although starts showed a reassuring increase in November, newly issued permits to build new homes continued to decline.”

“Oddly enough, rising home sales could be a bad sign in 2007, particularly if prices continue to sag. A surge in sales of existing homes could be an indication that people were being forced to sell.”

[golfengels]

We like the Sarasota/North Port area and were hoping to retire there (to a golf course community) in about 6 years, but housing prices had increased so much the past few years, we were priced out of the market. Now that prices are dropping, we debated on making a "reasonable" offer on a home, but high homeowner's insurance and property taxes prevent us from doing so. It would be impossible to rent the house for anyway near our cash outlay each month. Any thoughts?

[SunshineState]

Originally Posted by golfengels

We like the Sarasota/North Port area and were hoping to retire there (to a golf course community) in about 6 years, but housing prices had increased so much the past few years, we were priced out of the market. Now that prices are dropping, we debated on making a "reasonable" offer on a home, but high homeowner's insurance and property taxes prevent us from doing so. It would be impossible to rent the house for anyway near our cash outlay each month. Any thoughts?

Tennessee and South Carolina have beautiful gold course communities.

[wacahootaman]

Rents are falling in a lot of places because many sellers cant sell and are forced to rent their houses till the market improves. Lots of flippers are stuck with houses they cant flip and are renting them for any income they can get.

I would suspect that there are a lot of good deals renting from distressed sellers in the Sarasota area.

[Floridamex]

Originally Posted by golfengels

We like the Sarasota/North Port area and were hoping to retire there (to a golf course community) in about 6 years, but housing prices had increased so much the past few years, we were priced out of the market. Now that prices are dropping, we debated on making a "reasonable" offer on a home, but high homeowner's insurance and property taxes prevent us from doing so. It would be impossible to rent the house for anyway near our cash outlay each month. Any thoughts?

Thats the case with most people. I find the developers extremely optimistic on how much money all the boomers have to spend to the point of being delusional,

[Shores9]

Jan 3, 2007 -Washington
The volume of mortgage applications at major U.S. banks rose 3.6% on The number of applications -- including both purchase loans and refinance loans -- increased 6.9% compared with the same week a year ago.
a seasonally adjusted basis last week compared to the week before Christmas, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.

[firemed]

Reports from Wall Street. Bloomberg, “Mortgage Lenders Network USA Inc. stopped making new loans through its wholesale arm, becoming the third mortgage company in a month to curtail operations as housing sales slowed and defaults by borrowers rose.”

“‘The economics of this market are not good, and it deals with the performance of loans, and to a lesser extent the value of homes,’ Executive Vice President James Pedrick said.”

“Lenders including Ownit Mortgage Solutions Inc. and Sebring Capital Partners LP, which also specialize in ’sub-prime’ mortgages, were among companies that closed operations and cut staff in 2006 as loans to high-risk customers soured.”

“Nationwide, late payments on sub-prime loans rose during the third quarter to 12.56 percent of the total, the most since the first quarter of 2003, the U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association said.”

“Closely held MLN is the 15th-biggest issuer of sub-prime mortgages, with $3.3 billion of loans in the third quarter, according to National Mortgage News.”

Some news good and some news bad !

[covebound]

The home up the street just lowered their price again. They are down $100,000. from when they first listed over a year ago.

[firemed]

Because the Census Bureau, keeper of the new home sales data, doesn’t capture cancellations in the monthly statistics, sales are probably being overstated and inventories understated.”

[macguy]

Originally Posted by covebound

The home up the street just lowered their price again. They are down $100,000. from when they first listed over a year ago.

Them lowering of the price regardless the amount indicates more that the house was just plain over priced. I had a piece of property in a gated community last year I sold. At one point I was asking $229.000 only because that is what other were asking for similar properties. After a while a look at past sales showed that no property EVER sold for a price like that in that community. It didn't take me long to drop my price and I did get it sold but like $50,000 less while others were still trying for the ridiculous prices.

I didn't feel like I had lowered my price or lost money, I paid $26,500 for the lot three years earlier so I made out like a bandit. I think the fact is, not many houses or properties ever sold for the prices sellers were asking at one point, they took a shot but the market was just not there. The ones that really lost were the ones that bought high thinking they could sell even higher for prices with no history.