[shannon94]

Originally Posted by bamboosmom

They do list the selling price correctly. When they do an evaluation of what a home is valued at, they are way off.

A perfect example....a friend of mine sold her home last April in California....Zillow said her home was valued ALOT higher than what she actually was able to sell it for at that time. Home was only 4 years old!! Crazy.

[josephhawkinson]

The October existing home sales numbers are out. “The price of existing homes sold in October fell for the third straight month and posted the biggest drop on record, according to an industry trade group report. The number of homes sold in the month is down 11.5 percent from the pace of sales a year earlier which led to the glut of homes on the market rising once again to a record 3.9 million, up 1.9 percent from September, and 34.4 percent from a year earlier.”

The median price for a home sold dropped to $221,000 in October, a decline of 3.5 percent from a year ago. That was the biggest year-over-year price decline on record. It marked the third straight month that home prices have fallen compared to the same period a year ago, the longest stretch of such declines on record.”

[Nomoresubways]

Ok so let's put the other side of the news out for everyone to read:

"Sales of existing U.S. homes rose 0.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.24 million in October, the first increase since February, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday."

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/rise-existing-home-sales-first-since/story.aspx?guid=%7B553B8779-45AD-4616-B20A-17CF6BA8D90C%7D</url>

"As expected, existing-home sales appear to be stabilizing, fingers and toes crossed," said David Lereah, chief economist for the Realtors. Market fundamentals are improving, he said.

So basically the fact that home prices are dropping is a good thing, according to this article, because it encourages sales now that prices are more realistic. While this doesn't mean we've bottomed out, I feel like the news from today is actually more positive than negative.

[SunnyDog]

If you're looking to buy a place that you're gonna live in for 5-10 years or more then buy whenever you're ready to. No sense in trying to time the market hoping for a windfall, praying for a 10% decline in prices in the next year that may never come while you spend another year paying rent. If not, then this doesn't apply to you.

[Nomoresubways]

I'll second that. Sellers in the spring will be less likely to throw in incentives like paying closing costs, paying down the rate, etc. I don't mean to disparate anyone selling their homes right now, but buyers have such an edge right now that you can probably offer 10-15% less than asking price and get a deal done pretty quickly. That is not going to last forever.

And trust me, I get nothing out of making these points. I'm a computer geek so I'm just trying to help anyone who might be thinking about buying in the next year.

[bamboosmom]

Originally Posted by shannon94

A perfect example....a friend of mine sold her home last April in California....Zillow said her home was valued ALOT higher than what she actually was able to sell it for at that time. Home was only 4 years old!! Crazy.

I don't know where they get their figures from!!!!

[Floridamex]

Originally Posted by Nomoresubways

I'll second that. Sellers in the spring will be less likely to throw in incentives like paying closing costs, paying down the rate, etc. I don't mean to disparate anyone selling their homes right now, but buyers have such an edge right now that you can probably offer 10-15% less than asking price and get a deal done pretty quickly. That is not going to last forever.

And trust me, I get nothing out of making these points. I'm a computer geek so I'm just trying to help anyone who might be thinking about buying in the next year.

“In 2006 alone, more than 15 percent of new home loans in South Florida were what is known as ‘payment-option adjustable-rate.’ The real hikes are likely to arrive en masse by next summer, when payments go up for more people.”

“‘’People will avoid foreclosure at whatever cost because it ruins your credit,’ said Ana Valenti-Brisuela, a South Miami real estate broker who also does financial planning. ‘But some, especially those who bought at the peak of the market last year, are going to sell for $50,000 or $100,000 less than they bought for in order to save their credit.’”

[Shores9]

Originally Posted by SunnyDog

If you're looking to buy a place that you're gonna live in for 5-10 years or more then buy whenever you're ready to. No sense in trying to time the market hoping for a windfall, praying for a 10% decline in prices in the next year that may never come while you spend another year paying rent. If not, then this doesn't apply to you.

How well said!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bamboosmom]

Originally Posted by Shores9

How well said!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why wait to buy??? If you are staying put for a while the houses are affordable right now. If you wait you may loose out on a great deal.

[Shores9]

Clearly home sales and now price are trending downward but look at what’s happening . Home prices drop sales increase. So there are buyers out there. Tricky rabbits there hiding. And BTW isn’t this exactly what we need to get more in line with affordability.


However lets look at the number up / down /or sideways

October 2006 Sale Price of existing homes = $221K Clearly down from October 2005 = 229k. But what about the entire year for 2005. We have a one month year over year picture here and BTW September’s number was revised upward to 211k but still a decline from the previous September (225.4k) of 1.9%

The sale price of an existing home for all of 2005 was $219,600

So let’s see here In October 2006 we have 221k and back in all of 2005 we have 219.6 Hum still higher than the best record in history.

I’m not saying we’re not looking at further declines and in fact if you read my pervious posts I feel that a roll back to q1 – of 05 is in order (and I hope we get it) but for now we have just slowed down to 35 mph from 150mph.