Housing market prediction (to buy, prices, money)

[scimitar12]

Originally Posted by DavidS827

Gotcha...

I can tell you that your realtor was wrong though. In some cases there are some additional requirements that lenders will have, but for the most part, rental income is allowable up to 75%.

Not sure I understand what you mean by "gotcha". From your wording, "but for the most part" kind of backs up what our realtor stated back home; that lenders really don't like to include rental income, or for that matter income from other sources beyond employment income. That does not mean they won't. It could be that in this part of the country lenders will include some portion of income beyond employment; in other parts of the country they may not want to include more than 25 percent. I think it depends on a variety of factors and the attitudes of lenders.

[DavidS827]

Gotcha was just replying to the fact that you are not carrying two mortgages. I misunderstood what you wrote in the first reply.

No, the 75% allowable income on rental properties is fairly standard across the country and across the top 15+ lenders. It is a GSE guideline that they follow. While there may be some lenders that have portfolio products that wont allow rental income and others that have overlayed risk criteria, they are by far the exception to what is the industry standard. So my "for the most part" was just to include the few exceptions that exist.

[Daddy2]

http://www.housingtracker.net/old_ho...DC/Washington/

It seems like the housing price has already dropped by 25% from 2005 prices in the DC area.

[mielcre]

I am new to this and am wondering about something. I see houses have been on the market for at least 6 months and if i happen to make an offer on that type of house, how much less should i offer? I am considering the Lake Ridge area and my budget is around $275 - $300. Thanks alot.

[scimitar12]

Originally Posted by mielcre

I am new to this and am wondering about something. I see houses have been on the market for at least 6 months and if i happen to make an offer on that type of house, how much less should i offer? I am considering the Lake Ridge area and my budget is around $275 - $300. Thanks alot.

We bought a townhome in Sterling just a few weeks ago. We debated on what to offer on it as we figured the market, at least in eastern Loudoun county , was going to drop at least 8 percent in 2008, so we tried to factor that in when we made our offer. We also specified the seller pay all our prepaid and closing costgs; basically all we paid was the down payment.

I don't know Lake Ridge; the market may be a bit different there.

[ShannonMilligan]

Originally Posted by scimitar12

We bought a townhome in Sterling just a few weeks ago. We debated on what to offer on it as we figured the market, at least in eastern Loudoun county , was going to drop at least 8 percent in 2008, so we tried to factor that in when we made our offer. We also specified the seller pay all our prepaid and closing costgs; basically all we paid was the down payment.

I don't know Lake Ridge; the market may be a bit different there.

can you tell us what you got the townhome for? what was the listing price? we bought in Ashburn last month and the listing price was $550K, then $540K and we paid $525K...Today, I think we overpaid, but I knew that going in as the market will just continue to drop for awhile. Just curious what else others have done in Loudoun.

[scimitar12]

We paid $352,500. The original listing price last August when the TH first when on the market was $445. The place is an end unit, has a one car garage attached to the side of the builidng, so you have the full first floor to use instead of sharing with a garage. The complex is Mirror Ridge; north of Rte 7 but not in the Lowes Island Cascades area. It's a nice area. I am pretty sure the value of the place wil probably drop to $325 - 330 by the end of the year; however, I think anyone who buys this year will have to accept the fact that no matter what they paid they will lose value at year's end. On the other hand we intend to stay for a while, no plans on moving in the next 7 or 8 years or longer. Besides, the place we bought had an assessed value in 2006 of $485, so we think we did okay as long as we don't sell in the near future.

[mielcre]

thank you for the answers. They really helped.

[VRE332]

Originally Posted by twinmma

can you tell us what you got the townhome for? what was the listing price? we bought in Ashburn last month and the listing price was $550K, then $540K and we paid $525K...Today, I think we overpaid, but I knew that going in as the market will just continue to drop for awhile. Just curious what else others have done in Loudoun.

yea you overpaid. Try coming down to Prince William county. There are great single family homes here under 400k

[jorelangst]

I'm in need of a larger place for family reasons. Currently have a condo in Fairfax that's way to small. Right now if I try to sell the condo, I would most likely lose 20K. Bought it for about 279K. There is a townhouse in Aldie that I am considering that is about 300K. A couple of questions:

a) Does it make sense to buy in this market understanding that I will probably stay in the new place for 8-10 years?
b) Builder is offering a guaranteed lease program that will pay me the equivalent rent for a unit in my area. Unfortunately that will still leave me covering an extra 700-1000 a month. The hope is to rent out the condo with the added benefit of being able to write off the condo fees as well and to sell it in a year (fingers crossed) and minimze the loss (breaking even would be fantastic).
c) Anyone have any opinion on an FHA 2-1 (or 3-2-1) buydown? Basically, given that we would hope that we want to sell the condo in a year, we could pay down the interest the first 2-3 years and have lower payments in the first 2-3 years.

This has been driving me crazy. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!