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Housing market in Durham North Carolina, average time on market, sales and listing up, interest rates low, selling increasing, home sales slow in winter, instability of housing market
I wonder how many people on this board lost money listening to the over optimistic, over the top people who make a living off real estate and bought into a "HOT" market when things were actually going the other way-"DOWN".
I thought this thread had gone the way of most things that are over two years old and haven't been used in the intervening time? Isn't there a dumpster for old unused threads? Just wondering!
I wonder how many people on this board lost money listening to the over optimistic, over the top people who make a living off real estate and bought into a "HOT" market when things were actually going the other way-"DOWN".
Ok I will play along. Thank goodness they did or I would not have sold my house I sold in 2007 as things were slowing down but I know all of us who sold prior to the big bubble break are so very happy that the real estate agents we contracted with were highly competent and marketed our houses and maximized our profit as they were contracted to do.
I thought this thread had gone the way of most things that are over two years old and haven't been used in the intervening time? Isn't there a dumpster for old unused threads? Just wondering!
Old threads are usually revived accidentally, as people stumble across them during a search. (Of course, some people deliberately seek out and revive old threads for purposes known only to them ..... )
There's no "thread dumpster" (though I do like the idea ), and our instructions are that when old threads come back to life, we're to make a judgment call as to whether they're still relevent (in which case they stay active) or not (in which case the "reviving" post is deleted and the thread sent back from whence it came).
Everything old is new again, just give it some time.
Besides, the bubble never quite existed down here. The only true hit in our market was in the higher end "luxury" market segment and almost exclusively with new construction (though high-end new construction is about as good an example of an oxymoron as I can think of).
Anyone who owns or purchased a house for sub $400K is relatively immune from the market turbulence.
We bought our house in 2008 when we thought the market had pretty much hit bottom. We paid $290K for a beautiful, large home in great condition and thought we were getting a deal. My husband's Raleigh work branch shut down in July 2009 and he had to commute to VA 5 days a week to stay employed. We put our house on the market last August. Then last April I lost my job and had to relocate to VA to find work and to finally be with my husband again. After going through three listing agencies, doing as many upgrades as we could afford and god knows how many price drops, we finally got a short sale offer for $255K. There are a lot of other houses in our area listed at 300K+ - in my opinion, unless they've got the ultimate in renovations/upgrades and a perfect lot, they're all crazy if they think they're going to sell anytime soon at those prices. Buyers are out there, but in small numbers and the majority of them are picky, picky, picky. So no, the market for $250K+ homes is still pretty soft based on what we've been through and the sheer number of listings and sales I've been researching over the past few months.
Yeah, that's a more realistic look at it. Number of sales in 2009 were cut in half compared to the peak of the bubble in 2006-2007. Either half our market is luxury high end houses (which it's not, since the median price is about $185K) or you have to admit that a large percentage of buyers in all price groups have disappeared over the last few years.
And considering there's more houses sitting on the market now than there were last year, things don't look to be improving any time soon.
Yeah, that's a more realistic look at it. Number of sales in 2009 were cut in half compared to the peak of the bubble in 2006-2007. Either half our market is luxury high end houses (which it's not, since the median price is about $185K) or you have to admit that a large percentage of buyers in all price groups have disappeared over the last few years.
And considering there's more houses sitting on the market now than there were last year, things don't look to be improving any time soon.
There is another way of looking at what you are saying.
" or you have to admit that a large percentage of buyers in all price groups have NOT APPEARED over the last few years. Transplants for obvious reasons are not arriving in the same numbers and as a result the number of buyers is and will stay down. Even if sales pick back up significantly the EQUITY available for transplanting in most more expensive areas will not be what it was because loan money will not be flowing to those it should not have previously. You will really need considerable income to afford a 500K house in the Mid Atlantic/North East etc. However if people start accepting moving and maintaining not increasing the level of housing they live in things might pick up.
House prices are a bit soft all over the country, so there's no reason to think NC should be any different, especially since the Triangle job market appears to be tough right now (as many, many posters have commented). The good news is that you'll probably make up the loss when you buy your next house unless you're downgrading to a much smaller place.
All I can add is my experience: the house we bought in 2008 at $40k UNDER the builder's asking price of $385k is now worth about $20-30k LESS than we paid! Thankfully we haven't needed to sell yet.....
Our house in FL, which cost us $280k to build in 2004, is worth maybe $250k now. Maybe. And we still own it b/c we couldn't sell in 08 when we had to move here. I have no idea if we'll get out from under it before we pay it off, in 2034.
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I sold in 2007 as things were slowing down but I know all of us who sold prior to the big bubble break are so very happy that the real estate agents we contracted with were highly competent and marketed our houses and maximized our profit as they were contracted to do.
)
), and our instructions are that when old threads come back to life, we're to make a judgment call as to whether they're still relevent (in which case they stay active) or not (in which case the "reviving" post is deleted and the thread sent back from whence it came).
