Housing Prices

[Bambic]

I am from Florida and now live in Utah, my husband was with a National Home builder for over 15 and things started going down and then his side of the company went under and he lost his job so we moved to Branson Missouri we were there for 6 months and the company there was not going well there and we moved back to our home that was vacant for 6 mos then we moved again 2 mos later here to Utah where building has not been affected hardly at all. We have had our home on the market for over 1 1/2 years in Florida just outside of Mount Dora Florida near Orlando and it was easily in the 500,000 range, but it dropped down to the mid $300's and it is worth much more as when we bought it in 2005 we paid 375,000 and we knew that was cheap in Sarasota where we came from this house would have been well over 550,000 . My realtor is my friend and has said for Florida she does not see it coming around for at least another 2 years, but who can hold on and pay 1 mtg and a rental in another state? Not Us! It is so sad what has happened to so many people. If you can hang in there you are very lucky and God Bless you!

[esmith143]

Prices are falling with no end in sight. In most areas, with the exception of the most attractive (read: expensive) like Carlsbad and Carmel Valley, housing prices are (still) falling an average of 3% per MONTH.

The reason is fairly simple. Zero down loans are almost gone. Nowadays, if you want to buy a house, you have to 1) qualify for a FHA loan or 2) have enough cash to put at least 10% down; 20% if you want to get the best rate.

To get a FHA loan, your monthly housing costs can't exceed 29% of your gross income (which means that you need to earn $110K to qualify for a $360K loan that would get you a low-end 3-bedroom house in Clairemont). The second option means that you must have $40K to $80K in the bank to buy that same house. Obviously not many potential middle-class homebuyers fall into either category.

Declining prices in low- and middle-tier markets are starting to "pull" on high-end markets as well.

I estimate that most areas of San Diego have another 20-30% to go, more if mortgage interest rates go up, less if mortgage interest rates fall below 5%.

[cmdreset]

This is right on

Originally Posted by esmith143

Prices are falling with no end in sight. In most areas, with the exception of the most attractive (read: expensive) like Carlsbad and Carmel Valley, housing prices are (still) falling an average of 3% per MONTH.

The reason is fairly simple. Zero down loans are almost gone. Nowadays, if you want to buy a house, you have to 1) qualify for a FHA loan or 2) have enough cash to put at least 10% down; 20% if you want to get the best rate.

To get a FHA loan, your monthly housing costs can't exceed 29% of your gross income (which means that you need to earn $110K to qualify for a $360K loan that would get you a low-end 3-bedroom house in Clairemont). The second option means that you must have $40K to $80K in the bank to buy that same house. Obviously not many potential middle-class homebuyers fall into either category.

Declining prices in low- and middle-tier markets are starting to "pull" on high-end markets as well.

I estimate that most areas of San Diego have another 20-30% to go, more if mortgage interest rates go up, less if mortgage interest rates fall below 5%.

[ajnsd]

Originally Posted by esmith143

Prices are falling with no end in sight. In most areas, with the exception of the most attractive (read: expensive) like Carlsbad and Carmel Valley, housing prices are (still) falling an average of 3% per MONTH.

The reason is fairly simple. Zero down loans are almost gone. Nowadays, if you want to buy a house, you have to 1) qualify for a FHA loan or 2) have enough cash to put at least 10% down; 20% if you want to get the best rate.

To get a FHA loan, your monthly housing costs can't exceed 29% of your gross income (which means that you need to earn $110K to qualify for a $360K loan that would get you a low-end 3-bedroom house in Clairemont). The second option means that you must have $40K to $80K in the bank to buy that same house. Obviously not many potential middle-class homebuyers fall into either category.

Declining prices in low- and middle-tier markets are starting to "pull" on high-end markets as well.

I estimate that most areas of San Diego have another 20-30% to go, more if mortgage interest rates go up, less if mortgage interest rates fall below 5%.

I second this comment. I work in the property & casualty insurance industry. In order to properly insure our risks, we pay for "insider" reports from Datequick and other providers. The information they have given us going into the next 3 years mirrors the above mentioned statement. The bottom line is we have a ways to go.

AJ

[soccermomof3]

I've been interested in buying investment property in San Diego. A banker and financial planner both said that prices will continue to drop so I should wait at least until the end of 2008 or longer.