would you buy into the housing market now while it is still seeking bottom? The downward pressures won’t last forever. Is now the” buy low ” part of “buy low- sell high”?
We have money in a stock that is stagnant- over ten years it is worth roughly what we have paid for it. Fortunately it is not targeted as retirement money – shoot I didn’t know we owned the stuff until just the other day.
Seems like good seed capital to get our feet wet and my wife is gungho to jump in.
We’re going out to look at some places .
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You are unlikely to buy at the absolute bottom. So... buy low. Either way the price will likely rise. If you are thinking short term gains, forget it. IMO real estate is a long term investment right now.
While I think the market still will go down some I have bought 2 in the last year with investment on the brain. I think now and for the next 6-12 months the market will continue to correct in some areas, ours (Ohio) being one of them.
Just be prepared to shop wisely and buy from the desperate. But you may see it go down some more before the rise. But at the price you can buy now I feel like 3-5 years from now we will look really smart :-). In my case that is a first lol. DanT
What is this smart of which you speak?
Yeah the time seems right and we have the money.No Tag
I don't think I would do this if it would tie up all our resources or if we needed a return in the short term.
we are in a good place in our lives to do thisNo Tag
Hubcap i'm in ohio and i've bought three in the last month some really good deals out there.sounds to me your money would be just as safe buying property and expecting to hold on till the market goes up as to where it's been for ten years. who else has enough money to buy a house and doesn't know it? Thats some find right there.!
yeah that was a pleasant surprise.No Tag
Call me. It's right down the road 2.5 acres on the river. bank wouldn't sell it to the high bidder at 125,000.00 bet they will deal now."this dog may be old but he ain't cold. And he still knows how to bury a bone."
Lattimore
http://www.rehmodeling.com
Interesting-
I am outa town until monday. Give you a shout then...No Tag
If you have the money, it might be a good time. Shop carefully, though, and don't be in any hurry -- prices aren't going up anytime soon.
Your biggest risk (aside from a job layoff, broken leg, etc) is buying into a neighborhood that isn't going to recover -- if there are 2-3 foreclosed homes on the block, or several being rented, then it could be a downward spiral.
Over $1 trillion in bad/questionable mortgages have been written and so far they've dealt with maybe $300 billion of them. It's an election year and the pols and their shills on Wall Street are doing everything they can to paper over the mess, at least through November. I think the "bottom" is 12-18 months down the road.
I agree. While we have been talking about this mess for almost two years now, we are just starting to see significant data to back this up. It was reported that last month the sale price of homes dropped 15% compared to last year. By far the most significant number to date.
I think a change in office will do the economy some good but I dont think home prices will get back to the level they were at 3-4 years ago any time soon.
What are you waiting for? I'd buy a house a day if I could get some more liquidity.
Real estate is very regional. Around here there is a lot of government employment so the economy of this region doesn't suffer real drastic swings. I see you are from Ohio. If you are going to get into the market, first decide what your goal is. Quick turn? Forget that. Rental? Being a landlord is a pain (you got to have a cold heart). Long term investment? Then shop for a really, really good deal on a nice house in a nice neighborhood with people who are just about to face foreclosure. Don't do a foreclosure sale once it is in the bank's hands. Don't be afraid to offer a rock bottom price.I'm still buying, but like I said I'm in a different area.
Big changes for your area coming dogmeat. Especiallly if the democrats win. 8 years worth of people will be moving out opening the way for fresh families and pocketbooks.
Im lookin for big things down there the next 4 years, as far as remodeling is concerned. See if I cant get my share of the pie.
The BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) has put 10,000 new high paying government jobs here at the Aberdeen and Egdewater facilities. With contracted jobs they figure it will total about 30,000 new jobs. Life as I know it is about to change. I already bought a farm in Western Md. and just finishing up a few big jobs and retiring. It won't really make any difference who wins the elections, we all are going to pay higher taxes.
"The BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) has put 10,000 new high paying government jobs here at the Aberdeen and Egdewater facilities. [...] It won't really make any difference who wins the elections, we all are going to pay higher taxes."That's only true if you assume business as usual. The projected losses at the banks mean we'll see a $10 to $15 TRILLION contraction in credit and lending before the bad loans are cleared off the books. That's easily 100X larger than the S&L mess twenty years ago. Without access to credit, business falters and taxes dry up. So where will the money come from? If they try to raise taxes, we'll plunge into a depression worse than the 1930s. If uncle Sam just prints the money to cover everyone's losses we end up like Zimbabwe where inflation runs wild and a loaf of bread costs $100. They have no good solution to this mess other than to pretend it's not there. Before it's over I think we'll see significant layoffs from government jobs at all levels because there just isn't any practical way to pay for it all. The machine is broke folks.
I admire your optimism.
You have got to quite watching CNN news and get out more. The original question was about buying property now. I say it depends on the region of the country your in and wheter you have the financial resources to weather the current economic conditions, There are many, many bargains out there.
Yeah sure, the RE agents all like to say real estate and politics are local. But credit is the water in their RE ocean. Even the "local" fish are going to have a tough time when the water level drops enough. Buy real estate now? Sure, if you don't mind a 25% to 50% haircut.In a totally unrelated story, the Federal Reserve extended their TALF (aka payday loans for big banks) through the end of the (election) year, and the loans can go as long as 84 days (up from 28).Yup, no problems here, everything's fine, move along...
Some of what you say, could happen. The problem is if everything happens all at once.
News today in the Cape Cod Times, mass. repos are way down!
I live in an area that actually had a 5% increase in RE sales this year. RE is local!
>> RE is local!You sure got that right! Real estate is price location specific right down to the street and neighborhood.
I will be honest with you, my dw and I are discussing buying 2 4 family homes right now.
Personally, I have found that to be in a market a little early is not necessarilly a bad thing. I got into the stock market in 2001 in early nov., if I waited, could have picked up more. I'm happy wiht my return though>G<
Good for you. That ought to keep you busy.
Not so much me as my grankids>G<
Well, since you ask, here are a couple general platitudes.
"Never try to catch a falling knife"
"Diversify"
RE is not liquid, but very long term.
So what is the name of that stock?
It has been a big mistake to have a large sum invested all in one place for so long
"Never keep all your eggs in one basket"
By selling that stock and putting the money into one single investment in RE, you are repeating the same mistake you have just made for the last ten years.
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
All good points- except we have lots of eggs,just none in real estate. And I never said we would divest all the money from this stock into houses.
The really long term goal is to purchase a few thousand acres of ground outside of Freeport where I will set up a llama rescue ranch. "Hubcap's Bahama Llamas Ranch."
I will name them all Dolly...
So you can see we have a plan.
Anyway it's DuPont stock.No Tag
I thought the guys would be named Tony. And all the Hispanic ones would be Como Se.
It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way. --Rollo May
Good deal.You can sell lamapops!I don't follow DuPont so no comment there.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I had to laugh- evidently I don't follow DuPont stock either.
hey the first llamapop is yours
on the houseNo Tag
It'll make good fertilizer for my roses!;)
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Article in The Washington Post http://washingtonpost.com this morning about a sharp upturn in house sales in Prince William County. That runs counter to most every other county in the DC suburbs but it was maybe the hardest hit county so possibly the first to show signs of a thaw. Who knows.
Runnerguy
when the RE market turns it will happen overnight. prices will lunge forward and gain momentum with every RE agent getting wind of higher margins.
if you pay a little more than what you would get at rock bottom that is still less than you'll pay when the market turns
no one can predict that pinpoint day on the calendar. RE investors are not called speculators for nothing
remember RE prices historically double on average every 10 years. maybe a little longer in the next cycle but thats still better than your dogged stock
Research well and decide carefully what and where to buy.
We are currently seeing (in our real estate biz) that some lender owned homes are selling very low and some are being tough negotiators. That depends on the company and even on the specific asset manager assigned to a particular property. We've seen some repos resold for 50% of what the repo list price was and we've seen some hold to about 7-8% lower than their asking price.
If you have the time to do it, my suggestion is to be prepared to make low offers and to walk away from deals where the seller seems to prefer holding. It takes weeks and even months to get the best buys this way, but in the long run we see it working for some of our customers.
Old real estate saying: You make your money when you buy, not when you sell.
thanks- good advice.No Tag
I saw an interesting graph recently addressing this question. Wish I could rub enough brain cells together to remember where!
Anyway, it showed Austin continuing to climb - never did dip - so buy now, it's only going to climb. Napa, CA is near the bottom, probably a good time especially with growth constraints there won't be a whole lot of housing stock being added. Phoenix and one other area they showed at least 2 years from bottom.
The key point is it's a very micro-regional thing, and there are a number of factors to consider. Very smart to be looking now; hope your area is one of those about to round the bend and head up!
we are looking in a couple different areasone the property values are just increasing at a slower pace than in the past.the other a lot of people are upside down so there are bargains if you can let things ride for a few years.No Tag
You want basic investment advice, and you're asking a bunch of trade types? Do you also get your medical advice from your gardener?
Even if the market was taking off like a rocket, you could still blow your savings on a bad purchase. You pay your money and you take your chances.
None of us have a crystal ball to consult. We know neither your motives nor your stomach for risk.
To put it in perspective:
I was recently presented with a $60K house on a block of $250K houses. Sound like an opportunity to you?
After looking at the place, my belief is that the place needs a bulldozer, that the bulldozer work will neither be easy nor cheap, and the parcel has some issues that severely reduce its' value. At this point, I wouldn't take it for free. I suspect the former, defaulting owner broke himself trying to fix this dog.
That's only MY opinion, though. I could be wrong, and the ultimate purchaser will make out like a bandit. That's his choice to make.
The people "on the ground" usually know what is happening before the folks at the top of the pile can see it.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Aren't you a ray of sunshine-I pick up useful information all over the place from people I know to be intelligent and well rounded.Lotta people here fit the billlotta people don'tnow here is a little bit of irony for youmy sister in law has one heckuva green thumbwe chat about gardening a lotwhen I'm in her office and she is reviewing my charts and bloodwork'cause she's my personal care physician...dhNo Tag