Is the housing market recovering where you live?

[rudder]

I am in the middle Tennessee area and so far I have seen a huge slow down in new home construction, but prices have remained steady over the last year or so. There is so much land to build around here that several years ago while California and Florida were seeing huge yearly increases... this area had a more moderate increase.

But there is another blip on the radar.

Only 12% of the option ARM mortgages have reset but nearly 46% are 30 days late.

I think this will be bad news for my area. The GM plant is closing next month except for maybe 1/4 the workforce. A lot of families had both spouses working at the plant... in the past with lots of overtime.. so needless to say they have some nice homes.

Do you think this will have a big as effect on the overall economy as the subprime bust did?

 

[Robor]

I think our area (west central FL) has bottomed but I don't see it recovering.

 

[miketheidiot]

never stopped. as far as i have seen personally, there never was a recession, but then again my locality hasn't seen a recession in 30 years almost.

 

[StageLeft]

It only went down a tiny bit in western NY anyway. I think it was supposed to go up a hair this year. When prices are so low to begin with they can hardly go much further*.

* The above does not apply to America's rotten ahole, AKA Detroit.

 

[Modelworks]

home construction is dead here. Eastern part of NC. The only place I know building houses is the marine bases, and that is because they added about 10K people. Otherwise it is pretty bad. Georgia pacific closed two plants that made plywood and drywall here because of the drop in construction . I also know plumbers and roofers who are doing other kinds of work now because they can't find work in their own trade.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: rudder
Topic Title: Is the housing market recovering where you live?

Yes, 5 million dollar condos selling like crazy.

Fuck if I know what the hell these people do to make so much money but they're buying like mad.

 

[b0mbrman]

never dipped in DC

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
never stopped. as far as i have seen personally, there never was a recession, but then again my locality hasn't seen a recession in 30 years almost.

Uhmm...where are you?

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Robor
I think our area (west central FL) has bottomed but I don't see it recovering.

it is recovering.

 

[Theb]

Inventory has been severely depleted in my area especially anything under $200k. If nothing else there should be plenty of work for builders next summer.

 

[cubby1223]

New home construction stopped in my town, but then again there were developments being built where there really should not have been any development anyways.

Some of the people who bought homes are doubly-screwed now. One big developer is currently filing for bankruptcy protection, and what's happening is those who were unfortunate to buy the brand new $300k homes have not only seen their value immediately drop $50-100k, but the developer didn't pay many of the contractors who did the actual building work, and they are placing liens on the properties and going after the homeowners for like $150k each.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Yah rudder it does appear to have slowed somewhat in middle tn. I guess we are at least fortunate that if our prices did drop to some extent the value hit was not nearly as bad as in other parts of the country.

 

[Slew Foot]

Cheap stuff is moving quick (and cheap in CA is under 700K). Above that its pretty dead. Essentially, if you need a down payment, its not going to sell.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: WhipperSnapper

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
never stopped. as far as i have seen personally, there never was a recession, but then again my locality hasn't seen a recession in 30 years almost.

Uhmm...where are you?

fargo, north dakota

 

[PricklyPete]

The housing in my area of Greenville, SC (well at least where I own a house...I'm live in St. Louis right now for a project) never seemed to completely go down the crapper. That being said...the value of my home has actually been decreasing over the last 6 months specifically if zillow.com is to be believed (at least for trends). Up to about 6 months ago my properly had only gone up in value/stayed at higher levels. On a side note, I own a home in a desirable downtown area, so it would likely be hit less than areas out in the burbs with identical houses across the street and new subdivisions going up all around.

 

[Ausm]

Barely was affected at all where I live.

 

[SammyJr]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot
never stopped. as far as i have seen personally, there never was a recession, but then again my locality hasn't seen a recession in 30 years almost.

Same here. They're still building like crazy. There are currently 4 homes in various stages of construction that are within 500 yards of my property. They're selling, too.

 

[blackangst1]

Not sure of foreclosure rates, but there ARE a ton of foreclosed houses for sale in Phoenix. If I had any desire whatsoever to own a house I would definitely buy right now.

 

[IronWing]

Still on the way down as far as I can see. Prices stabilize and then dip again. People who weren't/aren't stupid with their money are still having difficulty getting mortgages. This is stalling/dragging out sales. At peak, the median house price here was about 6.5 x median household income. Now it is about 4.5 x median household income, still too high to be sustainable.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

didn't budge much in surround nyc suburbs, so no recovery really needed.

 

[Genx87]

Where I live there is an excess of inventory. It was the place idiots from the city bought 4-5 houses at a time and tried to flip them and got caught. My house has lost about 1/3rd of its value. I honestly dont see it coming back within the next 5 years. Nice house, so no biggie. But it kind of sucks knowing you cant move even if you want to due to being underneath by so much.

 

[woodie1]

Don't think prices around here ever fell - values may have held steady instead of increasing for a time though. One builder is finding buyers and still builds a few houses around here.

 

[Fern]

Originally posted by: rudder
Is the housing market recovering where you live?

My area (Western NC) wasn't hit as hard as other areas.

Home values are down a bit, but nothing extreme. OTOH, nothing for sale is moving. New construction is non-existant. Around here realtors and construction companies are pretty much dead.

Lately I've noticed an awful lot more "for sale" signs on homes and now vacant commercial property for rent . And we're seeing more-n-more forclosures and sales on the courthouse steps. I'm thinking the longer it takes for the employment situation to rebound the worse it's gonna get.

I'm not optimistic.

Fern

 

[shira]

Originally posted by: b0mbrman
never dipped in DC

I don't think this is correct. Several stories in the Washington post have reported median prices declining by about 20% over just the past year in DC, Northern Virginia, and the Maryland suburbs.

I personally have a friend who sold his row house in Northeast DC for $900,000 in December of 2005, which (as it turned out) was just about the peak of the market. That same house would sell for about $650,000 today.

The most bullet-proof part of the greater DC area was Great Falls, and even those prices are down at least 10% from the peak.

 

[MiniDoom]

Originally posted by: shira

Originally posted by: b0mbrman
never dipped in DC

I don't think this is correct. Several stories in the Washington post have reported median prices declining by about 20% over just the past year in DC, Northern Virginia, and the Maryland suburbs.

I personally have a friend who sold his row house in Northeast DC for $900,000 in December of 2005, which (as it turned out) was just about the peak of the market. That same house would sell for about $650,000 today.

The most bullet-proof part of the greater DC area was Great Falls, and even those prices are down at least 10% from the peak.

the house i just bought sold for 440k in 2007. I paid 250k for it in may.