Cider Press Hill

Uh-oh

From the Boston Globe:

Boston-area homeowners trying to sell their houses are sharply reducing asking prices—in some cases, by $100,000 or more—in response to the sudden slowdown in the real estate market.
Demand for single-family homes has declined as prices have risen in recent years and interest rates have begun to climb, causing the number of properties on the market to pile up....
"The evidence—both early data and the anecdotes—are pointing more toward a hard rather than a soft landing” in the housing market, said Nicholas Perna, an economic consultant in Ridgefield, Conn. “Prices could come down. Could it be 10 to 15 percent? There’s no way of knowing, but what we’re getting is more clues that you’ve got a decline in prices underway."

Hard and landing aren’t the combined words that we want to hear. I surely don’t since I had been thinking about selling my house in the next year or two. Looks like maybe I’ll be hanging on to it for a while. The housing bubble is leaking air. Since, as many economists suggest, the housing bubble is what’s propping up the economy, this is bad, although not unexpected, news. I just wish it could have waited a couple of years.

Posted on 12/13/05 at 06:57 PM
 




Linkmeister

I’ve always felt that when you’re buying a house you’re buying a roof over your head you intend to keep for quite a while; buying housing for investment purposes seems like it’s mostly a mug’s game.  There are just too many variables, including the carrying costs of the mortgage, the R&M upkeep costs, and the property taxes.

United States   Posted by Linkmeister on 12/13/05  at  07:35 PM





Kate

I’d surmise this selling frenzy is a mix of things: People unloading energy expensive McMansions, people unloading before the adjustable rates on the interest only loans adjust and principal payments kick in, people unloading to get their investments back out of their overvalued purchases before the whole thing crashes. Then there are the others who are relocating for business or retirement or the other umpty-dozen reasons why people normally sell and move.

There are a lot of large houses that have sprouted For Sale signs in this town in the last couple of months. Way more than normal. I have never seen this many houses for sale all at once. It doesn’t take more than a drive down the main drag to realize there is a serious housing glut right now.

By the time I sell my house and relocate, I’ll have owned it for 13 or 14 years. So even if the market tanks, I’ll still walk away with cash. But, it would be nice if the market didn’t drop like a rock before I get to that point, y’know? Ideally, I’d like to relocate where the cost of living isn’t as high and have a mortgage free home. Who knows. It could still happen.

United States   Posted by Kate on 12/13/05  at  08:52 PM





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