Quote of the Day

The duplex I was looking to buy in a very hot section of Miami 2 years ago for $420K just relisted for $95K in an entire neighborhood of $75-$95 K also on the market now. Everyone is upside down. It can happen here too.

Posted by: williamsburgguy at December 16, 2008 4:46 PM

I think the future may actually be different from a financing point of view. When banks and appraisers will not appraise houses for these ridiculous prices and buyers will have to come up with the entire difference in cash, sellers will either have to just enjoy living there the rest of their lives or capitulate and sell for what it should be. All the foreclosures that are happening now and will continue to happen into the next several years will set the comps. So ask a million all you want, but if your neighborhood comps are $200K your house will appraise for $200K, and banks will finance for 80% of that. Good luck getting a buyer to cough up an extra $840K in cash for your overpriced house just because you are being greedy. Should have sold it when banks, buyers, and government underwriting and oversight was being stupid. New lending laws and general sanity back in the banks because of the $700B bailout will prevent this from ever occurring again. Bye bye bubble.

Posted by: williamsburgguy at December 16, 2008 5:07 PM

Sebb you should just buy up all the vacant houses in the entire city since you keep claiming they are all going to be worth 2006 prices again in a few weeks. Guess what, I gave $69K for my 3 story wood frame nothing special Williamsburg house back in 98 when houses all over the country of similar size were selling for..........$69K (and houses in Miami were selling for MORE - I know because I was looking there then too). These same nothing special houses on my block in 2006 were selling for 1.5M as were nothing special houses in Miami and other hot spots. Guess what, NYC is just about the ONLY "hot" spot left and it's cooling fast. My neighbor just dropped his price from 1.3M to 1.1M. You better come get it now while its cheap so you can cash out next year and double your money. But I figure you better bring cash since I doubt it will appraise.

Posted by: williamsburgguy at December 16, 2008 5:57 PM

Really. I suppose my brokers license and several years of RE practice are no match for your years of expertise and watching infomercials. LOL LIke I said, I can hook you up with my neighbor. Deal of a lifetime in your world.

Posted by: williamsburgguy at December 16, 2008 6:19 PM

In 98 Williamsburg, that was a normal price for these old aluminum sided woodies, and out all over Queens at that time were many many similar prices. Actually in some places in Queens prices are falling back to almost this level now due to foreclosure comps - you can look at the recent foreclosure sales in MLS for proof. I think all the people on here who think it could never happen here are just too young to know anything different. The last 10 years are not typical of any real estate inflation at any time on history, and prices in the hundreds of thousands or millions for anything short of a 60 acre estate with mansion and moat are just not typical. It just doesn't happen this way unless something crooked is going on - and we know now exactly what and to what extent that was. Million dollar houses used to only be found in Beverly Hills, UES, or out in the Hamptons and were really something special - not a fixer upper in the Burg or BS. And, considering wages and debt to income ratios, they should still only be found in those markets. If you have to live 10 people to your house just to make the payments, you are living beyond your means. And the Fed? Geez. Give me a break. The Fed is worried about how we stand with other countries, not whether your overpriced house that you cannot afford but bought anyway will be foreclosed on. There will be several rude awakenings over the next months and lots of suckers will be revealed.

Posted by: williamsburgguy at December 16, 2008 7:20 PM

Yes, there were some pristine townhomes in Cobble Hill and Brooklyn Heights (and even sparsely scattered throughout other areas) for those prices in 1997 Sebb - but not common 4 story fixer-upper crap or 5 family conversions like they are asking those prices for today and for the past few years. I'm not saying there weren't million dollar homes here in 1997, but those were by far the exception and were very grand in size and finishes on the best blocks. I can tell you in most areas of Brooklyn and Queens in 1997 you were looking in the 70-250 range at most for your typical 3-4 story 2 family townhouse. I sold a many of them for those prices. Of course I don't know why I'm bothering to feed a troll. Put your money where your mouth is Sebb. Come on over to Ainslie street. I'm sure my neighbor would love to talk to you and you can make a million in a year on his old wooden framed house just like you say.

Posted by: williamsburgguy at December 16, 2008 9:06 PM

Rent is another thing in for a correction. Take for example your rent Hobokenrocks, 3500/month is $42K a year. Using the currently valid 36% of income to be sustainable one would need to make $116K to be able to afford that rent long-term. That is certainly more than most renters make per year. So long term, rents will have to fall in order to actually have a sustainable market of long-term renters. Sure you will get short timers who rnt until they run out of money, but short-term renters are not what landlords need to stay in business. Its ALL due a severe and painful correction

Posted by: williamsburgguy at December 16, 2008 11:09 PM