Market Downturn Reminder That All RE is Local
One school of thought on the cooling real estate market is that only those cities that have experienced rapid price escalation are likely to feel significant pain on the way down. A recent forecast from Fiserv Lending Solutions calls for median prices to slip in such hotspots as New York, Phoenix and Los Angeles while…
One school of thought on the cooling real estate market is that only those cities that have experienced rapid price escalation are likely to feel significant pain on the way down. A recent forecast from Fiserv Lending Solutions calls for median prices to slip in such hotspots as New York, Phoenix and Los Angeles while seeing upside in unsexy secondary markets like Rochester, NY, Memphis, TN and Portland, ME. As we’ve discussed before, though, within the prediction for an overall drop of 2.3% in New York City there’s lots of room for divergence on a neighborhood and property-type basis.
Hot Home Markets to Cool Down [CNN Money]
3:12, we’re flippers (no, I’m kidding!). My husband is skilled in carpentry and for income he is developing a finish carpentry/handyman/home repair business. 4:55 is correct – we bought in the downturned market in 1990 and our apartment quadrupled in value by the time we sold it. We love our new Wallace-and-Grommity life but it’s not for everybody. You have to be quite thick-skinned and independent-minded to go against consumer culture conventions and “high achiever” expectations. Unfortunately we have encountered grilling and disapproval from some old “friends” (which frankly, I have taken as ill-disguised envy). Our long-term goal, of course, is to make this life financially sustainable well into retirement. Not there yet – it’s a process.
“Want to know how? Stop renting and buy!!!”
Yeah RIGHT. You find me now that you think will appreciate enough within a year or two for me to retire and live high on the hog in the country. Can’t find it can you? That’s because it doesn’t exist. I bet Anon2 bought the place she sold a while ago.
Want to know how? Stop renting and buy!!!
Yeah, it is dead in the burbs. My mom is having a touch time selling her house. Lots on the market in a very pretty town with great schools and no one seems to be biting. Is everyone just waiting for prices to drop substantially? Timing is all, i guess.
Anon2, can I be you? Seriously, that’s a dream life to me and my husband.
anon2,
what do you do for income?
We skipped the ‘burbs and moved straight out to the country (we don’t have kids). We sold our apartment of many years, and after paying off that mortgage, etc., we were able to pay cash for an old Victorian house, with funds left over to live on while we renovate it ourselves. I don’t miss living in the city at all, though we do love it (always!) and take day trips to shop, dine out, catch a play, etc. I love it here in the country. I am thumbing through John Seymour’s “The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It,” and while I’m not quite ready to swap hostas for cabbages, I am thrilled to no longer be chained to my former unhappy “organization woman” life, and to have the freedom now to slow down, wean myself away from consumerist pressures, get my hands dirty gardening, baking bread from scratch, etc., etc.
And to follow the Brooklyn RE scene from afar.
2.09,
Do you have any coherent reason why areas should continue to gain in price?
Think about it for a second: you’re saying they should continue to GAIN in price. That means they’re currently undervalued right now. Why?
The gentrification argument is one. Areas that are or were not-so-nice are getting cleaned up. That increases the value of a neighborhood.
But otherwise: there is very little in the real estate environment to suggest that prices will continue to increase.
If , in the suburbs, people are “grabbing up” homes in the 350k range, and 700k homes are languishing, then that could explain the entire 2% drop, since more sales are happening below the median. Thus for everyone else, the market is, on average, a 0% gain or loss. Wouldn’t areas that are desirable or are still rapidly gentrifying (like the areas most people who visit this site live in) be most likely to continue to gain in price?