What If?

Albright_kid_pics_061What if the local housing market declined by 10%? Not that I think this will happen in the next year… but what if it happened over the next two years? And what if a homebuyer had no choice but to sell in a down period after purchasing at the top of the market? This is why any housing purchase you make this year should be for the long term… read it

2 comments

  1. Reno Ignoramus

    Diane……great post. This is exactly the issue I have been posting about buying into a falling market. And the example used in this post assumes the buyer used a 20% down fixed rate loan. In Nevada, in the last two years, 60% of all buyers were not so cautious. They used I/O, nothing down, negative am, option ARMS, and other variations of voodoo loans. These people are going to get fried as values first stagnate, then decline, and interest rates rise.

  2. Reno Ignoramus

    You want a couple of examples of the games realtors play with listings in order to keep the days on market numbers down?

    Look at MLS # 60012299. This is a condo on Mayberry Drive. It has been on the market for about 5 months. It started out at $600,000, then dropped to $558,000, and today shows up as a “new” listing at $548,000. I notice that the realtor did change the picture. The old one showed the condo covered in snow from last January. I guess it would look funny to show a “new” listing now covered in snow.

    Look at MLS # 60012287. 1135 Waverly in the Cottages at Caughlin Ranch. This has been on the market for about 4 months or so. Started out at $ 538,000, then was dropped to $525,000 about a month ago. Yesterday it shows up as a “new” listing. Realtor changed this picture also. No more snow.

    So what is the point to this? To create the misleading impression that these are “new” and have not been hanging around already for 120-150 days?

    The average 75-80 days on market before selling that the board of realtors announces to the RGJ, which then prints it without any independent investigation, is nonsense. Just another example of how the RGJ is the mouthpiece for the realtorindustry. But then, the realtorindustry does pay the RGJ hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, right?

    So what do you think? You think the 1.7% price drop on the Mayberry condo will turn around all the buyers who have ignored it for the past 5 months? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. After all, its only been on the market for one day.

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