View Full Version : Housing Prices ---- WOW!
My wife and I are looking for a bigger place. We've both kept our noses clean when it comes to credit isssues.
Currently we have a 2000 Cavco manufactured home. Its around 1300 sq/ft with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. When I started looking around here for a traditional stick-built house(Orange County, CA), the prices floored me! $600K++ for a 20+ yr old, 1500-1600 sq/ft house, with 3 SMALL bedrooms, and 1 Bath!
We started to look further East, neither one of us like the big city lifestyle. The morgage fiasco has hit the eastern part of the Los Angeles area very hard. Riverside, CA is approximately 60 miles East of Los Angeles. The housing prices in Riverside have sank faster than the Titanic! Houses that I looked at on a number of realty websites have had their costs cut in half! I just found a house that was going for $649K in Nov 06. It's now $355K! Just up the street in San Bernardino county, I found a 4098sq/ft house on 2.1 acres that was going for $701,990 in Jan 07, it goes on the auction block on Mar 16th - opening bid is $295K.
Is anyone else seeing huges drops in housing prices?
Harudath
14 Feb 2008, 04:54pm
House prices in britain are now riddiculously high- gief america plx
primesuspect
14 Feb 2008, 05:18pm
Housing prices in Warren MI are absolutely atrocious. There were 5 vacant homes on my street due to foreclosures, luckily they're getting bought up. Two of them close to me have been purchased.
Leonardo
14 Feb 2008, 05:30pm
Housing prices in Warren MI are absolutely atrocious.Everyone seems to forget there are not only sellers, but buyers, too. Now is a GREAT time to buy in much of the US.
To any prospective buyers here at Icrontic: Please make sure you can afford your mortgage at the REGULAR RATE, not just at the teaser rate. The majority of homeowners comprising this current "crisis" are those who failed to perform basic math to calculate income and expenditures.
Prime, I understand the diseased US auto industry accounts for most of the Detroit area's housing value depreciation. I pity those who have to sell now and can't wait a year.
I wish my home would significantly devalue! I'll be in a long, long time and would enjoy seeing my very high property taxes fall.
RADA, are you in a position to buy now? This could be your golden opportunity. You could whack off another 30-50% of Southern California home prices, even from their current depreciated value, and then you might be on par with market in much of the rest of country. But then, I realize incomes tend to be higher in California as well.
Thrax
14 Feb 2008, 07:33pm
Don't get an ARM. ;D
Everyone seems to forget there are not only sellers, but buyers, too. Now is a GREAT time to buy in much of the US.
To any prospective buyers here at Icrontic: Please make sure you can afford your mortgage at the REGULAR RATE, not just at the teaser rate. The majority of homeowners comprising this current "crisis" are those who failed to perform basic math to calculate income and expenditures.
Prime, I understand the diseased US auto industry accounts for most of the Detroit area's housing value depreciation. I pity those who have to sell now and can't wait a year.
I wish my home would significantly devalue! I'll be in a long, long time and would enjoy seeing my very high property taxes fall.
RADA, are you in a position to buy now? This could be your golden opportunity. You could whack off another 30-50% of Southern California home prices, even from their current depreciated value, and then you might be on par with market in much of the rest of country. But then, I realize incomes tend to be higher in California as well.
Leo,
We're already approved.
We're waiting because we want to pay off a couple bills, and save some more for furnishing the new house. Plus interest rates will probably drop at least two more times in the next six months. The interest rate drop along with the continuing decline in local prices, is definately a win-win situation for us right now.
Being that I'm a veteran, we won't have to pay morgage insurance, and could go no money down (not going to - want some equity to start).
I'm also watching certain houses that I know are foreclosed on, waiting for the to be auctioned off. A friend a work paid $409K for a $830K 3900sq/ft house because he showed up to bid on it at the on-site auction. He was one of only 4 people that showed up for the auction, and only one other couple actually bid on the property.
We are getting close, one of the houses we're looking at has dropped from $459K to $280K, and is about to go up for auction... Its 2615 sq/ft 5 bedroom 3 full baths, and a 3 car garage on 20K+ sq/ft of land. The kitchen has cherry cabinets, black granite counters, and all stainless appliances. The only appliances we'll need to buy are a new fridge, and washer and dryer. The auction on this place is in March, I'll keep you updated on whether we go for it or not.
Butters
14 Feb 2008, 08:11pm
There are a few "ghost" developments in my area in California. New homes with 10-20 homes built with 40-50 vacant and partially built homes.
I bought at the wrong time, now it would be absolutely feasible to purchase 2 homes for about the same mortgage of my 1 home. This is a period where low interest rates and and low home prices coexist.
I had bad advice, "buy now while interest rates are low, otherwise, when home prices drop, interest rates will skyrocket". Things have changed.
Its 2615 sq/ft 5 bedroom 3 full baths, and a 3 car garage on 20K+ sq/ft of land.
The corporate auctions are a scam, with auction assistants trying to encourage to bid more than you really need to. Good luck with the auctions though, 2600 sq/ft isn't bad, but a 20k lot is awesome, especially in SoCal you'll need to host a regional IC party/LAN.
The corporate auctions are a scam, with auction assistants trying to encourage to bid more than you really need to. Good luck with the auctions though, 2600 sq/ft isn't bad, but a 20k lot is awesome, especially in SoCal you'll need to host a regional IC party/LAN.
We stay away from the corporate auctions - they are full of fake "buyers"/actors that are there to hype the property, and up-bid the prices on homes.
The auctions I'm talking about are done on-site, by the lender, owner, or realty co., just before the house goes into full foreclosure. I've been to three of them where no one actually bid on the houses! Everyone just did the walkthrough, and left. These were nice, circa. 2004-2007 houses, Not the usual, beat-down, gutted, rat-traps you'd think you find in such an auction!
McBain
14 Feb 2008, 08:48pm
Mortgate interest rates aren't tied 1 to 1 with all the cuts. They aren't as low as you might think.
GHoosdum
14 Feb 2008, 09:11pm
The house across the street from me is currently listed at $89,900. It sold for $117,000 in 2004. The square footage is the same as my house, it just has one less bathroom and one less garage bay.
I'm not thrilled.
Mortgate interest rates aren't tied 1 to 1 with all the cuts. They aren't as low as you might think.
no, not tied 1 to 1, but they usually drop with every 2nd to 4th rate cut the Fed does. They didn't change much with the last 2 rate cuts, so guess we'll just see what happens in March-April.
Wife and I are already approved at 5.75%, but I want to use this market and our good credit to get us the best deal we can.
Leonardo
14 Feb 2008, 09:44pm
You're timing is superb. I would not wait for a further Fed rate cut. Find what you are sure you'll be happy with and strike when the price is right. The mortgage companies are not at all eager to lower rates, considering the bath they've taken on the sub-prime loans in the last couple years.
Those prices you are quoting are just unbelievable for Southern California, especially considering lots larger than postage stamps.
You're timing is superb. I would not wait for a further Fed rate cut. Find what you are sure you'll be happy with and strike when the price is right. The mortgage companies are not at all eager to lower rates, considering the bath they've taken on the sub-prime loans in the last couple years.
Those prices you are quoting are just unbelievable for Southern California, especially considering lots larger than postage stamps.
You have to know that the places we're looking are around 80 to 100 miles from LA and are still pretty rural. But this is what we want. Like I said in the begining of this thread, neither my wife nor I are "city" people, so areas like this are right up our alley. A circa 2006 - 2600 sq/ft single house on 20K of nice flat land is just what we want. The lot is big enough for a nice back yard, and we could even add on to the house in the future.
We've found 2900-3900 sq/ft 2-story homes for a little more money, but the lots were half the size, and we really want a backyard pool. Along this line of thought, I also have no interest in my wife being a neighbor's eye candy, or ending up on YouTube everytime she wants to work on her tan, so would prefer a single story home.
primesuspect
14 Feb 2008, 11:10pm
/me goes to youtube backyard tanning videos
Qeldroma
14 Feb 2008, 11:30pm
What's the saying?
"Location, location, location."
We were at Riversida, CA for a swim meet in what USED to be one of the model suburban areas of the US. When we did our swim meet last spring they had to have squad cars constantly patrol up & down the nearby streets and officers on site at all times.
It's like buying a PC- do the homework. What may look to be a deal may also have a reason.
btw- it's good to be back for a while & another saying: "God bless America."
What's the saying?
"Location, location, location."
We were at Riversida, CA for a swim meet in what USED to be one of the model suburban areas of the US. When we did our swim meet last spring they had to have squad cars constantly patrol up & down the nearby streets and officers on site at all times.
It's like buying a PC- do the homework. What may look to be a deal may also have a reason.
btw- it's good to be back for a while & another saying: "God bless America."
Yeah, Riverside, CA is getting better but many areas are very seedy and dangerous. We are well aware of the areas around us to avoid. I think the current morgage crisis will actually help these areas. With the new changes to the way houses are financed, people of a nefarous nature will have a harder time financing a house, so maybe this will allow a more family-oriented, law-abiding clientle into these areas.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/rada9933/House.jpg
This is part of a screen shot from one of the houses I found....
leishi85
15 Feb 2008, 02:19am
housing prices sucks in Grand Rapids, MI area as well, my parents are thinking about buying a new house in chicago, close to downtown, instead of the suburbs.
on another note, the apartments my family bought in Beijing, China since 2005 have doubled in price. It's in the CBD(central business district) area of beijing, i think one of the apartment is going to be mine.
Leonardo
15 Feb 2008, 03:05am
You have to know that the places we're looking are around 80 to 100 miles from LA and are still pretty rural.I had no idea there was anything rural in the Riverside area. I thought in Southern Cal you had to get out to the Mojave Desert for rural.
Sledgehammer70
15 Feb 2008, 03:26am
My wife and I are looking for a bigger place. We've both kept our noses clean when it comes to credit isssues.
Currently we have a 2000 Cavco manufactured home. Its around 1300 sq/ft with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. When I started looking around here for a traditional stick-built house(Orange County, CA), the prices floored me! $600K++ for a 20+ yr old, 1500-1600 sq/ft house, with 3 SMALL bedrooms, and 1 Bath!
We started to look further East, neither one of us like the big city lifestyle. The morgage fiasco has hit the eastern part of the Los Angeles area very hard. Riverside, CA is approximately 60 miles East of Los Angeles. The housing prices in Riverside have sank faster than the Titanic! Houses that I looked at on a number of realty websites have had their costs cut in half! I just found a house that was going for $649K in Nov 06. It's now $355K! Just up the street in San Bernardino county, I found a 4098sq/ft house on 2.1 acres that was going for $701,990 in Jan 07, it goes on the auction block on Mar 16th - opening bid is $295K.
Is anyone else seeing huges drops in housing prices?
RADA i bought my house down here in SoCal for $325k when the market was still going up it peaked at $415k but it would now only list for $320 :(
Crazy Joe
15 Feb 2008, 04:35am
Prices down here in Florida are ridiculous... I wish I was still in Ohio in that respect...
NiGHTS
15 Feb 2008, 04:50am
I had no idea there was anything rural in the Riverside area. I thought in Southern Cal you had to get out to the Mojave Desert for rural.
Just like how you wear woolly mammoth's fir every time you step outside your igloo up there in Alaska? ;)
Leonardo
15 Feb 2008, 04:58am
Igloos were only used by Eskimos when hunting away overnight from their villages. In the far north (WAY north of here) the igloos were sometimes built because that far north there are no trees. Down here it's mainly forest, mountains, rivers, and the ocean.
I live in spruce thatched lean-to. Mammoth skin is not pliable. I prefer wolverine, thank you!
Leonardo
15 Feb 2008, 05:03am
BTW Nights,Sledge, and RADA, I was born in San Bernardino, my mother grew up in Brawley near El Centro, my father was born and raised in Bakersfield, and my son (third generation Californian) was born at the Fort Ord hospital, right outside of Monterey. I have relatives in Glendale, Riverside, Torrence, San Diego, Hollister, and I think some still in Imperial Valley.
I was not being critical of California. You have to admit, it is quite different there. Not bad or good necessarily, just different.
GHoosdum
15 Feb 2008, 01:28pm
Prices down here in Florida are ridiculous... I wish I was still in Ohio in that respect...
Yeah if you still lived in Ohio you could get a house across the street from me for $89K. :tongue:
the_technocrat
15 Feb 2008, 02:23pm
We stay away from the corporate auctions - they are full of fake "buyers"/actors that are there to hype the property, and up-bid the prices on homes.
The auctions I'm talking about are done on-site, by the lender, owner, or realty co., just before the house goes into full foreclosure. I've been to three of them where no one actually bid on the houses! Everyone just did the walkthrough, and left. These were nice, circa. 2004-2007 houses, Not the usual, beat-down, gutted, rat-traps you'd think you find in such an auction!
how do you find these?
how do you find these?
For the most part I use the non-paid membership to realtytrac.com. You can pay for a membership, but I'm cheap, and don't mind doing my own legwork...
I enter the zipcode for the area I want to look for foreclosures in and it will show a very subdued list of the houses that are in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, Up for Auction, or Bank Owned.
I then use other realty websites (like ziprealty.com) to find out as much info on the property as I can. IE: Address, # of Bedrooms/Baths, Sq/Ft, - whatever I can, I then cross reference this against the info on realtytrac - specifically looking for auction dates. I then go to the local town/city hall and ask for all public records on that property.
If you plan right - prequalified on your loan, let your lender know you plan to go after auction property, only go after houses where there are a small number of people that are going to bid on the house, you can save between 20 and 45%!
Leonardo
16 Feb 2008, 12:06am
FTW! (I hate that acronym but couldn't resist. It just fits right now.)
Crazy Joe
17 Feb 2008, 10:15am
Yeah if you still lived in Ohio you could get a house across the street from me for $89K. :tongue:
If Suzy and I could get a job in Ohio I'd love to purchase said house...
McBain
18 Feb 2008, 10:12pm
BTW Nights,Sledge, and RADA, I was born in San Bernardino, my mother grew up in Brawley near El Centro, my father was born and raised in Bakersfield, and my son (third generation Californian) was born at the Fort Ord hospital, right outside of Monterey. I have relatives in Glendale, Riverside, Torrence, San Diego, Hollister, and I think some still in Imperial Valley.
I was not being critical of California. You have to admit, it is quite different there. Not bad or good necessarily, just different.
Oooh...I just moved from Detroit to San Clemente....
Maybe the tide is swinging for a west coast lan....
Oooh...I just moved from Detroit to San Clemente....
Maybe the tide is swinging for a west coast lan....
Nice! check out the Waffle Lady for some killer breakfast.
And to stay on topic: Unfortunately coastal San Diego has not seen much, if any, price breaks on houses.
Nice! check out the Waffle Lady for some killer breakfast.
And to stay on topic: Unfortunately coastal San Diego has not seen much, if any, price breaks on houses.
Really, papers say otherwise.. But real estate can be a micro market in certain areas.
The worst hit market of the 20 metro areas covered was Miami, where the median home fell a whopping 15.1 percent in value. San Diego prices also fell steeply, down 13.4 percent. Las Vegas was off 13.2 percent and Detroit by 13 percent.
Full article here (http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/29/real_estate/record_drop_in_home_prices/)
Crazy Joe
20 Feb 2008, 05:52am
Well sure, they could have dropped by a relatively large percentage, but a 13 percent drop in prices in San Diego puts the housing prices at what?
Leonardo
20 Feb 2008, 07:29am
but a 13 percent drop in prices in San Diego puts the housing prices at what?at still incomprehensible to anyone not from Southern California, San Francisco, or San Jose.
NiGHTS
20 Feb 2008, 08:21am
My rent would make you gasp. I pay easily 4 times what most do for the same space.
at still incomprehensible to anyone not from Southern California, San Francisco, or San Jose.
Yeah, Leo hit the nail right between the eyes (LOL)
Not sure about San Diego, but I know "decent" apartments around us in Brea, CA (about 30 miles outisde of LA) rent for well over $2K/month for around 800-900 sq/ft..
To put this in perspective, my last apartment in Tucson (circa 2003-2006) I was paying $670/mo for a 1008 sq/ft, with a washer and dryer....
Houses in the area are pathetically priced also. There is a group of 2 story houses not a mile east of us that are so close together I could giant-step from the roof of one house to the next, and the back yards are around 9ft deep x 20-25ft long..
..all this for only $800K++, and this is the after morgage-crisis price.....
Nomad
20 Feb 2008, 05:09pm
In Ann Arbor, rent for places is between $900-$1400 a month, but in Ypsilanti it is about $600-$800 a month.
Crazy Joe
21 Feb 2008, 04:01am
Well in Cincinnati I was paying $680 for a 1100 sq ft, two bedroom, 1 bath apartment... I moved to Florida and I now am paying $909 for the same amount of space...
Leonardo
21 Feb 2008, 06:49am
I was paying $680 for a 1100 sq ft, two bedroom, 1 bath apartmentThat's nearly exactly what I was paying for the same setup in Monterey, California....in 1988! ouch
That's nearly exactly what I was paying for the same setup in Monterey, California....in 1988! ouch
OMG!!!
Leo,
Keeping my fingers crossed about this one:
2006 Home - 3206 sq/ft - never lived in!
4 Bedrooms - including 2 Master Suites. 1st Master is 20'9" x 20'9" with a fireplace and a bathroom almost as big as my current bedroom. 2nd Master suite is 16'8"x19'9" with its own bathroom also..
3.5 bathrooms
3 Car garage
Granite counters, double ovens, all appliances included.
On 1 full acre of land
Opening asking price is $295,000!!
I've got a 2nd interview at a company near this house this Wednesday. If I get this job, and this house, my commute would be 6.5 miles each way. My wife's commute would be 6.8 miles each way!...
Crazy Joe
25 Feb 2008, 02:13pm
Wow, that's not a bad price for that house anywhere in the country, almost unheard of in California I'm sure...
Black Hawk
25 Feb 2008, 02:17pm
Good luck!
QCH2002
25 Feb 2008, 03:22pm
When do you want my family to move in with you? ;D
Leonardo
25 Feb 2008, 04:07pm
I don't know who else might be bidding on the home you write about, but that's a fantastic opportunity.
I don't know who else might be bidding on the home you write about, but that's a fantastic opportunity.
Well, no one from what I can see..
I looked up records on it, its never even had a single offer made on it.
...its been on the market for 284 days.. I looked up the build information on it.. the builder was listing it for $499K when they finished building it in Mid May 07...
This is not an auction property, its bank-owned short sale. The builder defaulted on the loan when it switched from a contruction loan, to a regular loan. The bank is including a 3 yr home warranty with any purchase.
I'm going to try to get them to cover closing costs too, depending on what price we agree on for the house.
BTW: Forgot to mention that this house is on 32K+ sq/ft of land....
vBulletin® v3.7.3, Copyright ©2000-2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.