Comments on: Looking for closure

By: ruralaspirations

ruralaspirations — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 03:03:25 +0000

I was reading bubble blogs for my region (southwestern Canada). So far here we have not felt any reactions to what is happening in the US. Some say it’s inevitable, others say we’re protected as we didn’t have the mortgage lending habits that got people into trouble down there, and our economy is still very strong. As a family looking to buy our first home we go back and forth on the issue a lot. I don’t want to see a recession here, but I confess I’d be pretty happy to see a downturn in prices…houses in my city are over $700, and those are 1960’s bungalows.

By: Miss Cellania

Miss Cellania — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 14:05:15 +0000

When I bought this house, they gave me a ARM that adjusted every five years. Five years later, rates were DOWN and I was eager to adjust. By then, the mortgage had been transferred twice as banks bought other banks. They told me I could get the new lower rate, but I would have to pay closing costs again! I didn’t have the money to do that at the time, and it made me quite angry. So I continued with the original rate, but threw my enegy into paying off the mortgage in full before the next five year adjustment.

Compared to what happened a few years later, I consider myself extremely lucky.

By: Crimson Wife

Crimson Wife — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:12:23 +0000

The house next door to my parents’ is in foreclosure. The owners walked away from their mortgage because the house is now worth less than what they paid for it a few years ago. My dad’s considering buying it to renovate & then hopefully the market will have picked up by the time he’s finished fixing it up. It all depends on how cheap he could get it and what exactly would need to be done.

By: carosgram

carosgram — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:19:49 +0000

Interesting post! I have been in awe as I read about the prices people were paying for houses, wondering what kind of jobs they had that they could afford them. Around here they has been no housing bubble because our economy is in the toilet. It actually is a nice area but very provincial and the people have not made the transitions to a new economy. They are still waiting for steel, auto and chemicals to make a comeback here. We have a declining population. However, it does mean that you can live well on much less money than other places. Is there a bubble up north where you are omegamom?

By: Ron Holland

Ron Holland — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:40:30 +0000

From Wolf Laurel in NC mountains - I believe Merrill Lynch is correct about the arrival of recession in the United States. The housing downturn is negatively impacting property sales in second home communities in Florida. This is also slowing sales in NC mountain resorts that depend on Florida buyers.

Still the downturn in prices and building of inventories is starting to attract second home buyers from Florida looking for cool temperatures in our mountains. Also the dramatic decline in the dollar combined with weakness in American real estate markets are beginning to interest some bargain hunting European investors.

Ron Holland, Broker/Realtor with Wolf’s Crossing Realty. See http://www.ronaldholland.com Ron markets resale mountain and ski resort properties in NC in Wolf Laurel and The Preserve at Wolf Laurel.

By: GrannyJ

GrannyJ — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 05:29:42 +0000

Closure — where’s the fore?

By: anon

anon — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:39:43 +0000

It’s really amazing because my boyfriend (34) and I (29) watched as several of the couples we are close friends with here in Los Angeles bought property in the past five years, aghast (but also a bit jealous) when one couple bought a $535,000 1,000 square foot condo on a 10-year interest only loan. A year ago, desperate to get into the market, I would search 2 bedroom condos and find $400,000 as the very bottom of the barrel — and only in far-reaching undesirable suburbs.

Now, you can get a 2 bedroom 2 bath condo in a close, desirable suburb for $275,000. A year ago the same condo could have gone for $450,000+. It’s completely insane, and we find ourselves actually feeling proud of ourselves for not diving in, but afraid for those friends who did.

By: Blog Antatonist

Blog Antatonist — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:20:47 +0000

Husband and I talked about this when they started offering home loans “regardless of credit history” and with “no down payment!” etc. That’s not the entire cause, of course, but it sure didn’t help.

You wouldn’t believe the number of brand new homes standing empty around here. For years they couldn’t put them up fast enough. It was really disconcering, because it seemed like any blank piece of land was in peril. Suddenly, it’s all ground to a halt. There are huge, huge homes sitting empty and unfinished, entire shopping centers going unleased, subdivisions plowed and paved, but no new homes being built.

We seriously considered moving when our income increased, but we decided to stay in our small-ish home. I’m so glad we did. And I’m also glad that husband had the foresight to refi our ARM before the feces hit the rotary oscillator.

We have lots of friends and acquaintances who are scrambling to cover mortgages they couldn’t really afford in the first place.

Sad. But hopefully, we’ll learn something from all this.