Oh, my Lord Almighty in Heaven have mercy. Have you all seen the headlines about the recent housing market reports? About the economy in general? Not good. Not good at all. We already knew that, right? But somehow it’s different, seeing it all in black in white. As one report stated,
“….the toxic mix of that expired home buyer tax credit, still high unemployment and overall lack of confidence that’s sent housing into yet another tailspin.”
To be more specific,
“No region was immune in July, with sales in the Northeast dropping 30 percent, the Midwest falling by a third, the South down 20 percent and the West off 23 percent.”
And in still another report (this one about “new home sales”),
“More disappointing numbers from the housing market. New home sales slumped in July, down almost 12.5%, to the lowest level since they started keeping track of those numbers back in 1963.”
And yet another version (of homes sales in general),
“Home sales fell 27 percent in July, the steepest one-month drop since figures were first compiled in 1968.”
Oy, vey.
Our house had two showings last week while the kids and I were in Maryland. Before I even saw the news above of the July reports, I could tell something in the air had changed. Previous feedback from the many, many showings we have had has always been quite positive. Not positive enough for a sale, mind you. But positive in that they liked the house, even though it wasn’t right for them or they just weren’t ready to make an offer yet (usually because they also have a house they’re trying to sell).
But the last two feedbacks?
- Price is too high
- We’ve seen more updates in houses priced for less.
Ooch.
Every other feedback up until now has said the list price is “about right” and that the house “showed very well”. What’s changed? It’s the end of the summer? The house has been on the market more than three months? Did they see the reports and come with a more cynical eye?
All of the above?
I can tell you what’s happening in our area, on our street: houses are lowering their prices. Two other homes on our street have been for sale all summer, and they both just got offers: one after lowering their price by $30,000; and the other after lowering their price by $10,000.
These particular houses aren’t “comps” to ours, specifically. But they’re in our neighborhood, and the writing’s on the wall: we’re going to have to lower our price. Then who knows what type of offer we’ll receive. How low do we go? Do we bring cash to the closing table? Where do we draw the line? I am not keen on being a long-distance landlord of yet another rental, but should we consider that option? Generally speaking, this would be a very good area to have a rental: it’s stable; and family rental homes this size are few and far between. We’d have to look into the details a lot more, but I believe the rent would cover the mortgage quite easily.
But we’re jaded by our experience with our rental in Vegas. As far as real estate investment goes, owning a rental in Las Vegas has been akin to learning to read by picking up War and Peace. At least, it’s pretty much sucked rocks. We’re plodding along, but we’re not enjoying it. A huge part of me just wants to sell this house in Ohio no matter the loss and be done with it.
I appreciate and all comments and commiseration. And I’ll be keeping you posted.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you Jesus that you have blessing in mind for John and Jolyn and that you will sell this house just in the nick of time and at the price they need! Amen!
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I’m sorry. The larger house down the street from us has gone from being listed at $155,000 to $135,000 in the last 6 months, so I knew the market must be bad. I’m thankful we don’t have to move any time soon, but I really wish the market would bounce back for everybody’s sake.
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Ugh – houses all around us are selling pretty quickly – unfortunatly they are selling for less than we paid, and they have upgrades (we don’t). The only good thing is that we are not looking to move anytime soon. Really hoping it works out for you.
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Really sorry to hear all this
. If it does end up you needing to rent maybe you can refinance and get a really low interest mortgage.
I think I jumped out of the housing market to avoid stress like this. I’ll likely never rejoin unless I can buy 100% cash.
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UGH. I’ll be praying!
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We are long-distance landlords, after building a house in the college town our daughter attended, thinking we could sell when she was done. HAHA! Oh well, so far so good. We are on our second set of renters. So far all students, but this college is very hard to get into and if you flunk 2 tests you are out. So pretty serious students, luckily.
In our neighborhood, we have had one house sell (after lowering the price) and the one right next door lowered price twice and still has not sold. It is a crap shoot. Good luck!
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Ugh. I’m sorry you’re having to go through this. From the pictures I’ve seen and information you’ve given, it seems like you have a great house at a great price. I’m surprised it isn’t selling, but I’m not familiar with your area. Here in NC anything under $250k will sell pretty quickly. I think you’re right to assume that people are just responding to the bad news about the housing market rather than your house. I hate that you might have to lower your price., but I’m definitely a “just get it over with” type of person too.
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A comment to commiserate here…
We had to move from the northwest suburbs of Chicago to a suburb of Nashville back in February for a new job. We are so blessed to have a really good relocation package, but the house in Illinois is still killing us. A few months ago, the Chicago Tribune came out with a housing market report showing our area had dropped in value about 30% in the last three years. We are currently listing our home for about $40,000 less than we paid for it, and it is looking like we will be selling it for less than the previous owners bought it for 10 years ago. It has been on the market for six months and has had a whopping 52 showings. Not one single offer. The market sucks.
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You have a great house and it really should sell. Have you figured out the exact timing of when you need to move? Perhaps God is just waiting to make everything work out perfectly. After all, he did easly get you out of your last offer when your circumstances changed.
I am in shock and awe that you are even talking about renting….not worth it in my opinion if you can get out without too much cost.
Looking for another realtor is not a bad idea….
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I’ll be praying for you.
We’d love to sell our house (to downsize and cut expenses) but we’re not even going to bother right now. Our next door neighbor’s house has been on the market for 4 months and they’ve had 2 people *look* at it.
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Alls I can say is this, if you are using a realtor the realtor should be advising you if she/he feels that you should be lowering the price of your home. Many people that are looking to buy a house right now are looking for bargains, from what they are reading in the news about the economy, and they feel every house should be at a bargain price.
Our son and daughter in law are looking at homes to buy – their first home. In our area it isn’t really the prices as much as their aren’t that many houses on the market in their price range.
As to what you posted about the housing market, I am a geek when it come to reading anything and everything to do with the economy. I didn’t get to hear Federal Chairman Bernanke speak this morning, but it doesn’t sound like things are progessing in the economy the way everyone had hoped.
Back in 1988 we had a house for sale in an housing economy that wasn’t the best. It sat on the market from August of 1988 to May of 1989. In April of 1989 we changed realtors and it was sold within one month of the new realtor taking over.
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jolyn Reply:
August 27th, 2010 at 11:10 pm
Martha,
I did mean to mention in my post that we will be talking to our realtor next week, after my husband is back from his trip. He and I have been communicating about it, of course. But he wants to get back and talk in person before we make any decisions. Thanks for your input!
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