Do you have two Snow Jobs in the Bush administration? There are problably scores more, only under different aliases,

Hell yes, it remains strong; the Colonial I purchased in the B'More 'burbs, for 185k, in 1994, is now worth well over 450k. With a little home improvement, I could sell 'er for over half a million--more than Barney will make in his lifetime...

Please Lord, let Snow be right -- at least for a few more months!

Keefer, I wonder what it would cost to move my house to Baltimore. I was talking to a realtor friend recently, and she said northeastern Indiana (where I live) is one of the few areas of the country where real estate is not a good investment. There is just an over-abundant supply of upscale homes built in the last 15 years (and still building) in the $200,000 to $350.000 range. People who move here from major metro areas think they've died and gone to heaven. Pretty tough, though when they get transferred back to LA, Denver, NYC (or Baltimore - heh). Fortunately our house will be paid for in 4 years, about the same time I retire for good.

Rico, what happens in a few more months?

Spook asked: "what happens in a few more months?"

Well, hopefully I will have divested myself of my extraneous real estate. I think I may have waited a little too long. I didn't foresee the spike in gas prices. I have (had?: oh please let it be had, lol!) a condo in Riverside county, CA, a duplex in Lake Havasu, AZ, and two postage stamp sized houses here in South Orange County, CA. Actually, one of the houses in SOC is my fiancee's. But we're fixin' to get hitched, so one of them has become expendable. We thought about renting it, and maybe we still will. But I don't particularly want to be a landlord -- especially not in California.

As someone currently shopping for a home, I can tell you the real estate market has changed dramatically since 2005, which is a good thing.

Inventory is piling up, and prices are dropping.

Lots of info and discussion here:

http://thehousingbubbleblog.com

We almost bought last year, and I'm glad we waited. We'll see what next year looks like, as we're seeing dramatic price drops in the towns we're interested, and houses sitting unsold for months.

For years housing prices have been way out of line with incomes in many areas (California, Florida, New York, and many other places). It's time they return to their historic norms relative to incomes.

What also concerns me, is that in the last few years many people have bought these over-priced homes using exotic interest-only loans, or Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs), and as these rates adjust up, people will be unable to afford the soaring mortgage payment, and will also be unable to sell the house for as much as they paid, leading to an increase in foreclosures.

Foreclosures are already up 16% this year, check the above website.

Instead of hysterics about an extra $20 a month for gasoline, politicians should be worrying about people making $50,000 buying houses for $600,000 using exotic loans.

There really needs to be some substantial cleanup in the lending industry.

IC,
Caveat Emptor!

ricorun:

Prices are dropping in CA. My advice is to sell the rental property in OC and reinvest where you can get better cash flow for your money.

As interest rates continue to rise, I think you will see a drop in housing prices. Pay close watch to the 10-year T-Bills. Foreign investors have been buying them to finance our budget deficits. If that slows down, then the yields will drop, and mortgage rates will rise.

Now is a good time to consolidate real estate holdings and secure a cash position. In the next year or two you will increased inventory on the market and investors with cash positions will find bargains.