Five Ways to Survive the Housing Slump

Falling to 1997 price seems a little dramatic. On the other hand I purchased a home in 1999 for 167,000 I sold in 2005 for 525,000, This seems very DRAMATIC. The problem was the ARM's, the borrowers and the lack of ethics and or regulations. The price needs to drop more. To qualify for this house now I would need to make 132,000/YR. I would normally be required to place 52,500 (!0%) to 105,000 (20%) down. How many of us can afford this? Oh and I just checked the house is now valued at 498,000. A drop but not much. The 3X increase in price was ridiculious. Dropping to 50% of the 525,000 would seem more reasonable then to the 1997 values. In order to go that low we would need a GREAT DEPRESSION. Any how chew on that you all. Also it seems that several, Realtors, Loan Officers, Home Appraisers, Etc are posting here. I suugest to those they find a neww job the cat is out of the bag...don't buy the PROPAGANDA that is spewed here, do your own research.

The last 15 yrs, have been nothing more than a Pyramid Sceme amongst Mortgage Banks, Realtors, Apprasors and the Donald Trump Syndrome!

right, rent an apartment has no stress on it, if u make more money, u can save more, if u make less money, u can always rent a cheaper one. but remember, the house is not yours, it is a great time to find some bank own property, the monthly payment could be the same as what u pay to the rent. but of course, also make sure have to add up all the taxes,

Who is John Talbott?
I know who the National Association of Realtors are.

I am an investor in California Real Estate Market, I like to invest to those "city" property, in the early of this year, i dont even see there is really a DROP on the market in most of my property (about 10 property), but today, the end of the year, i can tell it really begin, it is slight drop about 5 - 10% in some of my property, but i still brought another 3 property this month (one is short sale, one is REO, one is foreclosure), for those who own an property, if u have the holding power, try to wait another 2 - 3 years, otherwise, u will have to complete with all those foreclose property. as an investor, I am still in believe the real estate market in USA because USA market is completely different with Japan, Hong Kong, ...market are completely different, cannot compare. but i do suggest if u have additional property, try to rent it out and wait, i dont think there is impact on the income property. so, demand would still high for renter.
dont worry, as a investor speaking, i give the market a break until 2009 the most.

This man is right about the real estate agents being rediculously optimistic. In the next few years, it is not going to get any better unless someone put in alot of money to help this situation. People with alot of money are not stupid to put their money in if they do not gain anything back from their investment. This is no game for amateur. This is harsh to say but it is true. In every games there are winners and losers, but the losers are the one have to make tough choices. My philosophy is you do not rely on no one to bail you out. The losers often will wait for the government to make new rules to help them out. This is true at some times but until that happens, these losers are already end up at bankruptcy.

I disagreewith John about remodeling or doing additions or any type of building at this time. Interest rates are at a historic lows and with this slump we are seeing building materials and labor drop dramaticly. Now is the time to take addvantage of this situation. When things stert to pick up you will lose this chance. I have yet to see people investigate the whole scope of this slump. But like every one else report only the negetive.

I agree about the govt better NOT bail out all those people who bought homes they simply could NOT AFFORD!! How stupid do they think people are, you cant blame the lenders if the buyers did not look into the margins and caps on these loans. ANy time you get into a loan whose interest is WAY bleow the regular rates, of course its going to catch up at some point. People need to go back to the old way of thinking. That is, your home is first of all, your shelter and a roof over you and your family's head, and secondly, a tax shelter, NOT your income stream giving you the ability to spend way more than you make. Shame on those who bit off more than they could chewt. I 'm very sorry but you should NOT be bailed out by the govt. If that happens, then what about all those who lost pensions, stock values from corrupt officers etc. ITs' unfortunate, but learn to live accordingly and don't make the rest of us responsible ones who do work hard and barely make ends meet pay for those who overspend. How dare you blame it on realtors or lenders. Lenders were stupid for lending to these people and they shouldnt be bailed out either. GREED and EGO are the reasons most can't afford theri own homes. The wriitng was on the wall, it has been in the papers for years about the bust, where were they when the warnings were put out there.

The goverment has us all by our necks. Its all about money, money, money. Its a money making machine. Its all in the plans. They raised homes so they could get the most money out of us. They knew what they were doing. We are the goverments slaves. They make it so we stay underneath their wings. We stress because we need to make these high mortgage payments. We stress because we spend hours upon hours in traffic to try to get to our job so we could pay off this huge mortgage. We need our car to get to our job and ontop of that, we spend tons of money in gas. They make normal business hours from 9 to 5 monday through friday. So we could all get on that road and spend...money, money, money! We never have the time to eat right or be healthy cause we are always on the run. Why are we always on the run to pay our mortgage, car, car insurance, gas, health insurance, taxes, home owners associations (thats a funny one), now there is a special taxes on alot of new homes called the CFD (money, money, money), In return, we get tons of stress that causes cancer. So, now what happens. We get to pay a ton of money to medical bills to try and kill this cancer. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!!! The goverment is laughing at us. This was just another way to *** us royaly!!! On top of all of this, the war. The war is all based on MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. Those poor troops out there. Getting killed for the governments greedy ways. SOOO SAD. Tell the president to stop spending more money that we dont have. Bring our troops back and lets focus on the real problems over here. They won't, cause it doesnt bring them MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. Open your eyes people...its bad!

"Look for the Feds to adjust the interest rate to assist in the support of home prices, and we will come down softly. "

Today in my region affordabilty declined to 5%.... only 5% of todays homeowners can afford their own home. Just like in 1988 when affordibilty was down to 10%... both prices and interest rates did decline together to make homes affordable by 1996-97 without toxic loans.

So lower interest rates are meaningless if you think prices wont drop either.

"but to say that they will come down to 1997 levels is wrong"

Look back to 1989 when RE peaked and declined 40% multiyear without breaking even for 10 years. The last decline reset prices backward to 6 years.

http://www.dqnews.com/AA1995OFA06.shtm

Why are so many surprised prices declining...

I just received a full price contact on my home after being back on the market 2 days, and my home is far from perfect. I lowered my price to a reasonable level and someone came along. I didn't take that big of a hit from where I started. If people didn't expect to make a mint off their home and had some patience they'd sell their home. There ARE buyers out there, they're just being choosier. If your home isn't selling, maybe it's a piece of crap, or you're asking too much. One thing is for sure, your agent isn't doing you a bit of good. Most likely they're a "listing" agent, and that's about all you get with most agents. I fired two sets of idiots before finding my latest agent. She was as hungry to sell my home as I was, and worked her but off for two days before I had a contract. First offer in almost 9 months. Most agents are morons as far as I'm concerned. That's the biggest part of the housing problem. Not rates, not supply. Lazy agents expecting you to pay 6% for them to sit on their butt waiting for someone else to sell your home for them. Try this. Tell your agent you???ll pay them their 5-7% for an offer within the first two weeks of your listing, and then it drops ?? % each week it???s on the market after that. Also, if they can???t bring you at least an offer within 30 days, they pay you $1000 each week it???s on the market beyond that. We???ll see how anxious they are for your listing after that!

Why does a person purchase a home..? To live in it correct....? Survive the prices falling by simply doing what you set out to do.... LIVE IN THE HOUSE.! Dont watch the values. Dont get information sheets from listing posted on the signs, The " Information tubes" Dont Go to " Open Houses" and then your mind wont worry about somthing that simply does not mater. If you have a interest only loan, or an ARM now is the time to get a Fixed rate note. If you cant get approved ask a family member or friend to co sign or co buy so you can get approved. Then LIVE in the house. We in American have the best of everything. Just when you think its all gloom and doom.. think about how good it really is.. Food on the table.. anything you want is minutes away.. People in the old days traveled 1000s of miles to trade lemons for choc. or wine for oils... today we forget how easy and good our life is.. DONT allow the TV or internet run your life.. Your house is only worth what someone will pay for it.. and if its not for sale thats the highest value there is..! KEEP YOUR HOUSE and values simply dont mater.. oh and focus on paying it off. Dave- Houston Texas Realtor..

The problem I have with "Housing Bear John Talbot" and his predictions... is that it is a national prediction. Many states, cities, and counties are not hit the same way that Florida, California, Nevada, and Arizona are. The National Media needs to start focusing on the areas that are hit the worse, and stop making it a "National Crisis!" I am tired to hearing that the housing market is down, but yet in my area, it's actually up! Imagine that! But the National Media says that everyone and everywhere is down.... Not true! Focus on the facts, and try to state what areas are being hit the worse, and not presume its the same way across the country!

Why the hell should taxpayers have to bail out housing speculators?? Is housing the new face of socialism? If people can't actually afford to buy, what's wrong with renting? A government that absorbs private risk by printing money is creating high inflation - and more bubbles. Can I now send the taxpayers a bill for my dot com stock losses ?