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Housing market optimists
Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008 | 2 a.m.
They looked ahead. Did they hit the jackpot?
And so we return to the dismal subject of the housing market. Why? Because the median house price has fallen, again. Many people over the past two years have proclaimed they could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Someday someone will say that and be right.
We are starting to see sales improve over the past six weeks and signs that the slowdown won’t last much longer.
— John Burns, a Southern California-based real estate consultant, Feb. 21, 2007 (In Business Las Vegas)
Analysis: Where does the market stand now, 18 months later? House sales are up but so is the number of foreclosures. The number of houses for sale is about same — and prices keep going down. The median house price is down 32 percent since last year.
There’s a big housing inventory and we’re going to start seeing price wars. House prices will stop falling by the end of 2007.
— Dennis Smith, president of HomeBuilders Research, Ibid.
Analysis: There were — and are — price wars among homebuilders still trying to close their new-home tracts. House prices have continued to fall.
Prices will climb and the inventory of houses will fall to 16,000 in the second half of 2007.
— Steve Bottfeld, Las Vegas housing analyst, Ibid.
Analysis: Prices, as mentioned, have continued to fall. The current existing-house inventory is nearly 23,000.
The way to address this is each individual problem at a time.
— Gov. Jim Gibbons, Oct. 5, 2007 (Review-Journal)
Analysis: The governor convened a closed-door meeting with lenders, from which he emerged saying that each mortgage was unique, should be dealt with individually and that lenders were in the best position to help house owners facing foreclosure. The state’s contribution was a toll-free help line. The problem has gotten only worse since then, with Nevada having the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for the past 20 months.
The next six months will be the best time since the beginning of the decade to buy real estate. And money is cheap.
— Sherman Frederick, publisher of the Review-Journal, March 9
Analysis: Housing prices were low from March through September, and they’ve been moving lower since. And if by cheap money Frederick meant credit, well, there hasn’t been a lot of that available lately.
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Credit is not frozen, credit is easily available for those with good credit.
Falling home prices are not bad. Do you want affordable housing or not.
As home prices return to normal levels more people can afford them and a relaxation of credit requirements will occur.
Let the market work.
And yes, home prices will probably continue to fall since the median homeprice before the bubble was at or below 140k and we are at 180k right now.
Don't buy those small homes with one car garages unless you pay less than $115 because that will be the price for all of them in about 3-6 months.
So home prices are still falling so those homes that are priced at $79,000 are going to fall further. Or are you talking about those golf course front homes that banks have priced at $200,000, that have bidding wars bringing them to ultimately being sold in the $275,000-$350,000. Or are those the prices that are coming down.
Or are you strictly talking about homes over $500,000? Strictly talking about homes over a million?
I have been waiting for over a year for a real in-depth analysis of the entire market, broken out by new and resale, prices, areas.
Any journalists up for the challenge?
Just ask any Realtor at any time and they will tell you that there has never been a better time to buy a home...regardless of market conditions.
Have to new glamour shots and make payments on the Mercedes
KDR81-Credit is not so simple. I have several friends, great credit who cannot close on condominiums, below $100K, because there are so many units in default that the HOA's don't qualify for Fannie financing. So, only cash buyers can buy into that complex. A high FICO will do nothing for that.
As for the journalists challenge, they don't have the time/funding or interest for anything that involved...
Hold on...
I am a Realtor and in theory...in THEORY this IS a great time to buy a house...if we were in any other town other than Las Vegas.
It will take so long for this town to get back on its feet if TOMORROW it started to turn around.
We're about to go into the highest consumer spending months and it's going to be dead and that's going to trigger a whole new round of closings and layoffs and that's even more people that can't come here to visit.
I work at Macy's at the holidays for a little extra income and that employee discount and they are ALREADY cutting shifts for the holiday help.