WaMu may be up for auction

[AZRedhawk44]

That is the prices here.

$350k is a small starter house.

$300k is a townhouse.

$200k is a double wide trailer.

There IS no "cheaper houses", unless you want something that is falling over.

The prices have to fall back to where wages can support home buying, since the wages have not really gone up in eight years...only home prices. I agree there. But there is no "Don't buy a $350k house" here. It's just "Don't buy a house"!

Maned, how much is rent for a typically-sized 3br 2ba house?

Is rent in line with a real estate investor paying $350K for that house?  Like $2500?

If not and property investors want to liquidate holdings, they'll have to sell lower.  They'll still make a profit selling at $300, $275, $250, $225, until the market levels off.  That's because they bought 10+ years ago at $125.

Happened here in AZ already, I'm sure it will happen eventually in your neck o' the woods too.

[Manedwolf]

That is the prices here.

$350k is a small starter house.

$300k is a townhouse.

$200k is a double wide trailer.

There IS no "cheaper houses", unless you want something that is falling over.

The prices have to fall back to where wages can support home buying, since the wages have not really gone up in eight years...only home prices. I agree there. But there is no "Don't buy a $350k house" here. It's just "Don't buy a house"!

Maned, how much is rent for a typically-sized 3br 2ba house?

Is rent in line with a real estate investor paying $350K for that house?  Like $2500?

If not and property investors want to liquidate holdings, they'll have to sell lower.  They'll still make a profit selling at $300, $275, $250, $225, until the market levels off.  That's because they bought 10+ years ago at $125.

Happened here in AZ already, I'm sure it will happen eventually in your neck o' the woods too.

Yes. Yes it is. Before I'd gotten the rented townhouse thing, I'd looked at that. A house of that size would be $2500-$3000/month to rent.

[Manedwolf]

Then don't buy a house.

Or, don't buy a house there.

If buyers cannot afford the purchase prices, then there won't be any buyers, and prices will fall.  If that isn't happening in your area, then it means that there are in fact enough buyers to support the prices.  At least for now.

Credit is seizing up.  That means financing for the inflated prices just won't be available any longer, and those inflated prices will not be able to hold.  Prices will fall.  This is true for prices of for all major assets, not just houses. 

Deflation.  Crude, ugly, unadulterated deflation.  It's all around us now.

Ah, but that's the problem. I work and live here.

People who CAN afford the houses work in Boston, get Boston salaries, and don't mind a fifty mile commute to live where I am.

(And now they want to extend the commuter rail to make that WORSE, at taxpayer expense. One big bedroom community...)

[AZRedhawk44]

Yes. Yes it is. Before I'd gotten the rented townhouse thing, I'd looked at that. A house of that size would be $2500-$3000/month to rent.

Looking on apartments.com in the Concord area, I'm seeing 3br apartments going from $900 to $1300 depending on amenities... although there are only 2 listings for the entire area on that site.

I have a hard time accepting that a 3br rental house runs $3000 when competing with large rental apartments around $1000.

Am I looking in the wrong part of New Hampshire?

[Manedwolf]

Yes. Yes it is. Before I'd gotten the rented townhouse thing, I'd looked at that. A house of that size would be $2500-$3000/month to rent.

Looking on apartments.com in the Concord area, I'm seeing 3br apartments going from $900 to $1300 depending on amenities... although there are only 2 listings for the entire area on that site.

I have a hard time accepting that a 3br rental house runs $3000 when competing with large rental apartments around $1000.

Am I looking in the wrong part of New Hampshire?

Yes. That's way too far north. Look at Bedford, Amherst, Hollis, Merrimack, Salem, Nashua, etc. Things closer to the southern edge. And keep in mind that if it's something like a cheap house in Nashua, it's probably a "house" in the Tree Streets neighborhood, which you don't go in.

[richyoung]

Loans to who? They're tightening their credit requirements like Scrooge. Even people with good credit can't get loans without a massive amount down that nearly nobody has. Who are they going to make loans for on those McMansions?

That happened to us earlier this year. 

Happening to a lot of people.

"You want us to put HOW much down? Yeah, we'll get right on that after we win the lottery."

how much do you think is a reasonable down payment? until fairly recently, normal mortgages were usually 20%, or 10% and PMI.

couple the almost nil down payments a lot of buyers have been able to get by with, and the extravagant valuations put on the underlying homes, it was a market doomed to collapse.

That doesn't work with the over-inflated prices.

When houses were $100K here in 2000? Sure.

Now that same house is $350K. Small, average house. 20% is $70,000.

Who has that lying around as a first-time homebuyer?

...then the prices will fall until they hit what they * SHOULD * have been all along....