Anyone else having trouble FINDING A HOUSE ?

[Anonymous]

Ok, so I'm pre-approved with three major lenders at great rates and flexible financing plans, have great credit, and have my down payment stashed away, but I'm running into a problem in my neck of the woods (which is one of the top three foreclosure areas of the country). There are not a lot of listed homes for sale at this time and there is no new construction going on. Everything I'm finding in the area I'm interested in is either a Short Sale, Foreclosure, or somewhere in between -  all of which are accompanied by lots of DRAMA.  I've looked on realtor.com, homesandland.com, yahoo realestate, etc. and nothing but lower priced homes and condos seem to be available and sell between $80k-250k. My current home that I will be turning into a rental property is in this range, so I'm looking to step-up to the next level. What's happened to the $300-$500k dream homes?

Are things that bad that no one is selling their homes these days to buy another, or are people so upside down in this price point, that they just can't afford to sell right now?

[Anonymous]

Try homepath.com.  Those homes have already been through foreclosure and if your offer is fair you will get a lot less drama than with a short sale.  There are some GORGEOUS homes out there, take advantage!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Try homepath.com.  Those homes have already been through foreclosure and if your offer is fair you will get a lot less drama than with a short sale.  There are some GORGEOUS homes out there, take advantage!

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PLEASE... The first home I found and made an offer on was via homepath.com.  I even had a prequalification with a homepath lender, but there was a ton of drama that caused me to cancel the contract, which is why I am looking for something else now. 

See my post titled SHOULD I RUN LIKE H#LL for all the details on my homepath experience!

[llecs]

DW and I are looking as well for homes in the range of $350-$550 in the DC area and began reviewing the market back in April. We've noticed that home prices, here, went up and down on average by 2-3% with a spike again in early July, after the credit expired. Home inventories here were all over with a spike going into July. But since the credit expired, our prices have slowly declined but inventories have too. I've noticed now that hardly any homes, based on our criteria (4 bdrms), were being listed. On the flip side, many homeowners are dropping their prices well into the 5 figures to get their homes sold, so avg. prices have declined further here. I like the price drops, but I don't like the lack of options. I predict inventories will stay steady through at least year's end.

[happy0510]

OMG!! I thought I was the only one!! Yes! I'm in Los Angeles and everything is short sales or REO's.  EVERYONE has cash as well and we are small fish in a large pond with our FHA loan.  This sucks.  We just want to live in a house.  All we want is a roof for our family!!

All we can do is keep looking and looking....

[Anonymous]

I am seeing stale inventory here too in Philadelphia.   The suburbs are choc full of McMansions that are stuck in the 500s with greedy/desperate sellers and listings over 180+ days on Trulia.

I have been watching my local market since December 2009.   Right before the BIG price drops, what I see a lot of is stale listings with no price movement and those annoying $1,000-$5,000 price drops from sellers and REOs that are trying to play the Lambada game.  Every time they knock the price down by that small amount it triggers alerts on Trulia, Zillow and HotPads.  What I have seen a LOT are sellers that have rolled their prices backwards to the next lowest search bracket...  i.e. $525K gets changed to $499K.

These little price drops may clear away a little bit of inventory but it doesn't seem to work out and then after about 5 months is when I have started seeing the huge price drops in the $25K-$75K range.

And yes there have been many houses... mostly unfinished rehabs, originals and even some newer rehabs that have been up for over 365 days get knocked down to the 5 figure market, just to get rid of the house.

As far as new construction goes I am only seeing it in gentrified neighborhoods and only a tiny number of them in the super-expensive zip codes, mostly on the Main Line and a few in New Jersey.     Most people want to pick up an existing home that has been recently renovated and is in an established neighborhood rather than move into a tract development with a new home and an uncertain future about what will happen to the community if nobody is buying.

[ShowCredit]

I thought I was the only person thinking this.  In FLA the investors are buying the houses and paying cash, then they add $60,000 to the prices and now offer it for sale.  I have been looking for a house since July 2009.    Every time I make an offer, even at full price, (well they are all short sales and forclosures), they get rejected with my FHA preapproval.

I need a home. I just made a full price offer on a short sale and am now waiting to see if they accept it.  My lease expires in December, and I am hoping I don't have to renew it. 

[GregB]

Real Estate markets vary enormously by area. Everyone from the local agents to the governement would love to have you believe that you must buy now or you are missing out. You might need to dig a bit to get the real picture. Zillow will show you the actual recent sales along with the prices. There is usually only a couple weeks delay from the closing to posting the sale. You can sort by sale date. Does the information from the people who benefit from your home purchase match the facts of the actual home sales?

I'm right on the edge of the newer parts of SoCal. East of me is mostly recent consturction. West is mostly full. The newer areas have the reputation for being "all forclosures and short sales", "bid more than asking", "all bought for cash by investors", etc. The reality seems different. The investor purchased properties are not selling or being resold at no profit, even a loss. This will eventually put pressure on the inventory and push prices down. I haven't checked it out but a friend who is a real estate investor told me that one of the big mortgage companies is now refusing to loan on any house that sold in the last year. If that is true and other follow, the investors will have a tough time selling any houses quickly.

If you look at Schiller's models, there is a long way down for this boom to finally bottom out. That isn't to say that some areas may have not already reached bottom. Around here, I might believe the houses at about half the median price might have no further to fall.