My opinion is that the price correction has already started but it's being hidden in concessions (ie. closing cost help, renovations, all around extras).  For example one development in Catonsville ($600k+ homes) the builder is offering $10-20k in closing costs or a shopping spree at the local car dealer if the buyer pays listing price.  Eventually the sellers will give up and rent it out but there are only so many renters, once the BRAC starts (1st quater '08) and the demand for homes isn't as strong as expected you'll start to see price correction in the 5-10% range but not much more than that.    Lot's of people over paid for their homes and really can't drop the price enough to give much more.  My plan is to start shopping in the end of 1st Quarter '08 and keep the additude "It's cheaper to rent" and be aggressive with my offers.  I was shopping beginning of this year offered $205k on a house listed (2 months) for $255k, they came back at $240k and I walked away....3 months later it sold for $215k (not sure on concessions), if I stuck with it I could have got it for $220k seller pay all closing costs but I had a roof over my head and wasn't in the mood to play games.   Summing it up, the price correction is there you just have to find it.  Ideally if the house was bought prior to the boom you can get a much lower price if you keep at it, the real estate agent should be able to tell you what they paid for the house and you can gauge how much lower they are willing to go by how long it's been on the market.  Some people need to just break even, expecially if empty. ... View more

Gigi77-  I'm in the Baltimore area and were in the same boat.  It's like the whole DC/Baltimore area has just gone into a West Coast state of mind and believes that everyone can afford a Million dollar home.  My companies HDQ is based in Dallas and they just can't understand why we have such a hard time retaining employee's, but the pay scale is based on the TX economy which a $40k a year salary will get you just about what ever kind/size home you want.  Here is MD $40k a year is borderline poverty and no one wants to stick around.   This BRAC deal (Base Realignment) is supporting the median price for now (false hopes for sellers), but once the now empty homes stay empty that's when we will see a major adjustment to home prices.  If not the value of the dollar will be so week that employers will be forced to adjust salaries so people can survive off their paychecks.   BTW~ Great article, just an other way the American people are being protected from reality.....   Ron Paul has the right idea and captures the views of 90% of the American population, just too bad he's being censored by the media.  Half the time he's not even listed on the polls (they claim it's because of spammers), it's going to be interesting in '08.  Not much to chose from and the only viable candidate is being shunned. ... View more

This is the progress I have made using a combo of TU and MyFico since 05/07.  One AFNI removed (falsely re-ageing account), double listed Judgement removed, outdated Judgement removed, outdated collection removed, one PFD w/ Comcast, $15,000 in new TL added lowering UTL%, corrected Suffix on Name, and corrected past addresses.  One loophole I found is if an old account that is not being updated by OC or CA and they have your name wrong or the address they are using is incorrect the TL will be deleted if you have those corrected before you dispute the TL.  If I had it to do all over again I would make sure all names and addresses are correct before disputing TL's.  Once they are corrected check your CR and go from there.  You have to pull the report directly from CRA to get all listed adresses and names.                      5/07                10/07 TU              560                   636 EQ             630                   694 EX              530                   624 ... View more

Unfortunately I think your right NewWorld, the days of honest Constitutionalists Republican left around 150 yrs ago and if one was elected I'm sure he would be hanging out with Saddam having a drink saying "you know what, That Bush is really good".  Now all we have left are Bush lovers, and Spend happy democrats (Liberals are only worthy of a parenthesis notation *no offence to any one*).  Just hope Bush hasn't screwed things up so bad that the democratic nation our founding fathers dreamed of doesn't fall like so many other Military complexes....(Russia, Japan, French, German.......)   OK sorry for turning this political, I'll stop, but remember the men and women who are elected to office.......eventually decide what happens with your money, your family, and YOU!..... Message Edited by George2037 on 09-26-2007 04:07 PM ... View more

Hey Noah got two words for ya: "Ron Paul", not sure if he's sane or a complete nut job but he shares some of the same veiws....(I honestly like the guy).   I think it's going to stay a buyers market for some time to come.  Median home prices dropped 7-8% y/y for August, number of homes sold dropped 26% y/y.  The number of homes on the market now (new and resale) provide an 18 month supply (at year ago sales levels), lots of arms get reset in October and even with the half point drop people are still going to see a point or two raise ($200-500) in their statements.   This is what I would like to see happen, but I think #5 is the most likely in the near future:   1. Sellers realise they can't make that profit they have been planning on and drop the asking prices. 2. Banks go back to 10% down or no loan. 3. Apraisers factor in the bubble's inflated prices (to help put realistic prices on the homes). 4. Intrest rates go to 8-10% for one year, then back down to 6-8%. 5. Me win the lotto and not care about home prices, move to my own private island in the tropics, and train monkeys to farm the land so I can sit back and drink margaritas for the rest of my life.   ... View more

My apology for the long post:   Welcome to Corporate America!  Huge franchises have captured the market lock-stock-and-barrel, customer service is not exactly high on thier priority list, they loose you as a customer but there are 20 people right behind you to take your place.  It's all amount volume, how much merch can we move from a store forget getting them to return.    When starting out in the workforce I was an aprentice plumber working on a housing development (1500+ condo units) and all apliances intstalled were GE.  I would install the Dishwashers/ Fridge/ Stoves, and saw the costs sometimes $200-400 less than my cost at the supply house.  Asking the salesman how they could do that, his response was "Repeat business" and "Volume".  First GE figured out if a homeowner had thier products in the home and were satisfied with it, 10-20 years down the road when it came to replace it chances are they would go back to them for it plus GE has a product list that almost matches GOD  :) .  Basicly GE took the one time hit on the profit for a chance to show homeowners what they had to offer, OH their CS was awesome..I would get a call about a scratch on the finish, or a leak, if I found it was the product GE would overnight the part, or just replace the whole unit.  Ask for the failed part back so they can investigate it and see what failed and make changes where needed.  Selling 1500 dishwashers he was able to cut the price down a little because of the volume (but not as much as you would think, $75-80 a most).   My point, Best Buy is a clearing house focused on volume and sales.  The idea someone would return and give them repeat business is based on sales/ discounts and products they offer.  Customer service isn't one of them, just as Home Depot does once they capture the market they stop the Customer service.  They figure once they put everyone on the block out of business there won't be much choice but to return.  Ever watch the movie about Walmart?  Same concept.....  I remember in my early Contracting days when Home Depot was a new concept I could just pull up to the loading dock tell them what I needed, paid for it and it was loaded on my truck.  Now, IF I go to HD I have to park get a cart, go load all my own supplies and if I get a cashier pay (most time it's a self service pay) then load my truck.  It ticks me off cause before my local supply house went out of business they would deliver for free, never had to leave the jobsite.....make a phone call, 20mins later theres a loaded truck pulling up.  Now I use 84 Lumber, their salesmen work off commision and will do anything to keep me coming back.  ... View more

I would agree with OneMortgageGuy, lenders have put a hold on No-Docs for anything under 660 and do require a substantial amount in reserves.   No-Doc's took a major beating in the past 8 months, lots of Mortgage bundles with no-doc loans and FICO averages of 700+ have higher default rates than the 620-  (sub-prime).  It's suspected the No-Doc loans were not exactly accurate, and because of that are much harder to obtain. ... View more

Oh...   Noah:  :)   stpn:  Hang in there, when renting and buying once again come within the same range of cost that would be a good time to buy.  As it stands now I would have to Double my housing payment to afford anything in my area, and that's with just 1-2 bedroom town-homes and then I would have to add condo fees, taxes.  I'm happy paying rent right now, it's a waste of money but better than destroying my life trying to make a mortgage payment.   Newworld:  Any and all government intervention (fed/ or state) would only add to the false lid that's sitting on top of this volcano market.  As much distrust as I have in the government entities, one thing I have faith in is they wont do a thing.  Everything Bush said he's going to do is just a smoke screen to keep people off his back.  Sorta like every time Exxon posts $16 Billion quarter profits, there is a Congressman/ women publicly asking for a probe.....two weeks later it's forgotten :) ... View more

You know up until yesterday I was hoping for a rate cut so I could afford to actually buy into my area (Baltimore-DC Metro).  But someone on this board (can't remember the name) brought up a good point.  Just like all housing booms in the past 50+ years the market has been tracked there is a bubble that gets burst by a double digit interest rate.  This is the first time in history that homes had seen a double digit "appreciation" and we are yet to see the true explosion on the "Bubble".   If history repeats itself AGAIN, like recently in the 70's and early 90's, interest rates will hit a double digit and home prices will once again be reasonable in "Middle Class" standards.  One of two things will have to happen, either wages rise to meet current prices, or prices will fall to meet current wages.  Well, I'm guessing not many employers are going to start handing out 30-40% pay raises and considering the number of foreclosures rose 36% from June to August (56% in my area) I'm thinking the prices are going to fall.  Double that with an increase of unemployment rates, there is going to be a glut of homes REO and banks are just going to dump them for whatever they can get.   That $350,000 house down the street in two years will be appraised at $160,000 because all the comps in the area will be REO's bought up by investors for penny's on the dollar.  It's like CA's buying up debt, except in this case it will be Land...... ... View more

True.  I've had bad experiances with Agents so I'm a little Biased when it come to them.  I would blame them for Global Warming if I could figure out a way to do it :) ... View more

I think the Federal Capital Gains Tax requires you to live in the home for two years to be exempt, or to purchase a new home (make an investment) within 2 years after sale.  The Capital Gains Tax is geared towards investors, and if you can show you are reinvesting the money (if outside the 2 years limits) there won't be any.  I don't know if IRA's count but that may be an option as well, you could throw the cash in there and leave it until your able to buy another home.   I don't think you actually have to buy a home of equal or greater value either.  As long as the money goes into the house and there is nothing left over you should be good.  But I would most definatly talk to an accountant, personal accountants aren't that expensive and worth it in the long run. ... View more

Real Estate agents are now seeing what happens when they allow their buyers to pay more for a house than it's worth.  Over the last 5 year home prices surged 50% that's 7% more per year than history.   The truth is home prices can drop up to 20% and still maintain the 3% average, and account for a 3% per year of infation.    What a lot of investors are finding out is, that $200,000 mortages are being held on homes worth $160,000.  But because of the housing boom, the apraisel's at closing time were falsly (not to the fault of the apraiser) higher because of consumers out bidding eachother with a low intrest buying power. ... View more

Wow, learn something new everyday.  I've had a Citi Financial personal loan for 18 months now.  Only reason I took it out was to build a payment history on an instalment loan.  I haven't had it listed as a warning or "item effecting score", wonder how much it really does hurt.  I'm going to stick with the payments and hope the 24moths of history will be better than the fact it's a consumer loan.  If not oh well, live and learn. ... View more

I got the same message and about a week later got a letter asking me to call them.  When I did they asked a few security questions (similar to the ones you get when pulling a CR Online), then was told the new card was being mailed to me ($4000CL).  ... View more