Dear Friend,
Came across this
article this morning.
It seems to indicate that the
housing market is still in flux. The article says that people are more inclined to rent and to wait it
out and buy when they think the market has bottomed out sometime in 1914. Not a home sellers
market for sure it would appear. But I'm sure there are other factors
that come into play depending on the particular house that's being sold. Such as the location and what type of house it is exactly.
I know I was
surprised when I saw what some of the houses in my West Seattle
rental's neighborhood were selling for..... It's hard to get a buyer to
purchase a house (probably the biggest investment most buyers will make
in their lifetime) when they think the market prices are going to drop
if they just wait a couple more years. Maybe a time to reconnoiter and
dig in for the long haul. Rent the house out again and wait for the
market to bottom out. Sell every thing in two or three years. Develop a
three to five year plan of some kind when it comes to your property and hope interest rates don't go through the roof in the meantime. Which is a whole other story.
I just don't know and I doubt anyone really does right now, and the uncertainty is the biggest part of the problem.
In
many ways if you could find a buyer in this market it maybe the exact
time to sell given that home prices maybe headed even lower. Not
really encouraging news for sure for owners of homes or rental property, but reality bites sometimes. According
to the article people are more prone to rent then buy, meaning it's a
landlords market especially in a big cities like Seattle where the
economy is doing better then the national average and rental housing
would supposedly be in demand.
There is a way to make it work out to
your advantage in the long run I hope. But the government should be doing more to help. Up to now I don't see things like the
making homes affordable program doing the job. I've been down that route personally with my property and the banks are just not interested in
making a deal even though it maybe better for them it would seem then you being forced to walk away from the property. I think they know that the market is still pretty toxic and why lend money if they're not forced to or if your house is just going to be underwater even if they give you that modified mortgage.
As we know, when the great recession
happened in 2008 it was mostly center in the collapse and toxic nature
of the real estate market, bad loans, over valued properties and home owners leverage to the hilt. Many people predicted that until all the millions of bad
mortgages were worked through, the economy would remain slow and
stagnated. Everybody had borrowed to the hilt using their house as
collateral, and now their stuck with the debt and no way to sell their
devalued property for the amounts of money they need to pay off the
lender, their house being worth less or even underwater. We have a
record number of foreclosures or people just walking away from the
property and telling the bank it's your problem now.
When the depression hit the world in the 1930's FDR's New Deal created a
government agency that bought distressed properties or provided low interest loans for homeowners in
trouble so they could stay in the house. Some of the properties were bought by the government and later sold back to home buyers as the market
for housing stabilized. The government in the long run actually made money on the
proposition. Now when you go to the bank the lender denies your refinance or
loan modification request even though you've got great credit and a willingness to work something out. Many homeowners are left with nothing else
to do but let the house go into foreclosure or just walk away.
We need a
massive new program like the depression era one today. Ultimately it would help stabilize the
overall economy more quickly and hopefully rid us of all the toxic
mortgages and uncertainty that only delays recovery. But the political climate is toxic with all these politically compromised politicians in charge who don't give a shit if you lose
your house or not. In fact the way the Republicans act they rather see the economy
tank in order to use it as centerpiece argument for their reelection. So
getting reelected and maintaining the corporate oligarchy is more
important than helping the average American stay in his home or sell his home for these criminals. By criminals I mean the politicians in charge and the financial industry who the government did bail out.
They'd obviously would
rather spend billions on war and giving the oil companies and the rich
tax breaks then help working class home owners weather the damn economic crisis.
I guess it time for the revolution.
Sincerely yours,
artistdogboy
