2008 Real Estate market comeback, "bad media hype wearing off ", Strong 2007 fall-winter sales (Philadelphia: for sale)

[PARelo]

According to TREND-MLS, 2007 November and December real estate sales were the highest in the last 4 years during the fall - winter months for the entire NorthEast from VA to Maine. It's a shame "poor media hype" played a crucial role in the real estate market decline. It's slowly turning into a Sellers Market !! Sellers don't give in to the embarrassing lowballer's offers. Prime rate, keep on comin down !! Sellers think positive ! The outlook for real estate sales in 2008 look excellent ! The Charlotte and Portland real estate market won't be the only cities doing well in 2008

[samsmith]

which planet are you living in? home prices are falling, its bad out there, a big percentage of people cannot even qualify to buy one, and many cannot move because they have no equity today. Prices are down, and home owners know that, trend mls show 'sales', it does not show the thousands that are unable to sell their home. And look at Median home prices not average, there may be many rich people buying million dollar homes but fewer middle class family homes can be sold today.

[Icy Tea]

Home prices are flat in the more secure areas in pa. and fewer homes are being built and sold. Probably more foreclosures will result from credit crunches and bankruptcies over credit cards. People were driving up prices buying houses on speculation making a fast buck or buying on credit at high interest rates. Prices should go down as only qualified buyers can buy and then will only pay what they think a house is worth.

[Reinheitsgebot]

We're looking now and the interest rates are good, but the supply is bad. Prices have to come down at least 15% before affordable housing in Montco starts to move. All we've seen for sale are the houses that couldn't sell before the bubble burst or new townhouses with drywall separating you from your neighbor.
The funniest listings on the MLS are the houses that are both for sale and for rent and the owner wants to charge the full cost of ownership in rent plus a $100 for their troubles and also keeps showing the house while its rented... Are these people dense or what?

[kilbillrain]

Originally Posted by PARelo

According to TREND-MLS, 2007 November and December real estate sales were the highest in the last 4 years during the fall - winter months for the entire NorthEast from VA to Maine. It's a shame "poor media hype" played a crucial role in the real estate market decline. It's slowly turning into a Sellers Market !! Sellers don't give in to the embarrassing lowballer's offers. Prime rate, keep on comin down !! Sellers think positive ! The outlook for real estate sales in 2008 look excellent ! The Charlotte and Portland real estate market won't be the only cities doing well in 2008

You must be astruggling RE agent and how sad that you don't or refuse to accept the state of your industry. Shows you lack of professionalism. I work in Citi's mortages division and there is a lot more hurting going on in the near future. Dont expect any type of recovery until AT LEAST mid '09. The sub prime bleed over is just getting started!

[Pat_in_Pa]

PARelo, please describe your recent (within the last year) personal real estate purchases and any other significant additions to real estate portfolio(s). Detail any recent REIT investments.

Thanks for such information. My mamma always said, if the agents ain't buyin', you best be rentin', honey.

Based on the statistics of weak PA sales, there are NO agents buying. Although, I have seen many, many properties "offered" on the MLS with "Owner is Licensed Agent" in the description.

In addition, the incredible increase in sheriff's sales, available to all of us here in PA on each county's public Websites, reflects the true condition of the market. It used to be that I'd pull up the sheriff's sales listings for my county and see an Adobe .pdf file of maybe three or four pages. The darn thing is 20-something pages long now! How are a bunch of underwater homes that nobody will even bid on helping the market? Best wait until these houses go back to the bank, sit in the REO portfolios for a year, and the price is cut in half.

Paaleeeeese. Go back to school and get a new profession until this debacle is over in 2014.

[southernbelles]

Yes, kilbillrain, I agree with everything you say!

I too believe the original post was created by a struggling RE agent who refuses to accept the condition of his profession. Much more hurt is yet to come all across the country. RE's try to convince that the housing market has hit bottom, and 2008 will yield a blooming flower. Unfortunately, the worst is yet to come and some recovery won't be seen until well into 2009. And then recovery and repair will be very, very slow. PARelo, take off your blinders and accept the condition of the economy and the housing market. Don't insyill false hope into sellers, as that could result in severe financial consequences for them.

Homes are selling for tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands less than listing price. RE's say their clients are insulted by the 'lowball' offers, but in fact, the buyers are insulted by the inflated listing prices. Some homes are selling for much less than tax assessment values, less than mortgage value, and/or a bundle less than listing price.

The longer a property sits for sale on the market, the less it will be worth. So if a seller listens to PARelo, he may be in for some financial danger.

RE's also are misrepresenting the northern real estate market. They want all of us to believe that the PA housing market is, and has been, steadily on the rise. Every PA RE I've spoken with has told me THAT. PA RE's claim that PA industry is preventing the spread of doom into PA. Yes, Pat-in-PA, I think RE's need to research, become educated, and get a new profession. Either they're ignorant, in a state of denial, or just plain deceptive.

[rainrock]

Posted on Tue, Feb. 26, 2008


Some houses still find eager buyers
By Alan J. Heavens

Inquirer Real Estate Writer

Home sales continue to skid nationwide, and the current real estate climate surely has created a buyer's market.

Yet for certain houses, the days of multiple bids and bidders are in no way a thing of the past.

Buyers are banging down the doors, Long & Foster Real Estate agent Phyllis Weinstock said, "when the house and the property warrant the money."

And location helps, too. Take Media, for example.

Dale Lippart's first flip house, a three-bedroom, one-bath twin in the borough, went under agreement of sale just seven days after going on the market. Four prospective buyers battled for the right to pay the $296,500 the property was listed for.........
.....Some houses still find eager buyers | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/26/2008 (broken link)

[southernbelles]

That's precisely the point -- the house and the property must warrant the money in THIS housing market. Unfortunately, the Pennsylvania market is flooded with listings with grossly inflated prices. That's why so many properties are lingering on the market for months to years with few showings and no offers. Realtors are ill-advising sellers to refrain from reducing until the market improves. Unfortunately, improvement won't be seen for years. Things will get worse before they get better.