Read a little closer, the only things that are listed as new are the windows, and flooring. And as far as that goes, does it mean that the sellers are the ones that added those items? They had only owned the place for a little over two years when they put it back on the market. Those durable items could be considered new if they were only a few years old.

The main point of my post was the original price of $469,950. That is quite a jump from the $349,000 they paid in Feb. of 2005. I ran across that little gem from a discussion board on Zillow posted in Aug. of 2007. The owner stated at the time that they had their home on the market and that they had bought another place in Woodinville. She stated that home prices were still increasing in her neighborhood. I’m sure that she was being honest – the real estate market had just turned south at that time – only they had realised it yet.

It looks like they made a decision to buy another house with the thought of selling their original quickly and for a fat profit. The reality appears to be that they were stuck paying for two mortgages for two houses for around 8 months. It finally occured to them that to get out from these two payments they needed to reduce the price on the house for sale by $40,000. Ouch. They probably paid somewhere in the area of $20,000 in mortgage payments to carry the first house until it sold.

That looks like a fair amount of pain for someone to endure because of our out of whack real estate market.

You’re on drugs. Yes, windows and flooring wear over time, but adding gas fireplaces and air conditioning are upgrades and add value.

Just as a new roof is considered a “maintenance” item – in that every home needs a roof.

And since the inflation rate is around 4% – their home only shows a net gain of about 2% over their orginal purchase price.

Twist the numbers all you want. The market wil erase all the gains from 2006 & 2007 and we’ll have a new starting point for home values – from there we will slowly increase – not decrease.

It used to be expected that most home improvements do not give a positive return on investment.

Please before you call the seller’s insane for setting their asking price – please give them credit for the money they spent on all new flooring, new vinyl windows, new gas fireplace and air conditioning.

It’s not like they haven’t invested any money into the home to improve it. If they spent 20K in improvements and they sell for $419K then their rate of return was about 6% per year.

The point most people here are trying to make is that buying right now is an enormous risk and not going to be worth it for 99% of homes on the market today. Pick up any financial newspaper or magazine right now and please read everything you can about the credit markets. Anyone who thinks house prices across the country are going anywhere but the toilet is naive. Homes are priced according to what borrows can get from the bank, they shot up when banks lent Taco Time employees $800k for $1000 a month, and they are going right back down as that situation evaporates. Notice that the fed funds rate is very low, yet mortgage rates continue to rise. Very few people buy a $500k house, they buy a $3000 monthly payment. Increase the interest and downpayment, etc on the credit side and what has to happen to the price?

I’d lose some customers that way, but others would come back for their haircuts.
Maybe i should cut hair for a living/

Of course. That has always been the case. The point is that a well-priced house is probably priced lower now than it was only a short time ago, and will probably be even lower in the future. Those who are currently “pricing well” are smart. They want to hook someone quickly before the market tanks even further. They have better insight than deluded sellers who think they can simply keep their overpriced house on the market longer until the right buyer comes along. They will eventually be forced to lower their price to levels far lower than what they could’ve easily sold it for today, and with a bidding war no less!

I came across this site a while ago researching a potential move to Seattle, and I have to say it has few peers when it comes to know-it-alls, self loathing whiners and self promoting hucksters

sniff. You like me, you really like me!

http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=49020452

The owners bought in Feb of 2005 and paid $349,000. They held for a little over 2 years and put the house on the market for $469,950. A gain of nearly 35% is what they were looking for. The price was eventualy lowered to $419,000 and was just sold within the past week or so. I don’t know what price they ended up getting for the place, I’ll watch the county records though.

There are many more similar stories out there. Owners, to a large extent, think that their homes are still worth these insane prices.

As sweet as I am, I told him again that he lied on the listing. He told me to grow up. I told him that consumers don’t like to do business with liars. He corrected the listing and told me that it was a clerical error.

The Realtor thinks I am .. not nice, shall we say.

Maybe I was a bit agressive, calling him a liar, but consumers screen based on specific criteria and he attempted to game the system. What do you think?

I assume most people reading this blog would like to buy a house but for whatever reason haven’t. I’m curious. What would it take for you to pull the trigger?

Because of every Realtor’s dream has occurred and I am “priced out forever”. Oh sure I guess I could afford a 1bd condo, but squeezing myself, my wife, new baby and cat in there wouldn’t be pleasant. Especially since I can rent a house for the same cost.

people who are buying now can be the ones to drive the hard bargains and get those low prices.

I, for one, am grateful for the poor souls buying propertis right now. They’re the reason we are able to see house price declines because most metrics key off of selling prices. We salute you Mr. Falling Knife-Catcher!

There is little evidence of credibility or perspective on this site, particularly in the comments. Instead of all of the pathos and bitterness(and sales pitches), how about trying to contribute something more productive, and less redundant(maybe even original)? It might feel pretty good…even better than being ‘right’.

I see a lot of complaining and whining about Realtors on this site which is fine for about a day, but otherwise, move on and start being constructive. Whining about the same issues without talking about strategies for the future is fruitless and silly. If your strategy is to wait until prices fall another 20-50% before you buy, fine, but saying the same thing over and over again has very little value and it is making this site a bastion of the stupid.

In Queen Anne I am seeing good “reasonably” priced homes moving fast. For example in the last 3 weeks or so 2 homes withing several blocks of us went STI. mls 28025105 went sti in 8 days at $795k and a home on West Raye went STI in 11 days at $1.8 something 2 weeks ago. Other less desireable and / or overpriced homes sit… Having said that, if I was in the market now versus having bought last year I am not sure I would pull the trigger unless I got a SIGNIFICANT discount to asking and recent comparables.

10% decline in 2 years would best case. 10% decline this year is likely in some areas. But, who cares. If you found a house you like, can afford and with be there a while just enjoy it. No use worrying about it now.

Y’all are so fixated on the statistics that you’re not thinking about matters on an individual basis (can’t see the trees for the forest?). Everyone’s waiting with bated breath for the stats to show a 20% price drop–what the sales people are saying is, people who are buying now can be the ones to drive the hard bargains and get those low prices. If the seller of a particular house won’t budge, there’s a very good chance of another equally good house where the seller will face the music.

Ask poor Jess Pumpkin, there are still areas where competition is still super fierce, but elsewhere…if you’ve found a place you want to put down roots, this would be a good time to go take your time, do your due diligence, drive a hard bargain.

Nobody should ever be quoted on any topic whose answer or outcome involves their own stomach.

What do you “expect” a RE agent to say?

On the other hand, the “RE Diet” is starting to become popular again.

YOU my friend have just grinded my gears! You get NO SHIRT

lol. I’m starting to suspect ray is a bot, not a realtor. Ray-bot service. might need to get a captcha

Are you suggesting I said that? WAKE UP!! Know how to buy 1st my friend. I don’t care who you choose as your realtor. What matters is what you are buying and what you are paying for it. USE WHOEVER YOU WANT!

YOU my friend have just grinded my gears! You get NO SHIRT. Maybe a bumper sticker if your lucky! Listen to what I say. Be happy I offer an alternative. If you don’t like me there is over 36,000 others to choose from . But, make them earn YOUR money!

There are thousands out there. Many here as well. There are lousy people in every profession. Just like the Agent who blistered our staff a few days ago at the Home Show. I believe this “characters name is Foley.”

“Why are you doing this to yourselves?”
“I’m worried about you giving all your money away.”
“So you’re giving kick backs aren’t you?”

Fellow bloggers “You wanna know what really grinds my gears?” (Yes, I like Peter Griffin) I’ll tell you anyway. People who know nothing of what you do, spend 5 seconds looking at a sign, and then spatter off nonsense. OK now I will move on.

But, friends I’m seeing more Gems pop up every week. They are getting purchased many times before they even hit the MLS. Find your GEM, be patient, and I hope you get it. If its a true GEM it will not matter if the mkt plummets another 20%.

BTW the Seattle Home Show is sucking the life outta me. Friday night and 1/2 days Saturday and Sunday is all I have left in the tank. I think its something in the 9.00 fish and chips. I’m losing hair there daily. Come get your "golly" shirts! HAAAAAAAA We have about 70 left,

http://www.500Realty.net

The question is:

Q: We’d like to buy our first house and have found one in the North Seattle neighborhood we like. But it’s at the top of our budget. Should we buy now or wait for prices to fall?

Who’d though that they hear the Seattle Times Elizabeth Rhodes say,

If you view housing primarily as an investment, if you plan to own for just a couple of years, then your money may be better off invested elsewhere. Even in the best of times, sellers commonly don’t break even if they own for less than two years because it costs money to sell a house.

of course she finishes up with

However if having a home to call your own is your goal and you can see yourself living there long-term, then buying now makes sense. No one can tell if we’ve reached the bottom of the market, but some things can be said. With an abundance of homes for sale, buyers are in the driver’s seat. Interest rates are low. And if you own for at least five years, chances are good your home will appreciate enough that it won’t matter whether you buy at “the bottom” or pay a few thousand more.

Oh, I dunno, maybe an AFFORDABLE PRICE!!!!!

To Pete: Interests rates are not at the lowest point in 4 years. You obviously haven’t witnessed the highest single day 30 yr fixed spike we have had in decades this week. I just checked the BECU.org homepage and their 30yr fixed is 6.23 percent.

Why have we allowed these people to spout this garbage for year after year without being challenged?

I had a student in my short sale class that drove all the way up from Olympia to Bellevue because she said one out of every four listings in her market area was a short sale.

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Do you ever write comments as some sort of joke? The fact that you deny it makes me suspicious.

Well, sometimes. Okay, once.

10k exactly at 5pm today.

Do you ever write comments as some sort of joke? The fact that you deny it makes me suspicious.

Lot’s of inventory means a great chance to negotiated a very good purchase price.

Just think what even more inventory will mean!

Interest rates are at the lowest levels in four years.

Well.. they WERE…., up until this week…

Sorry Pete, not interested…

What is going to happen to the poor agents when they start losing their jobs and start returning to their former jobs? I knew a 19 year old kid who sat for, and passed their Real Estate Agent Certification – or whatever they do – about 2 years ago. I wonder what Denny’s he’s working at now…

The poor dears- I think “it’s a great time to buy” is such a reflexive response that they can no longer control it. Even though realtors know it’s b.s., the words are out before the brain can stop them!