USA Real Estate Good time to buy?

Chameleons Canada

Chameleons Canada

Avid Member
A fellow Canadian recently visited Florida, he was quite surprised on the value of some homes there, he said you can buy a condo for 50k! and a nice house for around 150k! I find it very hard to believe. (I am located in Toronto, Canada)

However if true, I would be interested in buying a small property down there for vacation and as an investment.

But I wanted to ask our US forum members if this is true and what are your thoughts about property buying right now? Have you seen such nice deals in Florida or San Diego?
 
2 years ago the houses in my neighbor hood were selling for $500,000 +. 3 weeks ago the house across street went up on the market for $340,000 (it was a repo) and the bank sold it for $190,000!!:eek: I am in Orange County California where prices are crazy high too! It is just unbelievable how bad the housing market has gotten.
 
dondeb562 said:
2 years ago the houses in my neighbor hood were selling for $500,000 +. 3 weeks ago the house across street went up on the market for $340,000 (it was a repo) and the bank sold it for $190,000!!:eek: I am in Orange County California where prices are crazy high too! It is just unbelievable how bad the housing market has gotten.
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True in my area too. I am looking to buy as well at the right time and feel its got further to go so I am waiting. A block of condos last month in a great tourist area were $75k this month they are $65k. If I had bought one 6 months ago I would have paid over $150k. I dont think you can pick a bottom of the market but it aint over yet :rolleyes:
 
Florida truly depends on the WHERE. If you are looking in Central Florida in the middle of nowhere-then you can find great deals. Coastal areas are still quite pricey. The fluctuations are pretty incredible. 11 years ago what cost $125K was worth $325K 2 years ago and is now worth $250.
 
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I think Las Vegas is a good place to buy right now. I'm partially biased because I love my city, but house prices here seem dirt cheap, with new starter homes (small property, small houses) in the $130's, where just a few years ago, a similar house was about double that. I got pretty screwed up when I got divorced in 2004, and bought my ex wife out of the house; then the value fell sharply and I had zero equity left in it (so she made out with a good $70,000 check, and I broke even). It was a small-ish 1,850 SF house on 1/8 acre, which I think is why it fell in value fast (there's tons of houses that size here). I have been fortunate that my current house I bought in 2006 has held value pretty good, I guess because it's on a bigger lot at the far edge of town and has a higher than average square footage (and is 1 story).
 
Look into the tax laws chameleoholic,

I'm a Canadian livng in Seattle. Things get sticky when you own a residence in the states and in Canada. Legally, both gov't's can tax you seperately on both homes (ie you could end up paying double tax).

Also - real estate is all about location. And if it's too good to be true..it likely is. And if you don't live in the area, how are you to clearly predict your investments future. The bubble has officially burst down here, but people aren't giving things away. They'd sooner walk away or file chapter 11.

Everything is on sale though! That's for sure.
 
My family had a 5 bedroom home that we bought for $500,000. It got foreclosed on and now the bank is desperately trying to sell it for $150,000. The trouble is that they built some brand new homes around the corner from my old house that are auctioning off at $150,000. There were only two families on our street that were able to keep their homes. Yep, Bush F****d S***T Up Big Time! I saw that my town came in 3rd among the towns worst hit in the US, according to yahoo news. The number one town was Stockton, CA, which is a 15 minute drive from my town.
 
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Wow man!!! a house on Sillicon Valley for $150K!!! That is what makes things so tempting, to invest from the outside. ButI guess royden you are right when you say we have to be carefull to find out first all the implications involved. The way I see it I would be interested in a condo, as panthercham said, in San Diego, for 75k, keep it closed and just go there for vacations. Things have to get better eventually and you can make good $ in the long run. Better to have it invested in property, that at the bank making a lousy $2.5% a year.
 
chameleoholic said:
Wow man!!! a house on Sillicon Valley for $150K!!! That is what makes things so tempting, to invest from the outside. ButI guess royden you are right when you say we have to be carefull to find out first all the implications involved. The way I see it I would be interested in a condo, as panthercham said, in San Diego, for 75k, keep it closed and just go there for vacations. Things have to get better eventually and you can make good $ in the long run. Better to have it invested in property, that at the bank making a lousy $2.5% a year.
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Well they are out there but I still wouldn't touch one at the moment until things turn around and look a bit more cheery.
 
Bingo!

But for any U.S. resident who can get approved for a loan (that will be hard right now) and who has job stability or anyone with cash to buy... now is a great time to buy in the best neighborhoods possible. As always, it's "Location. Location. Location." that matters in the long run.

royden said:
Look into the tax laws chameleoholic,

I'm a Canadian livng in Seattle. Things get sticky when you own a residence in the states and in Canada. Legally, both gov't's can tax you seperately on both homes (ie you could end up paying double tax).

Also - real estate is all about location. And if it's too good to be true..it likely is. And if you don't live in the area, how are you to clearly predict your investments future. The bubble has officially burst down here, but people aren't giving things away. They'd sooner walk away or file chapter 11.

Everything is on sale though! That's for sure.
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Call me an optimist, but I tend to think the market has pretty much hit the bottom, and will start heading back up... It may fall a bit more, but not much. I'm on the lookout for 2-5 acres of land in the NW Vegas area (enough space for a moderate home now, and my palace later on in life :D), and I'm trying to buy it sooner than later because I'm afraid prices are almost on the rise. I'm tapping into an old girlfriend that works for Wells Fargo to get me approved for a loan LOL.

Not to make this a political thread, but anyone that blames Bush for the housing market simply doesn't have their eyes open. He obviously knew better than to try to get people with $20K a year income into a $400K house which is what happened in many cases, and caused most of this mess. Sadly, it is the same people that pushed these things through that are now trying to "fix it."
 
royden said:
According to Zillow, my house value started going back up this month.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
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Mine has been on the rise also. It's currently just about 8-9% lower than I paid for it back in '06. Not bad, really. I'm not even upside down.
 
I live in FL on the east coast side about 40 miles north of West Palm Beach and houses here are dirt cheap. I'm about a mile from the ocean and houses in my neighborhood use to be 3 times what they are now. I love paying the lower real estate taxes but it would be awful to have to sell now. We have many repos and you can get about anything you want in St. Lucie County for under $100,000. I'm talking like a 3/2/2 with in ground pool and big fenced back yard. Also if you are a first time home buyer you get the $8,000.00 tax credit on your 2009 tax return. Jann
 
The Oregonian had an article recently about how houses in Detroit were going for less than a used car- some of them as low as $10,000 and under. I wish I liked Detroit- I have been wanting to own my own home for ages!
 
I am on the Eastside of Florida, just north of Ft. Lauderdale in Boca Raton. There are a lot of retired people on this side and the repos haven't been as bad as other places, but the homes have gone down. I think they have bottomed out. Yes, you can get condos pretty cheap, but the east side of the state is probably better.
 
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TylerStewart said:
Not to make this a political thread, but anyone that blames Bush for the housing market simply doesn't have their eyes open. He obviously knew better than to try to get people with $20K a year income into a $400K house which is what happened in many cases, and caused most of this mess. Sadly, it is the same people that pushed these things through that are now trying to "fix it."
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True. To be real, the fault is on both sides. Blame buyers for taking a loan that they really can't afford and the banks for giving them the loan. My dad got a loan on our house from the bank, even though the bank knew that my dad was unemployed.
 
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