Housing Market Bounces Back

That was the big bold headline on the front of my local paper on Friday, Jan 8 2010.

I read the article with interest because we have kept every single real estate flyer for over a year and keep seeing the same houses listed over and over and none of the ones in our area have sold for several months. I was interested in what they had to say about it - which was that for 4 months straight, more houses sold in my city than during the same time period in 2008.

The reasons listed were Increased Consumer Confidence and Low Interest Rates.

Okay - but there was not a single mention of the prices lowering as well. The article went on to page 2 but still no mention. Why is that? They don't want potential sellers to know that they may not get what they expect out of a sale?

We have seen prices down anywhere from $10,000 to $60,000 depending on the home and area and how long it has been listed. Two years ago I could barely tolerate looking at the flyer because even the crappy old houses in the oldest areas of the city were well over $200,000. Now they are first listing at 210,000 or even lower. Hmmmm. That's quite a dip over the last couple of years, but no mention in the paper at all.

You have to question the motives in this. If you are to report what's going on in real estate, why leave out a key point? There was a one-line mention that the avg home prices range between $200,000 and $250,000 but that was the lowest range (if you exclude mobile homes) only two years ago. Now suddenly it's 'average range' and keep talking about it bouncing back.

I for one am glad prices were dropping. It was going totally crazy where a regular family could not buy a home without signing a virtual death warrant on their finances because of the high cost of even a 2 to 3 bedroom home. My old house was 5 bedrooms and cost $72,000 in 1985. That exact home with very few upgrades now costs $260,000. OH PLEASE. That's truly ridiculous. The basement isn't even finished, just two bedrooms are. But it's almost 300 grand. Today though, I would be interested to see how much it would list for because I highly suspect it would be a good deal less.

Anyway it's just food for thought. We keep hearing how the markets are bouncing back, but a few details will be left out here and there. Could they be trying to get people to hurry up and buy these homes before something happens like 10% down and/or an interest rate increase? Or to get those hmming and haaing about selling to hurry up and list? Because the second more changes happen, house prices here will HAVE to go down more or no one will be buying/selling at all.

I remember last year in the couple of months before the 40 year mortgage was axed - radio ads were even out calling for people to come in quickly and get the home of their dreams before that 'deal' was finished. It stumped me because I have lived here off and on for 24 years and do not recall hearing many real estate ads on the RADIO. But there they were. Boosting consumer confidence so they can make some more $$$ before things fall into a black hole, perhaps??