Housing market in your area?


Guest Andrea

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Guest Andrea

Anyone here in the real estate, construction business here?? What's the market like in your area?

For Florida.......the market has taken a major nose dive. Just a couple of years ago it was HOT. Definitely a seller's market. Now there are spec houses sitting empty everywhere. New construction has slowed tremendously. It has started affecting our surveying/septic tank businesses. My Dad's work load has dropped off a ton. And my husband's business is slowing down too. Kinda scary. Phone isn't ringing very much at all.:(

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Land around here is rediculously high, but houses are for sale and setting empty everywhere. There is a high end 80 ac. development here in Sapulpa that has only 10 or so houses in it. They're 1/4 to 1/2 ac. lots and noone is buying them. Several other new developments that were begun, but hit the skids about 6 months ago. Nothing but dirt roads through pasture now.

Ben

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Slow in this area. Guy I work with works part time for a builder and he is thinking of getting out of home construction. He is cutting the worker's health care so the workers are out looking for new jobs. Not alot of new ones going up so most are doing remodel jobs or roof jobs and those are few and far between.

Not too many building permits being issued either, people are just not building like they did 3 to 5 years ago.

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We are in the producer end of this...the slump is really putting alot of producers out of business. From what we are hearing, it will take about 18 months for an upswing to really kick in. There will not be many left in the industry to produce the timber when things turn around. But when it does..man we gonna be busy!

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It has actually stayed pretty steady around the Charlotte area. Nothing like it was the last few years, but still not too bad. It has slowed a good bit in the county where I live, only because the County has put a hold on water/sewer permits. I know all about the FL market Andrea. The company that I use to work for, Mercedes Homes, is based out of Melbourne and I know they are having a really hard time right now.

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Land is going up in Louisiana. where i live it is still reasonable. I bought 54 acres last december for 60,000 and the best part is i'm about 3 miles from about 80,000 acres of public hunting land and 15 miles from the 1,000 acres private land i have to hunt. My property has a creek with about 9 acres of mature hard woods the rest is open pasture with 2 ponds. i live about 15 minutes out of town. life is good.

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Nothing is moving in this area. New construction and even the old houses they want too much money. Some of the new houses start at $600,000 and they sit maybe 50 feet off the road and are just ugly. The older houses built back in the late 60's and early 70's have prices of $300,000 to $500,000. The market has pretty much just come to a standstill. In the local paper there are 9+ pages of foreclosures every week.

Archerjg

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For the past five or six years it has been an unbelievable upward spiral in most of western Montana. It is beginning to level off as prices have gotten so high that only the wealthy (mostly people buying second homes) can afford anything. One new "gated" community has a low end price of two million for a "cabin" and will top out at five or six million. When some of the highest housing prices in the country meet one of the lowest income levels, well, you have a problem. The higher values causes higher taxes which sets up a situation where people can no longer pay their taxes and are at risk of loosing their homes. The housing market can not continue at it's present pace. I am thinking that those who make a living in real estate or construction may want to consider another option as the market starts to dry up.

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The housing market has taken a beating around here. So are mortgage companies and banks too.

My best friend's wife got laid off about 6 weeks ago from a mortgage company. I didn't know this until she told me but when mortage companies sell a loan they can be forced to take them back within the 1st year. The stories she told regarding this subprime lending mess is amazing. People being approved for loans that have no means of really paying for them. For example, a cocktail waitress approved for a $500,000+ home loan! :eek: Loan approvals have been way too loose the past couple of years so as a result of that we're going to see a lot more foreclosures than usual. According to the gurus nationwide 1 out of every 3 home loans over the past few years will be subject to foreclosure. That dumps that many more homes on the market. The gurus say it will be at least 18 months before this turns around.

Land prices haven't really fallen yet around here but they shot up like crazy when all the funny money was available. I suppose when landowners realize that demand (potential buyers that really can afford it now) is lower than it was, land prices will come in line with other things where someone has to have the ability to borrow $ to buy.

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i just put my house on the market ... my agent said it's a buyer's market .... house and land costs are through the roof here, construction will never end here!!! i live near an army base that is supposed to get 15,000 new employees( B.R.A.C.) THE CONSTRUCTION HERE IS BOOMING!!!! i just hope someone wants my house.... 3 bedroom townhouses are going for 250,000 - 300,000 ...i'm offering a 3 bedroom rancher for 205,000 ... i hope someone buys it soon...i want to move to kentucky A.S.A.P.!!!!!!

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