when will the cost of houses stop dropping?

Question

I'm in the Hudson Valley, NY, 2.5 hours from NYC

Answer 1

I have been saying for months that this would happen and is only the beginning, no not a doomsayer just a realist. Housing has been growing at double digit numbers, energy at 100% incease, yet wages at only 2-3% making the average home now out of reach for the typical consumer. The botoming out of the sub prime market, now starting to hit the good credit people along with the tightening of credit has led to a lack of available buyers, add the foreclosures a glut of homes. Supple and demand says prices will drop. My belief is if nothing changes in credit availability, and the interest rates do not hold steady or drop it will take another 12-18 months before stabilization with a price drop of at least another 10%. That is if we are not in a recession by then.

Answer 2

April 3rd 2008.
Seriously, no one knows.
However, the latest estimate is that the housing slump may last another 12-15 months.
Remember that doesnt mean all areas will be affected the same. The Hudson Valley has been a relatively slow growth stable market, and hasnt seen the same growth, or pullback, of other markets. In fact some areas have done quite well.

Answer 3

I have been a Real Estate Broker in Texas since 1978. We had a problem in the late 1980's when oil companies lost money and when the Savings and Loans went broke. Our prices dropped. I remember some houses that we foreclosed by the savings and loan and they sold them with "special" financing and then they had to foreclose on them again two years later. Then the federal government came in and shut down the savings and loan and several of these houses were foreclosed a third time...each time the prices dropped.

Then in the early 1990's when almost everyone had given up and stopped hoping...the prices turned around. People that bought when everyone (and I mean everyone!) was telling you not to buy real estate, made lots of money.

I dream that I could go back in time and own a bunch.

Prices will not likely announce themselves. Prices will go down and then one day go right back up. But it may be a few months or a few years-no one can tell you. It will also not be a nationwide phenomena, it will be a local thing.

I wish you the best of luck.

Glenn

Answer 4

When supply catches up to demand - and nobody knows when that will be. The info coming out of the loans companies this week was just horrible and suggests the worst is still yet to come, so it may be awhile.

Answer 5

Real simple when the market bounces back!