A quick story for those thinking of selling now. A friend of mine lives in Minnesota, a nice quiet midwestern state many believed would be least affected. He put his house up for sale 9 months ago. He had to. He accepted a job offer taking him to the Bay Area.
Back then I told him, “Sell NOW at any price you can get.”
But he chased the market down. What do you think he said to me last week?
He said that 6-9 months ago the market may not have been great, but at least you could sell a house for a low but reasonable price.
He wishes he had sold. Since then he has seen the housing market fall off a CLIFF.
He says “the real estate market is completely locked up, frozen with no signs of life because people cannot get loans. Prices are dropping so fast the appraisers don’t know what to do, and the loan officers are SCARED to approve anything.”
IF you can find a comp that sold in the last 30-days, you price 10% under that and still NO OFFERS, or lowball offers that fall through because nobody can get a mortgage approved.
My friend emphasized that VERY FEW people with good credit are house hunting (those with solid credit and down payments already own a home, or are smart enough to have sold and switched to renting)
That’s the housing market up in quiet sleepy Minnesota. California is much worse.
It is too late to be thinking about selling. We are too deep now into this housing crash. The next 36 months are going to see the worst housing hell in over fifty years.
