[ibjames]

nancy, can you post a link to ben’s blog?

[ibjames]

Ugh, how can reading that make me sick to my stomach?

If he didn’t let his own greed get the best of him he would be just fine.. I can’t believe that! That is so horrible, I wonder why he would let himself be in the paper with that story, I would be too embarassed. Maybe he wants people to not end up like he did?

[ibjames]

SD Realtor,

When you say you hope that 2007 will be very sobering for home owners. Do you mean that because you want prices to go down? Or do you mean that because homeowners are not realistic right now, and it is making it very difficult for realtors to sell houses?

I know that the people who had their house on the market last year and it didn’t do well, then decided to pull theirs off of the market to wait till “spring” will def. have an eye opener. I put a bid on a house last year that I thought was very fair, and the home owner was so offended she pulled it off of the market. I think that is hilarious now.

[ibjames]

I was one of those that moved here in January this year. (reaching my 1st year anniv. :))

Anyway, my wife and I moved here from WI, we had good jobs back at home, and were thinking of buying but held off because we have always wanted to move to CA.

We knew about the housing prices, and were really discouraged. Yet moved anyway because we knew that where there’s a will there’s a way right? If other people were buying out here then so can we! 2 white collar professionals, I got around a 10k pay increase and my wife got around a 20k pay increase with good bennies, both positions were good career steps. (we lucked out, we applied when we got here)

I don’t know how many people are willing to do what we did though. My wife and I are both outdoors type people, and back in WI you are very limited because of winter. So for us it was worth it. I couldn’t live in AZ or other places due to allergies, or heat (this summer sucked though) plus, I wanted to be a surf bum lol.

It has worked out well, and when we initially got here we saw that it was a “buyers market!” asked people what they did and how they got loans etc. Quickly got approved for a 7yr fixed interest arm (though the realtor and broker thought I was being too conservative.) It was a 80/20 loan (we blew a large portion of our savings on the move) with the 20 being fixed for 5 with the hopes of having the 20 payed off in 5 years so we could refinance (it would have been possible) I look at it now and think, “what the hell was I thinking” I came here with the “midwest” attitude that if you are renting you are wasting money.

Put a couple bids on some condos, so many owners didn’t want to budge on price, we put ourselves on a limb and put a higher bid that we didn’t feel comfortable with, they declined still, we pulled out of the market to save until we can get a regular mortgage. (I posted that I saw that condo on the market many months later for 30k less than what we bid) Our thoughts were if we couldn’t buy in 3-5 years, we probably shouldn’t be living in SoCal.

We still have that feeling. If things don’t get affordable by 2008-2010.. we’ll move somewhere else, and take our nice size savings and buy there instead.

To be honest though, I don’t think we’ll have to move 😉

[ibjames]

this would be the new housing standard

Little houses

not entirely serious.. but a perfect example is the house I live in now.. 1000 sq. ft. just my wife and I, and we think we could raise a kid there. I’m sure kids were raised there before

edit: I can’t add a link.. so here is the url for copy/paste
http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article_CSM.aspx?cp-documentid=1209895

[ibjames]

hopefully that trend continues 😉

[ibjames]

eeek.. my wife and I are a 2 income professional family and we don’t make that! 🙁 If that is the case I can’t imagine the prices in SD ever going down

[ibjames]

I agree sdr, but I think he was referring to the house portion. A typical example is my wife, she wanted in a place, no matter what the cost, because renting is “throwing money away” or all our family sees us and we don’t own, she wants a home, etc. etc.

Such a big purchase, while you want a home, you still have to apply business principals to it

My wife and I probably go out too much! lol

[ibjames]

I agree on the word of mouth thing, I couldn’t find any decent rentals, my friend has a great landlord, asked him, and he hooked us up with a cute house for cheap, my wife and I have never been so happy renting before

[ibjames]

just ordered that book, thanks!

[ibjames]

I know this topic strayed from the original point of the topic, and this post refers to that so I apologize..

One thing I’m having a problem understanding is: CA markets and some other coastel markets are severely bloated, and yes, everyone is hoping for a downturn, but why would a 50% downturn cause a recession.

Other parts of the US are not in the same boat as us, while things are business as usual I can imagine the sh1t hitting the fan over here and other inflated markets, maybe causing a recession but since it’s only those troubled markets and not the whole nation. How could the prices declining here 50% cause so much strife?

[ibjames]

before I discovered this site, I put an offer on a place for 385k w/a crazy loan, 2 bed 1 bath with 2 half baths (wierd, I know) and a 2 car garage

They had it for 410, we bid at 370, they got down to 390 and wouldn’t budge, we bid 385 and declined, we walked away.

We later saw the property listed at 359.. and I thank my lucky stars for their greed..

[ibjames]

I would like to learn more about foreclosures and the like, I’ve seen tons of websites that offer details on them, but they all seem like scams. Anyone here have any good places to learn and keep track of things like this?

[ibjames]

I personally think you’ll be able to judge when to buy, because the houses will actually be affordable to you, and other people will be buying. You could go up to a place for sale and think the prices make sense.

I’m looking for a home, but still, I’m not going to buy because I absolutely have to have it.

*Edit: I like perry’s explanation better, we were posting at the same time*

[ibjames]

my wife and I make a decent amount.. and have a hard time paying 1650/mo lol

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