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So explain to me why you believe that the increasing inventory of houses on the market will supress the market and make the prices of homes go down

BUT

You don’t think that a world-wide endless supply of applicants doesn’t supress wages?

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East West North or South
open houses everywhere
Just wait for 08

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Sitting on my cash
Too many houses to choose
Can’t wait for 08

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“The house is my girlfriend’s parent’s house and is to be used as a big chunk of their retirement when that time comes”

OK, are your future in-laws planning on selling the house to cash out for retirement?

If so, how bout you guys make a deal with them that you want the house as an inheritance and you will give them an advance for the value.

Could you afford the house at the time of their demise? Is this a neighborhood you would like to raise your family?

What I’m getting at is that your future wife and you can inherit the Prop 13 property taxes your in-laws are paying. If your in-laws have owned this home for a long time (and the value doesn’t crash below what they paid for it) you could set yourself up to save the proverbial sh**-load of $$ in future property taxes.

And of course as soon as they lay eyes on their grandchildren they will want to give you two a smoking deal.

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We also have a World Savings CD maturing soon. Got a little nervous when someone posted that World Savings had a very low rating (was it Poway Seller?) and have been looking at ads for climbing interest rates: saw 12 month / 5.60% at Temecula Valley Bank and 6 month / 5.40% there too.
Question: just how important is the rating when the money is FDIC insured?
Also what is the maximum insured deposit for a married couple at a single bank? We’re getting different info from different “customer service reps” and don’t know what to believe.

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on the contrary, I am anything but bullish! it’s just that as far as I am concerned the San Diego Metro area spreads all the way to Temecula now, a link someone else posted didn’t even include Carlsbad as part of San Diego Metro – which to me doesn’t give the whole story of inventory

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we spotted this CD too but it appears that it has a minimum and maximum deposit of $2500 – silly teaser ad

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So exactly what are the boundaries of the “San Diego Metro area”? is it just “San Diego County”?

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Thank you again, Powayseller, for taking your time to educate us on this point. Great post and great illustration.

I think a similar phenomenon is what keeps the median income looking positive. Even IF salaries are increasing, the demands on incomes in the guise of benefits and other inescapable cost of living increases results in real wage loss. And the astronomical difference between the upper incomes vs what used to be the middle incomes is really skewing the median.

And this relates back to the housing affordability index. A $50,000+ salary a few years back was quite a bit different in actual net/disposable income than it does today.

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You haven’t seen anything until you see the crap neighborhood tract homes they slap together in Arizona! I suspect that there are going to be a lot of run-down rental areas in Metro-Phoenix.
Arizona is bankruptcy/renters’ heaven: we were advised to leave our house in Scottsdale vacant rather than rent it unless we were willing to risk having it trashed and lose a lot of money. Were there is a law in Arizona that protects renters who file for bankruptcy: if a renter files for bankruptcy they can not be evicted for a year and do not have to pay rent during that year. People have been known to move to Arizona for this reason.
Also, since were talking hundreds of homes that were bought by investors and were more in the $200-$300,000 range, it will be easier to turn these into rentals than property bought here in CA

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the hostility towards discount brokers is very prejudicial to the point that Maxine Waters argued that being a realtor has been the big break for women and minorities and would be a burden to those who need the job to weaken the profession. Another representative argued the right of sellers to conceal information that might be beneficial to buyers, such as, DOM.
The guy representing discount brokers (Redfin Corp) is saying that the buyers have the right to know all relevant information to make it a true “free market”
Redfin Corp wants to have access to the MLS and to be able to post consumers (buyers) comments on the properties they have seen; much like Amazon does with the books it sells – buyers are allowed to post to the website comments on the property – good or bad
Of course realtors would not like type of open market, and in many cases neither would the sellers but it could help buyers

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New panel:

DISCOUNT BROKERS vs FULL COMMISSION BROKERS

this is very interesting and can be seen on cable TV C-Span or online at:

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

or

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

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Here’s the live feed if you want to watch or listen through you computer.

Opening statements have been interesting.

http://www.c-span.org/watch/cspan_rm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS

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Of course this argument is all about the personal definition of what one can “afford”

That definition comes down to who you listen to – your gut feeling and personal knowledge of your finances?

OR

What someone tells you you can afford, makes the deal, and walks away.

Anecdote: We have always paid cash for our cars; we figure out what we can afford and then go shopping. Every single car dealer immediately jumps and says “with that kind of downpayment you can by this beauty!” This salesman may be sincere because this may be the way he does his personal business.

We were amazed when we first qualified for a mortgage – we thought “there is no way we can afford that”

Back when you actually had to qualify for mortgage money it was different. Nowdays people seem to think that if they can get it, it means they can afford it.

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Powayseller,
This goes right along with your other thread about real estate that just got too expensive. The market has not run out of buyers, just buyers who can afford the “expected” escalating prices, or buyers (like most of us on this list) who are not willing to stake it all on a roof “over our heads”
I guess that sellers still feel that if they figured out how to buy a too expensive house so should everyone else.

[Author]

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