Large housing slump! Let the good times roll!

[OneFootInTheGrave]

it depends on where else can you live/can work/family considerations/are willing to live until this all evens out...

we can have no idea how long this will last, and it could last a lot longer than the last recession, as energy prices are likely to stay up, plus where is that magic 1990's efficiency bullet going to come from? Outsourcing perhaps :-) ...

so sell, go somewhere where you can buy/rent cheap, still work, and you'd still be happy to live and sit this out... otherwise if you like it that much, screw the rest, hope you have a job and sit it out... 120k is not peanuts if you can raise it now for a place you are not particularly attached to... calculation: is 120k worth the cost and hassle of moving somewhere else... + I'd count on the move as least a 5 year plan...

[Dinner]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
JJ,

By no means am I a financial expert, and given the potent chemicals I'm on, only an idiot would listen to me, but unless I had to sell, I wouldn't. You're going to be going up very shortly against a wave of bank owned properties and buyers know that. You aren't going to be able to sell for what you think you can.

I know. The cool thing is California has a short sell law meaning no matter what it sells for the bank can't go after me for the difference. So I'd lose my initial investment but would be free and clear to take a wack at another house once prices bottom out of get near bottom.

[DanS]

"Sitting this one out" might mean 5 or more years for Oerdin.

San Diego's last price downturn lasted from July 1990 to March 1996 -- almost 6 years long.

[Arrian]

Man, am I glad I'm done with this stuff. I haven't even wondered what my house is worth. I'm sure it's less than what I paid for it last year, but I simply don't care.

I wish you luck, Oerdin.

-Arrian

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by DanS
"Sitting this one out" might mean 5 or more years for Oerdin.

San Diego's last price downturn lasted from July 1990 to March 1996 -- almost 6 years long.

did the prices reach 1990 level in 1996 or did the simply start going back up at that stage... in case it is only the "upturn" few more years I bet until they reached 1990 levels...

[DanS]

Good question. March 1996 was the trough. The "recovery" lasted from March 1996 to August 1998 -- meaning that in San Diego, July 1990 prices weren't seen again until August 1998.

To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me to see the current cycle last longer. Perhaps much longer.

Edit: According to my figures, there were "false bottoms" in San Diego in April 1991, February 1992, March 1994, and March 1995. I don't know how Oerdin could tell the false bottoms from the real bottoms in the current market.

[The Mad Monk]

Right now I'm looking at a farm a short ways from Kansas City.

1600 sq ft house, 26X40 barn, large shed, 2 ponds, fields on 2 hills separated by a creek, 21 acres.

$180K.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
$180K.

Egads! You might get a condo for that money in L.A. A farm?! You're gonna get an entire farm!

[chequita guevara]

Yeah, but he has to live in Kansas.

[Patroklos]

Egads! You might get a condo for that money in L.A. A farm?!

A quarter of one maybe. 180K can barely get me a condo in Charleston.

[chequita guevara]

I could get a 2 bed / 2 bath townhouse for that.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

well that is THE option for Oerdin if he doesn't mind to live in Kansas or Wyoming

Get 140k, spend 80 on a farm, 40 to make it look nice, and enjoy until all this passes in a few years, than sell the stuff for almost the same he bought it now, and have a down payment on a much smaller mortgage + he gets cash to burn in the meantime, assuming he can get a job somewhere in the middle of nowhere. (some sort of work from home setup)

[MRT144]

banana farm.

[Lancer]

Originally posted by MRT144
banana farm.

I can find you one...

I hope to take advantage of this housing mess in a few years. Buy a property in Oregon, put a manufactured house on it and live there, sell it a few years later for more dough than I paid. It will mean house payments though, thought I was done with those.

[Dinner]

There is actually a guy in Imperial beach with a banana farm. Supposedly it is the only one in the continental US. Not that I could afford several acres right on the ocean like he has.