Resale value is usually part of what goes into a potential buyer’s decision about what a house is worth.
Here in southeast Michigan, the market has completely tanked. Houses are staying on the market for a long time. Selling a condo? Forget it. On top of the lousy economy, condos were severely overbuilt in the last decade or so. The end result is, you can’t give a condo away right now.
I’m actually planning on buying a house soon, so from my perspective this isn’t all bad.
Dead in the inner ring eastern suburbs of Cleveland. I live in ground zero for foreclosures; an older middle-class suburb adjacent to a predominantly minority neighborhood in Cleveland, with a good number of first-time homeowners from inner city neighborhoods. Most aren’t staying long. Upscale infill development is popular, though.
There are some strange markets that seem to be “hot” right now; Las Cruces, New Mexico (apparently a lot of Californians shifting their investment further east), and some neighborhoods in inner city Buffalo, New York (very livable, safe urban neighborhoods that never experienced the bubble.).
It would be a great time to buy as long as you don’t have an existing house to sell, and as long as you don’t get into a bad mortgage (variable rate, balloon payment, whatever.)
Here in SC, it sucks to be a seller - and I know this - no one has even looked at my place since we listed in 3 months ago.
Now I really hate my parents - about 8 years ago they put their house on the market on a Monday, and had a signed contract by that Thursday - with a tidy $230K profit.
Wouldn’t it be appropriate to note that if a house is not selling it is quite probably priced too high?
I suspect in many markets house prices were grossly inflated over the past few years. If you had the misfortune of buying at the peak, you may never recoup your investment. If you already owned a home and held onto it during the “bubble” thinking prices would continue to rise forever, well perhaps you missed the boat.
However, I would assume that most people who owned a home for 7-10 years or more would be able to sell it for something over their purchase price. Its just that they might not get the outageous rate of return they had hoped for.
My first house I bought for $95K and sold 10 years later for $150K. We bought our present house 12 years ago for $290K. A year or so back we “tested the waters” and, at our agent’s recommendation, listed it at $640K. No action at all. But we didn’t really care as we didn’t need to move at the time. Well, perhaps we won’t get $600K for it. But I’m pretty confident that if we listed it for $500K it would move pretty damned quickly.
Even tho many houses in our area seem to languish on the market for months if not years, a select few seem to move pretty quickly - in weeks or just a month or 2. My guess is that the homes that move are priced right and/or are in tiptop shape.
Back in Chicago I sold my house in about two months, from listing to closing. I was selling it “as is” and I know that several of the people who were interested in it were planning to fix it up and resell it. In fact, one of them came back for a second walk through with someone I’m pretty sure was a prospective buyer for the rehabbed house. I did accept an offer about $12K less than my original asking price, which was still over five times what I had paid for it 20 years ago.
I’m hoping that the market here in NC keeps prices low next spring, when I’m going to be looking to buy a house.
That’s weird, b/c we’re looking to buy down in the Easton/Brockton area, and it’s a buyer’s market. The real estate sites helpfully tell how long a given house has been on the market, and there are plenty that have been on the market for 3-4 months, or even as long as 6 months in some cases.
I think that’s true of my immediate area. NYC real estate in general is still fairly high (in Manhattan it’s still insane), but here in Flushing, there have been a lot of houses on the market with For Sale signs up in front for weeks or even months.
That said, I am in contract to buy a house 3 blocks away from me, and am going into to contract to sell my current house as a FSBO after showing it over two weekends. In both cases (the buy and the sell) the closing price was about $20k less than the opening asking price.
Many houses similar to mine were asking either absurdly high prices, or were in bad enough condition that they needed a lot of work. My house is in more or less move in condition – it needs some spackling/painting, re-applying poly on the floors, fixing a few window screens and mechanisms, but otherwise fine. And the house I’m buying is in good shape, just a bit outdated in the kitchen, which we are re-doing.
High priced homes and condos are still selling, but reasonably priced condos are probably going to be sitting around for a while because Condo High-Rises are springing up like weeds.
From the In Towner (warning: 3.5MB PDF so don’t even bother):
SINGLE FAMILY HOUSES
3155 Adams Mill Rd… 773,500
53 Bates St. 610,000
1218 Fairmont St. 809,000
1309 Florida Ave. 477,500
1317 Florida Ave. 460,000
757 Hobart Pl. 365,000
3495 Holmead Pl. 579,000
1850 Irving St. 679,000
504 Kenyon St. 497,500
1808 Kenyon St. 770,000
1753 Kilbourne Pl. 950,000
1768 Kilbourne Pl. 806,000
1014 Lamont St. 426,000
1752 Lamont St. 1,095,000
3528 New Hampshire Ave. 656,000
1354 Oak St. 815,000
1830 Ontario Pl. 895,000
2248 Ontario Rd. 703,000
1935 Park Rd. 740,000
925 R St. 829,650
140 Randolph Pl. 515,000
17 Rhode Island Ave. 415,000
134 Seaton Pl. 675,000
1022 Spring Rd. 385,000
1456 T St. 500,000
2449 Tracy Pl. 3,000,000
45 U St. 625,000
1516 Upshur St. 625,000
134 V St. 533,900
1228 W St. 747,000
18 W St. 625,000
1209 W St. 410,000
439 Warner St. 395,100
1504 1st St. 409,000
2018 1st St. 865,000
1808 2nd St. 555,000
1522 10th St. 710,000
2022 10th St. 680,000
2114 10th St. 1,155,000
2111 12th Pl. 625,000
2702 13th St. 859,000
3817 13th St. 607,500
3907 13th St. 665,000
4017 14th St.
CONDOMINIUMS
2630 Adams Mill Rd. #206 Adams Mill House 353,000
2310 Ashmead Pl. #204 300,000
2231 Bancroft Pl. #3B Bancroft 1,050,000
1614 Beekman Pl. #C 639,000
1618 Beekman Pl. #E 399,000
1662 Beekman Pl. #G9 (pkg.) 87,500
1451 Belmont St. #112 Fedora 630,000
1451 Belmont St. #201 Fedora 500,000
1600 Belmont St. #D 575,000
3422 Brown St. #101 479,000
1807 California St. #103 Winchester 530,000
2127 California St. #301 Le Bourget 330,000
1937 Calvert St. #B 392,500
2301 Champlain St. #204 Adams Row 580,000
2301 Champlain St. #206 Adams Row 380,000
2328 Champlain St. #408 Lofts at Adams Morgan 790,000
1435 Chapin St. #5 Barcelona 455,000
1400 Church St. #208 Lofts 14 Two 565,000
1400 Church St. W #506 Lofts 14 Two 884,000
1401 Church St. #308 Lofts 14 475,000
1440 Church St. #203 Saxon Court 549,000
1444 Church St. #504 Metropolitan 782,500
1308 Clifton St. #106 399,000
1429 Clifton St. #2 Alexander Scott 569,900
1438 Columbia Rd. #104 Piedmont 385,000
1438 Columbia Rd. #205 Piedmont 294,000
1438 Columbia Rd. #403 Piedmont 379,000
1438 Columbia Rd. #405 Piedmont 385,000
1323 Corcoran St. #1 890,000
1624 Corcoran St. #E 559,000
1718 Corcoran St. #24 Analoston 289,000
1439 Euclid St. #201 255,000
1458 Fairmont St. #4 La Orr 470,000
1825 Florida Ave. #21 296,500
e32129 Florida Ave. #403 Farnsboro 349,000
430 Irving St. #106 McMillan 238,400
1810 Kalorama Rd. #A1 530,000
1816 Kalorama Rd. #102 Philadelphian 309,000
1816 Kalorama Rd. #103 Philadelphian 466,000
1816 Kalorama Rd. #304 Philadelphian 193,000
1615 Kenyon St. #51 432,500
2425 L St. #205 Columbia Residences 787,500
2425 L St. #303 Columbia Residences 1,412,500
2425 L St. #702 Columbia Residences 1,090,000
1208 Lamont St. #2 Alexander 652,000
910 M St. #323 Whitman 499,900
910 M St. #622 Whitman 591,000
555 Massachusetts Ave. #303 500,000
555 Massachusetts Ave. #719 424,000
555 Massachusetts Ave. #1318 545,000
1438 Meridian Pl. #105 Reserve 295,000
1867 Mintwood Pl. #3 Patrick 593,000
3155 Mt. Pleasant St. #305 374,900
1300 N St. #406 549,000
1816 New Hamp. Ave. #105 Concord 85,000
1730 New Hamp. Ave. #12 375,000
1 Scott Cir. #115 General Scott 225,500
1406 T St. #55 415,000
1757 T St. #B Edinburgh 500,000
1756 U St. #301 Element 798,000
1390 V St. #221 399,900
1390 V St. #406 399,999
1239 Vermont Ave. #201 Crescent Tower 277,000
1239 Vermont Ave. #802 Crescent Tower 406,000
1340 Vermont Ave. #6 385,000
1812 Wyoming Ave. #303 415,000
2120 Wyoming Ave. #1 1,380,000
1718 1st St. #2 Rosale 479,900
1718 1st St. #6 Rosale 390,000
1718 1st St. #8 Rosale 305,000
1708 5th St. #B 365,000
1819 6th St. #2 Crestview 634,900
1811 8th St. #2 Berkley 530,000
1124 10th St. #TB Clyde 644,900
1124 10th St. #5B Clyde 790,000
1408 10th St. #302 Apex 375,000
1830 11 St. #5 Logan Heights 820,000
1229 12th St. #105 Montgomery 549,000
1310 12th St. #8 Barrett 640,000
2020 12th St. #105 415,000
1245 13th St. #103 410,000
1245 13th St. #813 349,900
1245 13th St. #913 297,670
1300 13th St. #204 Solo Piazza 664,000
1320 13th St. #1 Icon 399,000
1320 13th St. #33 Icon 445,000
1325 13th St. #34 Iowa 560,000
1709 13th St. #2 676,000
3414 13th St. #1 Burrell 557,500
1133 14th St. #Ph4 Alta 799,000
2020 15th St. #Ph Brandon 710,000
2440 16th #307 Park Tower 324,500
3060 16th St. #710 315,000
1401 17th St. #106 Richmond 365,000
1726 17th St. #102 298,000
1726 17th St. #302 412,600
1916 17th St. #108 Wardman 399,000
1545 18th St. #302 Dupont East 258,000
1545 18th St. #412 Dupont East 350,000
1918 18th St. #44 Kirkman 337,000
2305 18th St. #405 Gibraltar 307,970
2413 20th St. #1004 500,000
1332 21St. #402 Addendum 405,500
1099 22nd St. #1005 West End Place 899,000
1318 22nd St. #402 Georgetown
Overlook 487,500
1140 23rd St. #908 340,000
1155 23rd St. #N6A Ritz Carlton 2,550,000
1155 23rd St. #N8l Ritz Carlton 962,000
1111 25th St. #411 Atlas 512,000
1111 25th St. #514 Atlas 449,000
1275 25th St. #807 Whitman Place 499,900
COOPERATIVES
1860 California St.#403 449,000
2122 California St.#157 Westmoreland 597,000
1801 Clydesdale Pl…#114 Saxony 149,900
1661 Crescent Pl…#205 Crescent Place 1,030,000
2853 Ontario Rd#417 Ontario 395,000
1701 16th St.#820 Chastleton 322,000
1725 17th St.#308 Rutland Court 330,000
1725 17th St.#504 Rutland Court 380,000
2100 19th St.#506 372,500
Nope, I rent an apartment right now, and you can be damn sure I’m going to hold out for a good rate.