Rumor Mill The Bubble Is Bursting!
I live in AZ and most of my real estate dealings are with californians coming and buying cash, I have a friend in cali and he saying the homes are starting to sit longer and the prices in some area's are dropping fact or fiction because it flow's east to az.
Fact. Bubbles don't burst, they just deflate. Remember also that the market always slows down around the holidays for traditional transactions.
This is when you get out there and submit, submit, submit offers!
Go get 'em!
AllCash
Your friend is right. Inventory is up, houses are sitting on the market longer, and prices are not climbing like they have in the last couple years. I'm not an expert, but this sounds like a normal market to me. It's not a bubble burst, not yet anyway.
I don't know about Cali, but we just sold a property in eight days for 8k over the asking price. (There were a few parties interested, and they kept upping the ante). That really burst my bubble!
The Bay Area may not be as hot as it has been but even in this "slow" market it is still hotter than your average market. A pal of mine just got 40k more than his asking price in Fremont, CA on a flipped home. He put 10k of repairs into it, waited from last Feb until October and asked 50k more than he paid, so he pulled in 80k total gross profit. In my case I am looking for a single faimly in that area and have watched prices creeping up over the last 2 months. A property I was out bid on 3 weeks ago had 7 other offers on it after a week on the market. I too worry about a deflation, it would suck in the short to medium run as I am over exposed in the Bay area. Hmmm, wonder what the Detroit market looks like... [ Edited by alcmaeon on Date 11/27/2004 ]
I would have to disagree on the inventory up fact. that all depends on where you live. true that sales do traditionally slow down this time of year, but where I live they just ran a report stating there are 1800 less listings this month then there were this month last year. we still are seeing a surge in homebuying around here that shows no sign of letting up. again, it depends on where you live. our county is across the water from seattle and down the road from tacoma. seattle just got rated the number one overpriced city for homes compared to what the average salary is. so that means people are starting to come over here and commute because the price of homes is much cheaper. plus they are adding a new bridge into tacoma(also a large city) to make it easier for commuters. that to will bring people over here. not to mention we are a navy town and just had a new ship make its homeport here, lots of buyers. no slow down here, only getting better.