Existing-home sales inch ahead in Orlando area

Telmark wrote:

The current "down turn" in the stock market should drive home sales upward as investors move over to housing and property.
Another factor is that housing prices may not drop much more due an inevitable increase in interest rates. Housing prices tend to increase when interest rates drop and decrease when rates increase.

that won't happen, because the days of buying property as speculation are over, Taxes and insurance remove any chance of showing a profit in the long run. in the meantime they cannot get enough in rent to cover the expenses. without homestead protection you are at their mercy

Hi again. There is a lot of emotion in this topic. Understandable. I am posting again because of one of the responses-you may have misunderstood one of my points. I absolutely agree with you that it is NOT a v shaped pattern--prices aren't going to bounce up. What should happen is that prices will stabilize (probably around the level they were at before the fast run-up). And at that point they may stay there FOR YEARS. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. People will buy houses and live their lives, making mortgage payments, and increasing their equity the old fashioned way--by paying down the principal of their mortgages. Over time, population increases, putting upward pressure on prices. Then the people who had bought houses reap the rewards, while people too scared to purchase, waiting for the imaginary bell to ring that tells them prices have hit rock bottom, find themselves with nothing.

Former_FL_res wrote:

Hi again. There is a lot of emotion in this topic. Understandable. I am posting again because of one of the responses-you may have misunderstood one of my points. I absolutely agree with you that it is NOT a v shaped pattern--prices aren't going to bounce up. What should happen is that prices will stabilize (probably around the level they were at before the fast run-up). And at that point they may stay there FOR YEARS. But that is not necessarily a bad thing. People will buy houses and live their lives, making mortgage payments, and increasing their equity the old fashioned way--by paying down the principal of their mortgages. Over time, population increases, putting upward pressure on prices. Then the people who had bought houses reap the rewards, while people too scared to purchase, waiting for the imaginary bell to ring that tells them prices have hit rock bottom, find themselves with nothing.

So who will be "scared to purchase" when prices level off "for years"?

When prices reach a level they were at before the run up, there will be no more people "scared to purchase".

And what you called scared is simply prudence, since by your own analysis prices will continue to fall for some time to come.

Therefore anyone who buys on the way down is making a foolish decision, so in fact you are agreeing completely with those you are scolding.

The folks hear who counsel caution are being logical, rather like anyone who stayed out of the stock market for a few years after the dot com bust.

Orlando Guy wrote:

I think home prices in Central Florida are near the bottom and will not go much lower. We are at a point now if you had to rebuild a house that was lost in fire/flood it would cost more to rebuild it than the price you could sell it for. However I don't think we will see prices go up for at least a year. High energy prices and a suffering economy will hold back the housing market until we get a new president and everyone starts feeling good again about the job market and spending money.

I agree with you. I have noticed though that are folks who want to hear bad news all the time. They will take any snippit of good news and attack it with negativity. They seem to want the country to collapse.