Why Houses Still So Overpriced?

[Montsta]

Zillow seems like a joke to me, but I don't claim to be an expert.

[thefuzz]

Zillow.

Zillow is not a good indicator of value for homes, in fact it's laughable.

The only way to accurately value homes in a specific area is to have access to the MLS.

[thefuzz]

poo, some people sale houses for 350k and Zillow estimated their value only at 240k.

Whatever the home sells for, is what the home, and the ones around it are worth.

If you think that the housing bump that we have seen is not accurate, I would say that you are right.

Wait until you see the banks start bumping up the interest rates.

Homes that you could afford the day before will not be affordable the following because of payment increases. Everyone who is waiting on the fence now will be jumping before the next tick up.

But if you are fine with getting less house later because you "know" what the real estate market is going to do, then great.

[thefuzz]

Plus historic cost. Most of the houses that sold prior to 2000 went up in price almost 40%, right before bible burst. Why are they staying relatively at the same price after bubble burst?

It's as simple as supply and demand.

All the news media and real estate "professionals" that you listen to are lumping the entire US housing market together. They are fools.

Take out Arizona, California, Nevada, Florida, and Michigan, and you have a different real estate market, nation wide.

You wan't deals, go look in the neighborhoods that others don't want to live in, there are deals a plenty.

[Scrumtrilescent]

If Nevada gets any worse, I may buy it.

[Murph]

Everyone in the business community I've talked agrees that if you want real estate, 2012 is probably the final year to get into it at these super low prices. There are plenty of deals out there but they are mostly localized.

[thefuzz]

Everyone in the business community I've talked agrees that if you want real estate, 2012 is probably the final year to get into it at these super low prices. There are plenty of deals out there but they are mostly localized.

I work for a builder, changed jobs after the 1st this year.

We doubled 09's sales in 2010, doubled 10's sales in 11, and are on pace to double 11's sales in 12.

Not builds, sales. Big difference.

But yea, Arsen knows best.

[Niner National]

You can buy a decent house in a fringe neighborhood in Charlotte for dirt cheap.

A guy I know had this:

built for $129,000. It is a couple blocks outside of Plaza-Midwood. It was just finished last month. (That's not his house, but he used the same floorplan).

[thefuzz]

You can buy a decent house in a fringe neighborhood in Charlotte for dirt cheap.

A guy I know had this:

built for $129,000. It is a couple blocks outside of Plaza-Midwood. It was just finished last month. (That's not his house, but he used the same floorplan).

All about location, as it has always been in real estate.

[Niner National]

All about location, as it has always been in real estate.

Yep, and I'll take that location over the suburbs any day.

There are some very nice neighborhoods in the suburbs obviously, but I'd be very hesitant to ever live in a starter home community. I grew up in Union County and I saw so many starter home communities go from nice to run down in just a decade or so.

[natty]

Buy into a school district. Even if you don't have kids and never plan on having kids, having a house in a good school district is key.

[pstall]

It depends. Some of the answers were mentinoed here. I work specifically with Freddie Mac investors for a giant bank. When I first started I was already asking questions they were either not ready to hear or didn't understand.

I know they are using some formula's on who can or can't get a loan mod. Not as simple as you may think. I think in some cases it's two fold political. Yes, I said political.

I hear more and more borrowers asking about principal reduction. Banks and homeowners are sandbagging to see how that works out.

The other part is the tax value part. So many counties are thirsty for revenue. ANY revenue. They either have to keep value at an attractive or stable amount to draw businesses or relocators to their county as well as increase tax revenue from those that are already living here.

I'm not going to go right out and say some politicans are buying votes with some of these loan mod programs. I AM saying thats also part of it.

Oh if only were at some bar and had some cold beverages to go over all of this.....

[Ja Rhule]

I'm gonna buy a house this year anyway. I have no choice. What's the best buy? Bids? Foreclosures? or just regular way? I already got preapproved for a loan so that is out of the way.

[Who Dat Pat]

I'm gonna buy a house this year anyway. I have no choice. What's the best buy? Bids? Foreclosures? or just regular way? I already got preapproved for a loan so that is out of the way.

Please do yourself a favor and consider Zillow an app for entertainment, their valuations are not even close in most cases. It looks like it just takes all the sales in a certain area and plugs that in across the board in all cases without consideration for bedroom, garage, condition, etc. In my neighborhood, right after hurricane, many people sold there houses in their present non-habitable condition. So when trying to find a value, it would lump in the destroyed house being sold at $380k for just land value with the newly renovated $1.6 mil house and draw an average. I had a house a few doors down listed at $1.2 mil, yet the Zillow value estimated it at a laughable $510k. It actually sold within 2 days for $1.16.

Bottom line, your best choice is to either get with an agent who can pull all the sold comps for you or go to courthouse and pull records of recent sales. All the new purchase agreements have appraisal clauses, which basically say property must appraise for the price you are paying or contract is void, so it's not likely to overpay. If you want to spend a little money for info, Deedfax is the company used to see all the sold properties and I believe they have a monthly rate.

If you aren't working with a realtor, you might want to reconsider, they work for you for free as seller of property pays their fees. Also, they can help protect you from common mistakes lots of buyers that don't use agents make. I graduated with a minor in business and see what you are saying about global economy and the recent fiasco Greece caused in euro market, but the housing market nationally had is best season of growth last quarter since like 2002. Although there are still people getting foreclosed on, it's not on the scale it was originally and more importantly, not for the same reason. Originally, people were losing their properties because they either qualified for loans they couldn't afford, or signed into variable rate loans and couldn't afford the huge increases in rate that raised house payments. Not only have those issues been dealt with on a banking level with programs put in place for loan modifications, but also the govt has stepped in and offered loan modification assistance financed by Fannie Mae.