Housing market crunch

[luvbunnies42]

Is anyone else feeling the pressure from the current housing market?

My family is badly. I feel like my hubby and I are becomming trained seals jumping through hoops to try to even get a house.It's always some problem.Overpriced, snatched out from under us the first day on the market,an investor buys it up,it needs to many repairs, and in the wrong area/bad parts of suburbs.

My grandparents had to sell their home as commercial.They were bought out by contractors.All the homes around them are getting bought out.The last link to a family home I grew up in is going to be tore down to become a Wendy's and a Cracker barrel.It's sad really.

My mom needed to refinance and is having issues with that now.It's not her choice really but due to a situation she was really left with no options other then that.

Are any of your family and close friends going through it too?

[carlaabt]

We bought our house last summer. We got it for the price that it was appraised for at the time. It's now worth about 10% more than that. We haven't had any real problems with it, and our mortgage is locked in, so I don't see any reason that we would have any issues with paying for it, but you never know.

I'm so glad we bought a house on the lower end of what we wanted to pay. It's nice and it fits our needs nicely, but it leaves a little bit of extra money in the budget to cover the rising costs of gas and groceries.

[jimmys devoted]

My husband and I inherited our farm. It was paid for so we dont have a mortgage. Living back in rural area, we only have to contend with a few houses being built on an old farm next to us.

It seems like no place is safe from fast food anymore...... or strip malls..........

I had heard about HUD forclosure sales being in both good and poor neighborhoods for a relavtively good price.

[luvbunnies42]

Originally Posted by jimmys devoted

My husband and I inherited our farm. It was paid for so we dont have a mortgage. Living back in rural area, we only have to contend with a few houses being built on an old farm next to us.

It seems like no place is safe from fast food anymore...... or strip malls..........

I had heard about HUD forclosure sales being in both good and poor neighborhoods for a relavtively good price.

Too bad there's no nice HUD homes around us anymore that don't need that much work. My friend got her house that way.Her and her hubby got lucky.Then again they are 10 years older then us.Her hubby is a police cheif and she works two jobs and their only kid is their Great Dane that they now have. So, they had more money to work with and we're able to save more and have family help.

Our realitor whos also a friend of ours has been trying to help us as much as possible. The problem with the HUDS are the people don't have money to make repairs let alone cover the mortgage here anymore so everything looks horrible then intil the bank takes over and decided to sell it may have more damage from sitting for so long and not being taken care of.Then it ends up having to be an investment property.Like the house we are looking at and love.It was a great house intil it sat and now needs so much work.

[aehbamfan]

Fortunately we bought our house at a great time, and the value has increased by about 75% in foiur years. Our neighborhood is one of the few in this area that isn't losing a lot of value. We're hoping to be able to sell in the next year or two and move somewhere else. We just have to decide where we want to move!

[Katclub]

I guess I can say I am a victim of the current housing issues, but not in the purchasing/selling way. I worked for a local home builder, and due to the crunch, was "laid off". Actually, they called it "reduction of work force", so there is basically no chance I'll go back to work for them. Not too big a deal, though; I started a website management business. Althought the money I generate is a fraction of what I made while employed by this company, I am so much happier.

I remember when hubby and I bought our home in 1992. Like today, down payment of 10-20% was needed, credit scores of greater than 650 a must, and the interest rate for a 30 year fixed mortgage was around 8%. We were 27 & 28 years old, not too much credit - although it was great credit - and our combined income was less than $40,000.00 annual. Michigan had a program for first time home buyers - Michigan Initiative - and we were able to buy our home with 5% down, fixed interest at 8%. I suspect many states had programs for first time homebuyers...I wonder if they still do ??? Anyway, after a few years, when interest rates dropped, we re-financed at a much lower rate - fixed. A few years later, we re-fi'd again at an even lower fixed rate - and purchased adjacent land. So, all-in-all, a happy ending for us - as long as I can continue to earn some money and hubby doesn't loose his job.

I remember feeling stressed by the obstacles we had to overcome when we first bought, but I can't imagine going through some of the stumbling blocks many are experiencing today. It seems like the biggest obstacle are financing and the investors. I may be wrong, but I think the financing requirements are similar to what they were 15-20 years ago. And the investors...well, they think they'll turn a house around for profit. Sorry, not going to happed for a while.

That's my rant...

[luvbunnies42]

Katclub-They do have classes but the new laws are insane.Financing isn't there like it was before.It's worse for my hubby and I.I'm going to be 23 and he's 24. We almost had our first house when I was 19. Things fell through 1 week before closing and we lost money thanks to our dumb realitor! Grrr.

But, our problem is we didn't qualify for have our states assistance.Even though my hubby is the only one working, we both have good credit, and we have a daughter we made to much money.Before he had unemployment since his job outsourced and they let everyone go when they moved over seas.Only 20 employees were transfered.We then had that against us.My cousin and his wife qualified and I don't understand how when we had less debt, made less then both them working full time and had one other person in our house.We do automatically qualify for a lower interest rate though due to having a baby.We took home owners classes which will cover the closing cost for us.Here's the thing..they expire in October and if we aren't in a place we lose it by then. We can't reapply since my husband now makes more money and might be getting another job with a better company and with health care.When they say there's assistance there's not.Even if your 5.00 over pay you don't qualify.We go through this all the time.We are middle class and you make enough to get by but no enough to really live on.

[Aswan]

I've seen ** house lose 40% of its value since the mortgage meltdown. Fortunately the payments are manageable so foreclosure is a non-issue, but it hurts to lose that much equity.

[Designers Loft]

Now is the best time to buy homes. I'm surprised you cant find any! But you are right, the best homes are bought out by investors. Good luck!