It always amazes me how quickly the news media will pull out their “paint by number” kits and attempt to make us believe things that may at best be just a little skewed. The housing market is still in shambles and if we listen to the news media we would have to wonder if what we are experiencing is perhaps just a figment of our imagination. I read an article this morning talking about how strong the real estate market is rebounding here in NE Florida. I only have one question, where in NE Florida are they pulling their data from?
I look at actual data on sales all the time and I don’t see a positive turn around, in fact things are about as status quo as they can be. Sales here in Nassau county are still very low. The only buyers we are seeing are true bottom feeders who are looking for one thing, that bottom basement price tag. If we look at FHA and HUD foreclosures and how fast they are selling then this proves our point. I have several properties listed in rural areas of the county. They are listing between 80K and 100K. There are a couple of HUD foreclosures on the market, like kind properties priced in the 50K range, now let’s think about this for a moment. Which one would you buy? Of course the lowest price one will go first, just common sense.
Now for our ongoing problem. As these properties sell, we are continuing to lose value in our own properties, which may ultimately result in foreclosure and thus another rock bottom sale and more value lost resulting in more foreclosures. It feels indeed like a dog who is simply chasing his tail while drilling himself into the hole, there is no end to it. In order to put a stop to this downward spiral, most properties will either have to fall to foreclosures or there will have to be some public-private 3-way “bail out” of negative equity agreement, that will eliminate the under water portion of mortgages providing a level price point on properties. Until then the dog keeps chasing their tails and the media will edge them on.