Housing Market:

Hey Guys,

Quick question. I know we have skins fans all over the country. I'm kinda curious, does anyone know how buying a house is right now in other parts of the country? My roommate has been trying to buy since Feburary, and is currently 0-8 with bids. She's basically shooting for your typical starter house (about 250K in this area) and keeps losing everything. Mainly because other people are paying cash, which is always the best. She's regularly bidding ~20-30K over asking price and still losing.

The way I was hearing things on the news I was expecting her to walk in, toss 20 bucks on the table, and get a house! It's been a really long and tough process. Anyone else have stories on this? Is it different in other places?

In my part of Va there are some deals out there but you still have a bunch of people upside down in their homes not wiliing to sell for a loss. Another issue is if people decide to sell for a loss they need enough money to pay off the mortgages for the banks to release any leans.

Almost all of the houses she's gone after have been foreclosures and a few regular sales. Short sales just aren't worth it. They take forever, and multiple parties have to approve the deal. Her brother just got the short sale he put a contract in on like 4 months ago.

Man, I want to move to the DC area...but 250k for a starter house???... I can get a beautiful house on the lake up here for that kind of money...

I'm an agent and work at a very large brokerage's headquarters in Chantilly. You certainly don't have to bring money to the table anymore if you're negative on your equity. The short sale process has become increasingly less difficult over the last 18 months. We've seen it's success rate jump from about 4% of all short sales listed actually closing within a year of list, to nearly 20% being successfull in selling through the first quarter of this year. Unfortunately, most of those successes are seen after the 2nd ratified contract has fallen through due to seller's lender's issues.

I wouldn't suggest to anyone moving away from the great D.C. area in the shaky economic times we're facing. We're possibly the most insulated metropolitan region from unemployment issues.

I digress, by "starter" homes; do you mean homes that have been foreclosed on that need a little extra elbow grease? That's what a large percentage of these foreclosures end up being. Projects. Investors are so attracted to them because the rental market is so strong. And all indicators for this area point to the trough already being reached. Especially in the more cost friendly areas, (ie, prince william).

Imagine this, you buy a home for 200k, with good credit. You are spending very roughly 1100-1200 amortized. Combined with a rental market that would return 1350+ on many houses in that price range. That's smart business for investors. I could go on and on about the absorption rates in the different counties and how that effects the difficulty your friend is having, and how it is starting to limit the red the foreclosing banks are experiencing. But for a more informed breakdown, google Dr. Steven Fuller of George Mason. He is one of Northern Virginia's most accurate home sales forecaster.

None of that was a sales pitch, i just love this stuff.

Monksdown -- Do you work at that behemoth Long and Foster building off of 28? That place is so absolutely massive. You could fit a small country in there.

The problem with short sales, Monk. Is that they take forever. Successful or not, she's not willing to handcuff herself to one house that she may or may not get 6 months from now.

She's looking only in Chantilly/Fairfax/Centreville. PW county is out of the question seeing as how much of it isn't exactly a good neighborhood plus tons of MS13 activity. By starter home she's gone through many different types of homes. Cheaper homes with a lot of fixing up/elbow grease needed, some are more complete for move in with just a few upgrades. Averages around 230-250 for most of them.

Ill look up Steven Fuller. Thanks for the insight Monksdown!

Guilty of being employed by Castle de Dulles. The short sale process has become more efficient on average. That being said, time constraints limit buyer's patience with at best a 20% success rate. I get it. I just wanted to point out that it's not the black hole it was 2 years ago.

Absolutely no comment on MS13, and/or Prince William for that matter.

And you are welcome buddy.

I'm telling you... beautiful Lexington, VA.

$250,000 gets you about 2500-3000 square feet.

I'm telling you... beautiful Lexington, VA.

$250,000 gets you about 2500-3000 square feet.

and 250 miles from anywhere real in the world! ;)

Guilty of being employed by Castle de Dulles. The short sale process has become more efficient on average. That being said, time constraints limit buyer's patience with at best a 20% success rate. I get it. I just wanted to point out that it's not the black hole it was 2 years ago.

Absolutely no comment on MS13, and/or Prince William for that matter.

And you are welcome buddy.

Do you use Prosperity for most of your clients' financing? Just curious. I've been on the mortgage side of the real estate business for a while now....