CH> Crazy how they keep building when there's so many existing homes for
 CH> sale. How can that increase values for anybody?

 RW> The people doing the building don't want to live in those little
 RW> shacks.

 True of shacks but I'm talking about 2k to 3K sq ft. 3 to 5 bdrm/3 to
4 bath...etc. The horrid bit about this is they're plopped on .05 to
1.5 sq acres of land. (the bigger house gets the larger lot of course,
but it amounts the the same size yard as the smaller houses with
what's left over and the houses are so close together-...... a friend
put it this way: you may as well be in an apartment.

I think large yards are a waste unless you use them for trees/gardens
anyway but still the closeness of these big houses to each other
gives you the feeling of ' a bigger shack'.

Not to mention the workmanship is not always as good as the house
looks. Very deceptive in fact. These houses go up in five months.
That's fast. The ground has no time to settle before the slab goes
down. Crack crack crack...

When we first moved to our Development in 2003 we were oen of the
first houses there. A neighbor warned us about the plumbing. The
builders hire the cheapest they can find. Sure enough we had plumbing
problems. Got it fixed by the same company (this all under warrantee)
but it wasn't a good fix. Hubby ended up fixing it himself which I
must say was a better fix. (Involved sealing around the toilet in
upstairs bathroom)... Sometimes it pays to do it yourself as long as
you know what you're doing.

He's got electronics exp so wried a missing bulb socket in the utility room.
It's amazing all the little oops that go undetected during inspection!

OH there was the gas leak from the stove nobody noticed. I smelled it
and finally when the plumber came to do that fix on the toilet he did
too and THEN we got the leak fixed. Funny that. Nobody noticed it
during inspection. hmm. Not even me but at that time I wasn't looking.

................


 CH> There was no bubble in DFW when we moved there in Feb 2003. But by
 CH> geroge there sure was one in FL in 2004. Doubled. It was said
 CH> 'brought houses up to ""par"" with those in DC
area and CA more or
 CH> less. That is a starter home less than 2000 Sqft going for 200K.
 CH> ((Depending on location of course.))

 RW> We were going to move to Jacksonville before we chose Texas. The
 RW> reason we didn't move to FL was because of home prices.

 They did go zoom up in 2004. We were flabbergasted. GEE just think if
the lay off at KSC had held out for one more year we would have gotten
DOUBLE the value on our home in Titusville. We found this out when
exploring condos to buy and rent out. This didn't pan out because
property management costs too much to make it worth the while. (The
game plan was to move to the condo when we could get back to FL as we
are now. Would have been nice, but it is hard to buy and rent out from
distance unless you're well heeled (with money) We already know of
horror stories - what tenets can do to a place you have to repair,
sometimes more than the renter's deposit will cover. In other words, a
big pita.
.....................

 CH> There's a house near ours that has been vacant since it was built in
 CH> 2005. Almost bought finally last spring then it like several others
 CH> on the block developed foundation cracks. This lowered the value and
 CH> almost got bought again last winter but the bank wouldn't allow it.
 CH> SO it and 20 0ther houses in that section including ours is for sale
 CH> still and values are all steadily dropping trying to sell...

 RW> And they should, as the contractor who built them probably built other
 RW> problems into that project. Cracked slabs in CA weren't all that bad,
 RW> in fact ours was cracked. I would imagine with the water table being
 RW> so high in FL, it can create a lot of anxt among buyers.

 FL is having a drought as it is. DFW had a big wet the last two
springs.

The development our house is in is said to have been built on a fill.
That's why the cracks are happening. At first it was thought this was
happening with only one builders' model but no. It's happening to
others too .. creeping around the neighborhood like a some kind of plague.
You never know when or who it'll hit next. Our block at about six of
them last year. SIX houses! One after another. Just like that.
(There's oh I think 18 or 20 house on that block.)
...............

 CH> Meanwhile at the other end of the development (which sprang up mighty
 CH> fast in five years) they're still building .. houses.

 CH> How can they keep building when there's so many for sale?

 CH> It's crazy!

 RW> Eventually they'll be sold, as more and more people reach retirement
 RW> age and want to move to warmer areas.

 Warmer? No I think they'll want SMALLER houses. I kid you not. Some
of these people have lived in their big 2-3K sq foot houses for only
one year and sell.. move to smaller house in the same neighborhood.

Cind0

... And I thought the Borg were bad . . .

--- PPoint 3.01