0n (30 May 08) TOM WALKER wrote to CINDY HAGLUND...

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

 TW> Different class of People. Most of the Houses up for sale are ones
 TW> people that had NO business getting a House Loan because under

Right there Tom. That is exactly what is going on in DFW in the new
developments. A fidonet friend who lived in Texas told me so when we
moved there and I must agree.

Houses cost more up north. Folks come down to DFW and see houses,
brand new houses - at half the value of the same sized houses up
north and it's no wonder they go gaga. Two former neighbors I did
dogsitting for confess to this and were lucky- sold their big house
and bought a smaller one. Boy were they lucky! (Good timing that is.)

Others are not so lucky. They find they can pay the mortgage but that's
all and then they end up not paying it so they can pay their other
bills and then ut oh! Out they go!

There's no end to the foreclosure news in the paper. Our real estate
magazine for Area homes in ORlando features first : foreclosed/bank
owned homes.

People living beyond their means is what it is. And yes it is true
some times it's due to job loss/health problems and both. What bothers
me about this latter fact is if they had been living with in their
means they might have a 'back up plan'? Plan B?

Experts say few folks these days have a 'plan B'.
...

 TW> Traditional Rules they DID NOT QUALIFY.

 Yup but the greedy developers are going head over heals to make it
easy. IE: Giving 5 to 10 K 'credit'... and such. (You get to use the
money for them to put blinds on the windows for example.)

Oh. Ad in paper: Make millions off foreclosed homes! Invest!! uh huh.
It may well be a buyers market but a lot of those buyers are stuck
renting until their own home sells.

The worst thing to do is try to buy a house before your house sells.
The people we 'almost' bought a home from (lease to buy) did that and
foreclosed. (We couldn't afford the rent they asked for and it topped over
the max of what others places are charging.)

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

 TW> But some are buying those homes
 and that has Slowed the New
 TW> Construction here quite a bit. Still there are people out there that
 TW> want Their "OWN" house not someone elses cast off. And incidnetly a
 TW> lot of those people
 TW> that didn't have any business buying a house didn't keep them up

 That attitude is true but a folly. There IS an advantage of buying a
'used' home. For one thing often upgrades are done and more
importantly if there were any plumbing problems for example (VERY
common in our DFW area of new homes)- chances are they've been fixed.

And your point is good too. Those who had to get out couldn't or
didn't keep 'em up. Goes both ways.  But mortgage companies/banks pay
people to get and keep foreclosed homes up (in FL anyway)- which is why
their value goes up while the neighborhood goes down.
.....
    
 TW> either so there are a lot of "Fixer Uppers" here.
 TW> And IMHO even the prices, while down, are not all that friendly

 Fixer uppers are not so bad as long as it's not a major problem....
but the ones with major problems may as well be razed (especially some
of those ugly ranch styles of yore.

Cind

... I'm just moving clouds today; tomorrow I'll try mountains

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