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Originally Posted by 2 Oldcrabs
The $8k tax credit has the housing market moving again. Can the numbers continue? One economist predicted that by 2011, 50% of the mortages in the country will be "under water". Does not sound good for selling house up north.
Everyone needs to look closely at their financial situation and make a rational decision not an emotional one.
LIFE IS SHORT BUT YOU NEED ENOUGH MONEY TO GET TO THE END
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Hi 2 Oldcrabs,
What you say here about making a rational decision and not an emotional one is so true. I call it my "cost of sleep" factor.
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Individuals cannot look to the media or to the sales department when making the decision to buy a retirement home. Individuals must look really closely at their own numbers. And if the cash and cash flow are in place, and will remain in place, and if the decision to buy a home is not based on projections of profit or income that are nothing more than hopeful guesses, then they will know they can do what they want to do......and still sleep at night.
I have been watching the TV real estate market since the late 90's. Long before I retired. I watched the cost of TV homes skyrocket and I would look out the window by my desk, looking at the snow sometimes, and I would think......well, I guess we missed the boat.
There was a point where I thought prices there were influenced by hurricanes on the coast that made Florida retirees head inland. Still within a reasonable distance from the ocean. Still plenty of sunshine. But not so much property risk.
And then Alan Greenspan lost his mind, along with a lot of other people, and the rest is now ugly real estate history that I am not so sure is history. I don't think it is all behind us.
I do not think the stock market tells us anything much anymore. I think the stock market is a self-absorbed, demanding
that sees all those job cuts as only making profits better. And although I am invested in stocks, conservatively so, I do not look to the stock market to give me a read on the economy's future. To do that, I just look at what is going on around me. And now, more than ever before, individuals have to understand their own financial moves and be sure of not only what they want to do, but what they can do. 2010 is going to tell us a lot I think. Changes in tax cuts are up for grabs soon, among all those other influences out there.
We have visited TV only once so far when we rented for a month to try to really get the lay of the land. But it was just when the market was starting to change. We will be returning for another look.
And I have shared here before the parting shot I got from a TV real estate agent when we were leaving a model home Open House in late October 2007. She said, "You will be really sorry if you don't buy now at these prices."
And I thought to myself, "Uh huh, I wonder what your motivation could possibly be for saying that."
Like I said earlier in this thread, we are the only ones who can possibly know when we are the ready, willing, and able buyers. And "willing" is important, but it needs to be the least operative word in that phrase.
Sure there is the big picture that the media and the marketing department create as they go along. But now, for retirees especially, the truly big picture is, more than ever, the individual picture.
And like I also said a little earlier in this thread -- (btw, when it comes to the topic of real estate I really never shut up) -- I think that if you know you want to buy a home in TV and you can, now could be the time for reasons other than price.
Just remember -- to thine own numbers be true.
Boomer