About a year ago, seveal of us were keeping statistics on TV home sales and we all generally agreed that home prices were down 18% from the peak. I've quit keep the numbers but my sense from watching the market closely is that the prices are continuing to go down but not at such a steep rate. The average selling price for resales has been 92% of the asking price. I have also observed an increase in short sales and foreclosures. As long as the interest rates stay down, it is probably as good a time as any to buy a resale. New houses seem to require more investigation. They did away with the ranch home series so now you go from cottage to designer. We will be attempting to calculate at what point it is better to upgrade a cottage or start over with a disigner with the desired features. Throw in the various bond amounts and lot premiums and you get quite a matrix. At this point it is an academic exercise in house hunting but will get increasingly serious as we hope to make a purchase next spring.
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Tom W
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