[tvbound]

Originally Posted by jimjamuser

Borrowing to buy stocks sounds riskier than buying real estate. Be careful. The market is more volatile than at any time in our lifetimes.

"Borrowing" to buy stocks?

Since that is something I would never, ever, ever, even think of doing, I'm a little confused where you got that idea from any of my posts?

One only has to do a bit of reading about the Great Depression, to understand that buying stocks on margin was a big contributor to the market crash.

The obvious volatility of the markets (long before this virus thing), with the potential we are only on a temporary plateau before a significant plunge, is the exact reason I was looking for other's opinions on their guesses as to the best time to buy.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

I think it is important to understand that real estate agents work for the seller. When a potential buyer refers to an agent as "our realtor" it is not accurate. Buyers should be wary of seeking advice from real estate agents because they are always going to put a positive spin on the housing market, especially during a difficult time such as this. They are being paid by the seller, not the buyer.

Nah, real estate agents work for themselves, for their commission. Being paid by seller is true, but if the difference in commission for the re agent is immaterial to them, they will prefer a quick sale versus the sellers ideal sale, especially if the ideal sale is expected in their mind to take 3-6 months longer.

Freakonomics Chapter 2: How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents? Summary & Analysis | LitCharts

Summary:
Consider a textbook example of information asymmetry: selling a house. When a person sells a house, there are two major dangers: 1) setting the price too low and 2) setting the price too high. The job of a real estate agent is to find the “golden mean” between 1) and 2). But, as we saw in the Introduction to this book, real estate agents don’t always have their client’s best interests in mind: indeed, their monopoly on information about the real estate market may encourage them to sell a house for too cheap.
As we saw in the Introduction, a real estate agent’s incentives don’t always line up with those of the client. Given what we’ve learned about how experts use fear and ignorance to pressure people into changing their behavior, we can start to understand how real estate agents might convince their clients to sell their houses for a lower price than they’d like.

The authors of the book recall a close friend, “K.” K. wanted to buy a house for 450,000 dollars. K. phoned the seller’s agent and asked the agent to name the lowest price the homeowner might accept. The agent scolded K. for asking such an unethical question. But then, the agent said, “My client is willing to sell this house for a lot less than you might think.” After the conversation, K. offered 425,000 dollars for the house. So because of his own real estate agent’s actions, the seller of the house lost 20,000 dollars. Meanwhile, the agent himself lost only 300 dollars (his “cut” of the commission on the house).

Worked with too many sales people with too many incentive plans to modify sales rep behavior to believe that sales agents work for a company or a person. I have seen more than one sales rep hold their big deal as hostage for better commission rates, and other questionable behaviors, such as using the approach, "Danny, if you believe it, its not a lie!"

great theory, not in practice.

sportsguy's experience

[Travelhunter]

Originally Posted by tvbound

As mentioned earlier, we're buying the lifestyle not a house and a resale of whatever we end up choosing will not happen.

Not meant to offend anyone, but the new houses way down by the freeway are just too far away from what we feel is the heart of The Villages.

The center of the villages is moving. In the not to distant future Fenney will be the center of the villages
Many have said they will not move but the average villager moves three times
Your right you need to buy where your comfortable

[KSSunshine]

Originally Posted by tvbound

Recognizing that no one can accurately predict the future, we're still interested in the opinion's of those that have been here a while to see if it would be better to purchase say by the end of June or wait until around November to see what this nasty virus does to the home-buying in The Villages.

After renting a couple of times now (up by Glenview and Sabel Chase area), we'll be looking primarily north of 466A (even though we know the bridges will go in soon) so was curious as to the price and demand in the older sections versus the new homes on the other side of the freeway.

All guesses appreciated.

Of course no one can predict the future, but I'm betting that prices are going up! A home near us was listed for $275K more than the selling price a year ago. Golf Course view and pool. It is now pending, but don't know the actual price. The house next door listed for ~$225 more than it sold for 1 year ago. Golf course view but no pool (has room). Both properties had a very significant increase...got my attention!

[Villages Kahuna]

Take a look at this Wall Street Journal article. It addresses your question pretty well. I hope you can read it without a subscription.

Why Home Prices Are Rising During the Pandemic - WSJ

[charlieo1126@gmail.com]

I’m in my 5th home in villages each of my other homes sold with a nice profit , your either looking at some strange numbers or you have other reasons for saying you house has not gone up in value

[tvbound]

Originally Posted by charlieo1126@gmail.com

I’m in my 5th home in villages each of my other homes sold with a nice profit , your either looking at some strange numbers or you have other reasons for saying you house has not gone up in value

Excuse me, but I'm confused. Whose post are you directing this at?

Thank you.