[eweissenbach]

Housing prices have dropped from their highs 2-3 years ago everywhere, some places more than others. I have looked at both new and pre-owned homes on both the villages website and Lyle Gant's website for the past month or so. It appears that a nice pre-owned 1200-1400 square foot home with a double garage can be purchased for about $150 to $180K right now.

My question is, how much have the pre-owned and also the new homes, fallen from the market highs in the Villages? Anyone have an educated guess?

[TomW]

Several people here keep good records on TV home prices and I'll defer them for the precise numbers. Generally, things went down about 20% or so but that is very location and condition dependent. TV recently raised the price (knocked off the discounts) on new homes but I think the sales of those have been consistent at around 200-250 per month vs. 400+/mo in 2007. The last few weeks may show slightly better sales numbers due to the large number of life-style visitors in January. The few resales underpriced to the market go fast.

[bogart]

Just wondering ............... and perhaps this has previously been discussed. If buying/selling a preowned home with Properties of The Villages, is the recommended listing price pretty firm, ie is there much room for negotiating? I realize that there are many factors that may enter but in general, are preowned homes sellng at the list price?

[BogeyBoy]

Depends on whether the tide is in or out.

Let's say you list your home for $200,000. Similar new homes are selling for about $200,000. The tide is in, all things equal you'll probably get close to your listed price. If you list your house for $240,00, you'll probably get still sell it at $200,000 or a little less because that's what the market will bear.

Suddenly TV new homes have a reduction in price to $185,000. The tide is out and so is your expectation of getting your list price of $200,000.

Housing prices are very localized and whether by design or not TV sales department sets the prices for new and resale homes in TV. (IMHO)

[TomW]

It is openly negotiated, i.e. offer-counter offer. I think we went back and forth 2-3 times before we agreed on a price for a listing by Properties of The Villages.

[RVRoadie]

In my opinion the bottom of the TV housing market was last year. They had a lot of inventory on the market at substantial discounts. Now they have moved more towards a build to order sales structure and prices seem to be stable or rising slightly. The building rate seem to have slowed somewhat and there is a steady stream of new buyers. For the price range you are looking in, I would say that the market is very stable and not subject to the problems you see throughout the rest of Florida.

Remember, a recession here is when sales drop from 500 per month to 250 per month. Everywhere else in the country that would still be considered a building boom.