You have a valid point; think Sun City Center. I think Del Webb moved on and the place looks old and tired and thats not just the residents.

How would you lose your socks unless you were forced to sell in a down market? This isn't a starter home for most of us...

There are those who don't do enough research (including spending lots of time on this website) - and they may find TV is not for them or the location they picked doesn't work at all. Reality is, I think, that you wouldn't lose your socks - but you would overpay - and hey - you can't take it with you!

No need for socks. We are barefoot most of the time...and I challenge all of you to think of a better term than "ender" home...as opposed to starter.

Kate is so right...as usual. At first I thought she was just another pretty face............

The Hubs and I refer to our Villages home as our "FOREVER HOME". Sounds so much better than last or ender!

We are more fortunate than most. We inherited our lovely home from my in-laws who spent 25 gloriously happy years there. We have no mortgage on our current home and there is none on our TV home. When we retire we will do some updating in TV, but other than that, we will just live and smile and be happy!:gc:

If you're a frog, would you call it a... Lily Pad?
http://media.myspacepimper.com/conte...artoon_468.gif

Now that's funny...:thumbup:

I claim to know very little about the real estate market. I sure hope that people who say that nobody knows is right. A friend of mine keeps telling that I will sell my home as the economy is improving. I say, you can quote al the statistics you want but I need someone to make me utter the words, "it's sold".

Today's article in yahoo finance painted a very bleak picture for the future of housing. Prices heading down even further.

It made me feel like like I have two chances of selling my condo in CT,

"SLIM and None". :(

I have been informed by several REA's that one will not see the money spent on improvements but I personally feel one might have a better chance to sell their home.

IMHO - For those who are trying to sell their home, country wide, the housing market will pick-up when people feel they can get and keep their jobs but then, what the heck do I know. :shrug:
The future of real estate in TV will remain bright for the foreseeable future.

Agreed that houses purchased at the peak may have slid in price. However, if "holding their own" is defined as houses purchased in the last few years have not declined further, then I think that is true. Our neighborhood was built in the latter part of 2008 through early 2010. Since then several houses have been resold. I only know of one which sold for less than the original purchase price.

Some examples:
purchased 10/08 for $269K; sold 7/10 for $311K
" 2/09 for $294.5K; sold 4/10 for $318K
" 10/09 for $217K; sold 9/10 for $230K
" 9/08 for $263K; sold 12/09 for $275K
" 6/09 for $219K; sold 1/11 for 240K

Our Financial guy (as well as our realestate guy) feels that the market will do nothing more than stay even for min of two more years. Then MAYBE have a slight up swing but nothing like people are hoping for.

Financial guy believes the current stock market is a fake jump and is like the housing was in the 90's. But due to that some people are thinking that is the leading point of the ecomony but in reality wtih all the state, county, country debt buying power will decrease a good deal and therefore kill any real growth for many years. Any growth now is very short lived and don't base your life on it.

Remember, if you house is down 20 to 40 percent then just buy something that is down the same. That keeps the playing field even for your financial future.

Not a joke, it's your life!

aj

Those prices don't reflect any upgrades/improvements the owners made or whether or not they have paid off bonds. Also, your neighborhood is new, which in my opinion, seems to enhance resale values. Once your neighborhood "ages" you may find the resale prices dropping. Also, villages like Hemingway, for example, were originally sold at the absolute bottom of the pricing curve. Homes in that area will find it easier to make a profit or stay even. But that village is really an anomoly compared to the rest of The Villages.

I have heard of three houses sold recently south of 466 and they didn't lose money. Have you read something recently that you can share with us, Taj?

Boy, according to what I'm reading here, we must have gotten lucky and bucked the trend. The home we bought in Hadley was originally bought for $296,800 in December of 2007 and we bought it in January of this year for $264,500, a drop of 10.9%. Also, according to the Zillow.com website, the asking price of $269,000 was only a few thousands below it's estimated market value at the time and has gone up a few more since. At the same time we missed a golden opportunity by not going out and buying a lottery ticket on the day we closed! :oops:

Nothing will really matter if our current crop of criminals in DC don't get the debt under control. What everyone forgets is that if the "world reserve currency" drops the dollar our way of life will change over night and there is nothing we can do about it. Current news indicates that the RINOs will fold and raise the debt ceiling another 2 trillion. Our spend and charge life style has to change.

There needs to be a change in all the government spending if all the un-necessary programs. If its a 100 million dollar program their (our current crop of criminal politicans) say that it doesn't matter to the budget its so small. Well a few of those million dollar programs dropped would save a lot of money.

We have to live within our budget so should our federal government. If you don't stay within your budget as we are seeing, things get really bad.

You did buck the trend. Congratulations!

For what it's worth...
Before Wifey and I decided to buy new this month, I had done extensive research on pre-owned sales, as our heads & hearts were set in that direction.

Based on a sampling of 109 closed sales of the VLS and the outside MLS listed properties that either personally interested me for whatever reason or were potential purchases. For those reasons , the sampling is not all inclusive or exhaustive of all of the properties located in the sample area during that period.

My sampling included: ONLY properties located south of 466, the majority of which were located in villages even with or south of LSL; a mix of starting prices ranging from $145K to $518K; 102 designer homes and 7 villas that were either a corner or a golf course site; figures usually rounded up to nearest $1000.

Those 109 sales indicated that:
the average initial list price was $274,900
the average final sales price was $11,200 below initial list price, the the average final sales price was $3,400 below the seller's purchase price.

51 sales resulted in a profit for the seller
5 broke even
53 sales resulted in a loss for the seller

Top 5 profits:
Bought: Sold: Profit:
$176K in 2/04; $227K; $51K
$235K in 7/09; $280K; $45K
$197K in 6/02; $237K; $40K
$262K in 6/09; $300K; $38K
$237K in 9/04; $275K; $38K

Top 5 Losses
Bought: Sold: Loss:
$518K in 8/06; $430K $88K
$377K in 5/06; $299K $78K
$497K in 9/05; $440K $57K
$314K in 7/07; $260K $54K
$249K in D/07; $195K $54K

I tracked 20 golf course properties:
15 sold at profit
1 sold break even
4 sold at a loss.

Well, Florida has already seen 1 million in short sales and foreclosed on sales. There are 2 million more in the pipeline that will begin to be released this fall. All indications show that we will see another 6% reduction by the end of this year and no end untill all the short sales and foreclosed homes are sold. Sorry for the bad news but if you want to sell. NOW is the time to sell...before it gets worse.