[marco62crawford8535]

What do you guys think the future of real estate will hold?

[whartonjelly]

I am hoping that sales will pick up. I wonder what month of the year is the busiest for sellers. I hope it will be May or June !!!!

If anyone knows the answer, I would appreciate the comments on this thread!

[mrfixit]

Originally Posted by marco62crawford8535

What do you guys think the future of real estate will hold?

IMHO, it ALL boils down to location, location,location...Case in point, DENVER, in the last 6 mo., is finally seeing the slowdown the rest of the country had since 2008. Our lovely central Florida THE VILLAGES is still holding it's own ..while just a few miles away ....the R.E. market is horrible. The majority of markets are flooded with foreclosures.....and that does NOT include the "Ghost Foreclosures" that are not even being listed as Foreclosures.( there are twice as many "Ghost" foreclosures than there are SFR units"booked as foreclosures). Think about it......25 percent of ALL Single Family Residential units in just Indian River County FL are VACANT... AND.....they are not even in the top 10 distressed areas in FL... No crystal ball here.......but one must be VERY CAREFUL in determining which areas are ripe for investment. Take a look around Disney..near Maingate off 192 West of I-4....Over-built beyond a five year window already. Take a look at Bobby Ginn's abandoned town of REUNION....... ( just across I-4 from the community of Championsgate where Toll Road 429 terminates).....you are greeted by a sign that says 70 percent OFF. How long will it be before we see prices like 2006...anybody's guess..My guess is ....if you want a place to live ...buy IN The Villages..at least you will likely retain value when the second wave hits. We hain't seen nuthin yet. Methinks ONLY the forthcoming Inflation could bring up R.E. prices, in most areas , in the next 5 years.

[TrudyM]

If prices don't come back hubby will be working until we croak. A 25% hit is a huge chunk of money I can't afford to loose. My husband and I were both working when we sunk our savings into this "real deal" fixer in 2006 in an affluent suburb of Seattle. I was laid off in 2008 and if the market doesn't come back we are sunk but good. What is moving here is the stuff on the low end (500-550) a lot of which are apartments and small 3 bedroom 50's ranches and then 1.2 mil and up houses with view and all high end perks like shared dock and waterfront. The 3000 sq ft family houses are just sitting. (850 thou range) Everyone is telling me I need to finish the upgrades and add alot more square footage to get to the over a mil level but I am afraid it is throwing good money after bad.

Sorry if I am complaining I know I am alot better off than alot of people it is just I feel like it is all out of control. I just figure no matter what I do I will be wrong. I am a number cruncher and things are not following any pattern that makes sence and it is freaking me out.

[784caroline]

Dont kid yourself when you say TV RE prices are holding their own....yes we are better than most of teh country but we are still feeling the pain of the economy. MOst people I talk to who are selling or have sold a house in TV that was originally bought in 2005-2009 is down anywhere from 10-20%. Just look at the new home prices....YOu can buy designer homes on a golf course for $350-400K and its not uncommon to find small designers on an inside lot for low $200's. I know someone wanting to sell a ranch Amarillo that they paid around $180K and can now expect to sell it for $165K less expenses. RESALES are where the best deals are NOt only in price terms but Location.

If the ecomony and Real estate picture would change up north there would be a flood of sales at premium prices here in TV.....thats not the case today. HOwever what we do have is an infrastructure in place and growing that is supporting the lifestyle we all bought into and what makes people still wanting to buy here. Once you move here there really is no need to look back/////but the villages is not immune from down turns.

[CTgolfer]

Originally Posted by TrudyM

If prices don't come back hubby will be working until we croak. A 25% hit is a huge chunk of money I can't afford to loose. My husband and I were both working when we sunk our savings into this "real deal" fixer in 2006 in an affluent suburb of Seattle. I was laid off in 2008 and if the market doesn't come back we are sunk but good. What is moving here is the stuff on the low end (500-550) a lot of which are apartments and small 3 bedroom 50's ranches and then 1.2 mil and up houses with view and all high end perks like shared dock and waterfront. The 3000 sq ft family houses are just sitting. (850 thou range) Everyone is telling me I need to finish the upgrades and add alot more square footage to get to the over a mil level but I am afraid it is throwing good money after bad.

Sorry if I am complaining I know I am alot better off than alot of people it is just I feel like it is all out of control. I just figure no matter what I do I will be wrong. I am a number cruncher and things are not following any pattern that makes sence and it is freaking me out.

We upgraded our kitchen and finished our basement. When we put our house on the market, the realtor told us we could not expect to get the money back that we put into upgrades, but our house would sell faster. She was right. We sold our house within 2 weeks, but certainly did not get back the upgrade moneys. Good luck.

[skyguy79]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I wonder if there is a site that gives the prices for real estate recently sold and gives the model. It is so confusing to people who are looking, especially at first. The square footage is confusing because if the lanai has been enclosed than that throws things off.

Try this site Gracie. It might not be exactly what you're wondering/asking about, but I've found it to be pretty good and has given me almost the same value for my NY property that a real estate agent friend of mine thought.

http://www.zillow.com/homes/

[VillagesFlorida]

Also, try this site:

http://www.trulia.com

Search for a home by address, that you know has sold, and it will bring up the listing. You can see the history of sales on the property. I have tried using this several times and it has worked for me.

[Bill-n-Brillo]

Here's an add-on to several posters' thoughts on how messed up the real estate market is in other parts of FL - - - -

Just saw this article regarding a developer in southwest FL:

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate...realestate-buy

Seems to me like it runs the risk of taking a bad situation and making it worse!!

Bill

[Boomer]

I am always drawn to threads about real estate. Today's thread "The Future of Real Estate" reminded me of an old thread here titled "US Home Values Bottomed Out?" That thread was in mid-2008. And here we are. Three years later. And yet, the fact remains -- nobody knows.

I like to listen to Marketplace Money on NPR. And when I saw this thread I thought about something I heard there a couple of weeks ago. And so I did a quick search of the archives and found it.

This is a short interview with the chief economist of Zillow. This interview was done on April 22, and the interviewer refers back to an interview done a year ago with him.
'
And guess what.....the chief economist of Zillow doesn't know either.

If you would like to listen to the interview, you can do so with this link or you can just read it if you want to.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/d...using-market-/

If you do not know about Marketplace Money and would like to know more, you could do a little pointing and clicking around the site and you might find some things that interest you. I am a bit behind on my listening, but all is well. Those shows are there in the archives when I want them, of course. -- Ahhh, I still remember my excitement over my brand new Beta-Max.

Boomer

[Taj44]

Originally Posted by 784caroline

Dont kid yourself when you say TV RE prices are holding their own....yes we are better than most of teh country but we are still feeling the pain of the economy. MOst people I talk to who are selling or have sold a house in TV that was originally bought in 2005-2009 is down anywhere from 10-20%. Just look at the new home prices....YOu can buy designer homes on a golf course for $350-400K and its not uncommon to find small designers on an inside lot for low $200's. I know someone wanting to sell a ranch Amarillo that they paid around $180K and can now expect to sell it for $165K less expenses. RESALES are where the best deals are NOt only in price terms but Location.

If the ecomony and Real estate picture would change up north there would be a flood of sales at premium prices here in TV.....thats not the case today. HOwever what we do have is an infrastructure in place and growing that is supporting the lifestyle we all bought into and what makes people still wanting to buy here. Once you move here there really is no need to look back/////but the villages is not immune from down turns.

That is exactly right. Our neighbor sold her designer (in a nice central location in The Villages) a few weeks ago, and lost at least 20%. I think a few things will be key in whether or not properties in The villages continue to hold their price - the outcome of the IRS issues; and the maintenance of our roads, facilities, golf courses, etc. Everything is shiny and new and attactive to buyers now; but we've been seeing some deterioration iin the conditions of the golf courses for example. If that is not addressed, and roads are not maintained properly, facilities not kept up, this place may not be as attractive to buyers down the road. At full buildout, I imagine there would also not be the national media blitz going on advertising this place either, which may hamper sales. Remains to be seen how things will play out.

[ssmith]

When we went around with our Realtor in April, He said prices of homes in TV will be going up due to inflated costs of lumber etc and the increase in gas...so sellers say of lumber... have to increase cost to cover their costs. Well, it may be a sales maneuver...only time will tell...we can't buy today anyway.

I figure that, yes, .... we may eventually lose our socks by moving to TV; but the joy of being there before then would be worth it. Quality of life issue...no dollars assigned to that.

[ljones190]

I think the successful builders of homes in the USA during this downturn have done everything possible to build homes as quickly and effienctly as possible. Cetainly The Villages contractors appear to be very good at what they do. Saying that I agree that new home prices have to rise due to inflation of raw materials. The only other way would be to reduce the quality of the materials. They may sell a few less homes per month with prices going up, maybe that is why the projected build out is now 2018.

[kentucky blue]

[QUOTE=ssmith;352466

I figure that, yes, .... we may eventually lose our socks by moving to TV; but the joy of being there before then would be worth it. Quality of life issue...no dollars assigned to that.[/QUOTE]

That is the bottom line, you are buying into a life style that you cannot find anyplace else in this country.I have been in the real estate business for 35 years, and anybody who tells you they know the future of real estate is LYING!!!!NOBODY KNOWS!!!!!If you look long term, you will be just fine in TV, plus you will have a terrific time and associate with some fabulous people.Oh, you will find the occasional *******, but they are everywhere, and even "the bubble"can't keep them out.

[keithwand]

Originally Posted by kentucky blue

That is the bottom line, you are buying into a life style that you cannot find anyplace else in this country.I have been in the real estate business for 35 years, and anybody who tells you they know the future of real estate is LYING!!!!NOBODY KNOWS!!!!!If you look long term, you will be just fine in TV, plus you will have a terrific time and associate with some fabulous people.Oh, you will find the occasional *******, but they are everywhere, and even "the bubble"can't keep them out.

Let us know "after" you lose your socks how you really feel.