yaaay my Condo is 1/3rd less valuable today.

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thataintchicken

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Paid in the low $320K range. Which at the time was a STEAL in SIlicon Valley.
now.

worth about 2/3rd of that in this economy.
Won't be moving back home to PDX anytime soon.

Time to stop looking for new jobs in PDX and hoping to sell, and to look locally for a new job for the next year or two.

SWMBO has been looking for six months already... no luck for her and she is way smarter and better at things than me. Cuter too.

But I cook better.
Just Sayin'.






got to have some humor -- nothing else left.
 
As they say, TPIWWP (of SWMBO).

But I gotcha on the Kooky Kali prices thing. I bought in Dec 2006, pretty much the height of the market. Last I checked my value had dropped at least 25%, so my entire down-payment is gone.
 
I bought a townhouse in Phx in 2003 for $85,000.

They are now selling for ~$35,000-$45,000 due to the foreclosures after the prices went up to ~$165,000 in 2006.

Nice, I owe 3 times as much as I bought for, after paying a mortgage for 6 years. That's what I call a good investment. I'm glad Clinton and Bush made it a priority to ensure anyone could buy a house -- and then walk away from it a couple years later, and destroy the equity in every responsible buyer's property.
 
I've had extraordinary luck with real estate. Bailed out of SoCal at the 1989 peak, Las Vegas in 1993, got out of Sunnyvale in 2004. The couple that bought my house there got clobbered. My place in Oregon (at least in the opinion of the taxman) has about doubled. Not that I would be able to sell it. My neighbor's farm is in escrow after 8 years on the market.

Ain't so lucky in love.
 
I hate you all :D

you see, I moved in 2006 and haven't been able to sell my townhouse - since it's worth about $40K now.

But, the town I'm in now, prices have also come down ~35%, so I may buy soon, since I have my townhouse rented out.

The Phx market is so weird right now due to all the foreclosures....
 
there are 6 vacancies in my condo complex. all short sales.

Ticks me off that I did everything right.. paid my mortgage on time and now, watch as these a$$holes walk away from their obligations and I get the $haft for it. Freaking 3 bedroom / 2 bath places for $240K average in SF bay area.

Buyers market right now.

At least I have beer, SWMBO and a job.
 
If you want to move back to PDX (not sure where that is), I'll gladly stay in your condo while the value rises again :)

I never thought of the Newark/Fremont area as Silicon Valley though.
 
If you want to move back to PDX (not sure where that is), I'll gladly stay in your condo while the value rises again :)

I never thought of the Newark/Fremont area as Silicon Valley though.
Hayward promotes itself as the Heart of SILICON VALLEY. I don't know why...
lots of hi-tech up here... or was. NUMMI will even be leaving next year.

Trying to stay positive.

This location was perfect for me as a Freelancer. BART station, airports and walking distance to everything neighborhood.

Bright side is my property tax will be lower. :(
 
Sorry Thataintchicken, that's a real shame. I saw what was happening up North in the Pittsburg/Antioch area when I left. Just pages of homes on the foreclosure list.

Keep your chin up, Portland aint goin nowhere, you'll get back.



AZ_IPA Your situation kinda sucks too, but man what I wouldn't give to be able to buy something for $85,000 Even if I got upside down the payment sure would still be nice.
 
AZ_IPA Your situation kinda sucks too, but man what I wouldn't give to be able to buy something for $85,000 Even if I got upside down the payment sure would still be nice.

kinda?? oh it sucks big time. I'm just glad I'm still okay financially, for the most part.
 
40k for a townhouse wow! Cheapest condos here are still 150k and thats for 400sqft. Market has definitely "Dropped" but home prices in portland have gone up for 3 months in a row tho. Luckily I bought in 2003, so I still have some decent equity (crossing fingers).
 
40k for a townhouse wow! Cheapest condos here are still 150k and thats for 400sqft. Market has definitely "Dropped" but home prices in portland have gone up for 3 months in a row tho. Luckily I bought in 2003, so I still have some decent equity (crossing fingers).

Just for the record, here's the sales history on a townhouse in my complex:

10/27/04: $105,900
7/27/05: $160,000
9/13/05: $185,000
7/18/06: $183,000
8/24/09: $34,125

no lie; I'm not missing a "1" on the 8/24/09 sale....that's how bad things are in the phoenix market
 
Listening to people's stories reminds me that I am SO glad the wife and I didn't buy a condo in DC about 5 years ago!

They converted a crappy apartment community into townhouses to sell, in Alexandria, and people were buying them up like hotcakes for $285k+ BEFORE THEY WERE EVEN FINISHED REMODELING! Pretty sure they're worth $200k or less now, as they were in an 'eh' location and overlooking a major highway.

Of course, I left my sweet gov't job for a PhD program, so I'm pretty sure my lost income these past 4 years as a starving grad student is just about even with what everyone's lost on their homes :)
 
Just for the record, here's the sales history on a townhouse in my complex:

10/27/04: $105,900
7/27/05: $160,000
9/13/05: $185,000
7/18/06: $183,000
8/24/09: $34,125

no lie; I'm not missing a "1" on the 8/24/09 sale....that's how bad things are in the phoenix market

:eek: thats less than a Subaru!
 
:eek: thats less than a Subaru!

and it's happening all over Phoenix -just go to azcentral.com and click on the house sale thing, and pick a zipcode...

mine is 85345.

look at sales in 2006 compared to 2009 - it's scary.....

but helicopter benny says the recession is over....
 
I think I am going to buy a house in Phoenix.

I am canadian, but my house was bought for $66,000 in 2005, but my neighbour just sold his almost identical house for $185,000, so our Values are creeping up big time. Next year I should be able to get $200,000 for my house.
 
I bought in 1991 . Paid 110k and the house is worth about 275k now, three years ago it appraised at 350k . Even with taking some equity out in 06 I still have equity and the homes around me are starting to sell again. Last one went for 200k same home as mine but needed a total renovation. Home built in 1953 and everything was original right down to the pink and black tile in the bathroom. Had the original furnace in it too a GM Delco :drunk:
 
Then there's my business partner. Paid $345K for her place in 1996. Went up to almost a million and now is worth 'only' $750K. This upsets her, even though she has no intention of selling and owns the place free and clear. Plus, Prop. 13 prevented her taxes from being raised much. Mine have doubled in five years.
 
Purchased a home in MN in 1999... 98K, refi'd when the value hit $249,000.00 they said I could borrow 125% of the value.... I took what I needed to build a new garage and pay some debt... I now owe 149K... list value this year? 150K... feeling ok
 
40k for a townhouse wow! Cheapest condos here are still 150k and thats for 400sqft. Market has definitely "Dropped" but home prices in portland have gone up for 3 months in a row tho. Luckily I bought in 2003, so I still have some decent equity (crossing fingers).

Um 400 square feet is 20'x20', that's 250 sq feet smaller than my garage.
 
My smallest apartment was 480sq feet, and that was impossibly small for two people to live in for more than a year. I couldn't imagine buying a property that small unless I was confined to an iron lung or something.

Not that there were any shortage of clues, but I remember getting an advert from a crappy, crappy little dive motel we stayed at once on the Cape. They were converting their terrible, dirty little motel rooms (less than 400 sq ft) into condos, so that we could OWN our own terrible, terrible little motel room right off a main road and not particularly close to the beach for only 100 large. Bit of a clue that the market was getting excessive.
 
...and to top everything off, not only are they way reduced you get great rates and tax credits to buy them. I think those cheap prices are enough help for people wanting to buy a house, if anything we should be helping those who brought homes and lost all of their investment if we do anything to help.
 
Sucks to be me too, I am upside down in my house but just found out that I have a Freddie Mac loan and they will refinance up to 125% loan to value so something is looking bright.
 
I have an investment condo I rent that I am told is worth about the same as I paid for it 5+ years ago. All those $1,650 payments a month I think I am in the hole big. Rent does not cover costs completely but obviously help. My goal was in time it would.
 
Rental properties without positive cash flow are generally a bad investment. However, if it's worth what you paid, I'd assume you have 5 years of equity saved up.

It is a shore condo so it is seasonal. My plan was to slowly creep up the rates (started at $1,500 prime weeks now is $1,950) while the mortgage payments stay the same. I am getting there, in the next 5 years or sooner it will be paying for itself and I have my own vacation home in the spring, fall and even winter if I want it. I am a fisherman so it works out well. 8-10 weeks of rentals paying the mortgage is not all that bad. :)
 
****, I was just reading an article in the Journal about Detroit real estate - houses going for $7,000. Hell, you can probably make half of that back in crack rocks that have fallen in the couch cushions. If I wasn't concerned about getting shot dead........
 
PHX isn't Detroit. For $34K I would buy it and rent it out. Then when the market recovers 50% you are break-even and can sell both to get out if you want.

The problem is these properties are trashed and not move-in-ready, yet they're driving comps down all over the county....

At least Detroit had a job market - Phx's job market is based on construction....and now that that's pretty much done, I don't have high hopes for that hell hole.

I'm glad I'm out of there, and only have a crappy condo with a LTV of 300% that I'm renting out for about 75% of what my expenses are. Things will be worse when my current tenants move out in 11/2010.
 
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