Comments on: Housing datapoint of the day, Sheila Bair edition

By: a

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:45:01 +0000

“but with real shopping on the fringes – Walmart, Target, etc.”

ROTFL! Let’s go have some real manly shopping at Target…

Both Smith and Amherst’s endowments are down (like everyone else’s) and the cuts are just beginning. Pricing pressure in this area will continue.

By: 20 Year Realtor

20 Year Realtor — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:12:29 +0000

I don’t care if the shack is planted atop Mount Rushmore, she won’t get 50% of her own costs out of it.

It’s over people. The “Housing is an investment” lie has been proven to be just that. Housing is an EXPENSE… always has been, always will be.

We’re going back to to early 1990′s prices whether you like it or not.

By: wcw

wcw — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:05:49 +0000

Bair’s house might sell, but if the new buyer is a flipper, he’s in for a rude awakening if he expects prices to triple again any time soon. Check out the Case-Shiller tiered price indexes. The high tiers across the country haven’t yet quite faced the reality of the market. Indeed, they might never do so. Traditionally, house-price bubbles are inflated away. Foreclosure and REO sales have changed that this time, but only on the low end. High end owners have been able to stay in their homes, mostly.

Me, I welcome the eventual death of the flipper ecology.

By: Lord

Lord — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:34:58 +0000

I am not sure it is so much denial as facing reality that nothing in the jumbo market has much likelihood of selling these days. The market is simply too illiquid.

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:03:06 +0000

UMass-Amherst is on the brink of major budget cuts after this coming year, including hiring freezes and faculty firings. That doesn’t bode well for real estate prices over the next few years:

http://www.masslive.com/chicopeeholyoke/ republican/index.ssf?/base/news-21/12453 9571252730.xml&coll=1

By: Bob_in_MA

Bob_in_MA — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:51:37 +0000

I live in the area and bought an old house the same year and also spent a lot of money remodeling it.

The permit amount was almost certainly ridiculously low balled. Here home appraisals are based on market price. So if you submit a permit for $89,000, your assessment will increase by that amount. If you actually spend $200,000, people probably won’t check.

I’d also note that prices in this area have been amazingly resilient. Zillow shows my house’s value about where it was four years ago, and that’s probably not far off. That means in real terms it fell 10-12%.

I wouldn’t be surprised if her house sells at that price.

By: Myles SG

Myles SG — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:30:40 +0000

Amherst is like Hanover, NH, of Western Massachusetts; a very pleasant, nice, lovely upscale, money town. It’s a very good place.

By: jonathan

jonathan — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:02:17 +0000

Amherst is a beautiful town in W. MA, one of those upscale picture postcard towns with restaurants and coffee bars but with real shopping on the fringes – Walmart, Target, etc. It’s a college town, with UMass, Amherst, Hampshire, and is a short hop from Northampton. In other words, it’s a 2nd home place where a number of people connected to the schools also live. It’s not a suburb of Boston so the dynamics of price are peculiar.