Wednesday, May 21, 2008

New open thread, bring on Memorial Day!

Here's a new open thread for you. Hopefully everybody survived last weeks heat wave, I for one was happy to see a little rain and cooler temps.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

2 funny things I found online.

First, a Craigslist ad I found when searching reduced houses in Portland:

no one predicted the top, no one will predict the bottom but one thing (is for certain, prices will go up again)

If you are an investor and "flip" homes, maybe this is not a good time for you. If you are buying your "dream" home, this is excellent time. Relatively low interest rates and reduced home prices. Local areas in Florida and California and Nevada have been hit hard. Makes for gloom and doom press. Look at the growing economy here in Oregon and Northwest. Look at the number of people moving here. Signs indicate the downturn will not be that bad nor that long.
Before you panic, do some research. This might be the best time for you to buy a home.


Second, an article about a guy who buys a house and realizes what a money pit they can be:

Anonymous said...

oops, the last link didn't close or print:

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/05/23/home_improvement/

Anonymous said...

I love the Salon article. It was well written and so true. I know I get ripped on for shoving my personal fears of homeownership onto to potential buyers, I guess I can be accused of fear-mongering?!?!? But seriously, I just hope people will really, really, think about the true costs of homeownership before jumping in.

We all value things differently but I doubt anyone wants to be a slave to their home or their job(s).

And if you still think I am irrational just look at our ever increasing foreclosure rate!

Anonymous said...

But bearlee, if you rent you're not living a worthwhile life. You're second class, financially desperate and most likely criminal. Only those who are of the landed gentry can be considered to be truly living.

At least that's what the broke homedebtors tell me.

Anonymous said...

Here are some updates of houses this blog has referred to in the recent past:

3215 NE Couch
purchased for $250K on 2/12/02
original asking price of $650K
now reduced to $599K

2817 NE 24th
bought for $675,000 7/25/06
short sale
not on market though hasn't sold(?)

3253 SE Taylor St
asking price $499k, a WaMu repo
sold for $499K
(a great deal, IMHO)

nearly identical house down the street: 3004 SE Taylor St asking price $779K
pulled off the market

632 NE Russell (at the 'edge' of Irvington)
still on market of $495K

2241 SE 26th
purchased in 2007 for $340K and remodeled, original asking price $625K now reduced to $574,900