Weekend Home Hunting Thoughts

This past weekend, my wife and I went out to various open houses on the market in our area. Surprisingly, we actually went to 5 open homes - a record on our part. A few of these homes I can remember seeing on the market 5-6 months ago. A few of the home descriptions even said "Reborn with a new look, new paint inside and out."

I believe some of the home prices were even reduced a bit, though I can't recall specifically what the original prices were. In my opinion, the home market in my area still seems to be a bit overpriced. Given all of the talk of a housing bubble implosion, it seems that a few sellers out there are stubbornly holding onto their original asking price. However, homes that are priced right and are a good value for the money will be snapped up. The housing market in general will achieve equilibrium in the long rung, but values can still be found by someone. If a home has been on the market too long, there is obviously something wrong with it - probably the price.

As for my personal home search, my wife and I didn't see anything too exciting. The inventory is still low, but houses are slowly starting to trickle back on the market. There were no "We have to make an offer today" type homes. When searching for a home, it's tough to compromise on certain things, but that is just the reality of buying a home.

I did run across a home that we were looking at 4 months ago. This home was on the market for about 5 months. The seller had set the price, lowered it, raised it again, and lowered it again. It still didn't sell. I even went as far as to go see the house - it was interesting. It had been updated, but the layout was not quite right. I think the previous owners had expanded the home, but unfortunately, the structure of the home left lots of unusable space. There were odd staircases here and there and there was no dining room. I bring this home up because I just saw that the seller is now trying to lease the house out. Given the monthly lease amount and knowing what the seller paid for the home, I believe that the seller is still underwater IF he can even lease the house out. The lease amount is about $1000 per month too high. This appears to be a classic case of someone getting in on the tail end of the housing boom to make a quick buck. It looks like it has backfired thus far.

That's it for now.