Is the home market in California and Florida really that bad?

[touchring]

Is the home market in California and Florida really that bad? We read about it in the news, but the news is always exaggerated. Like to hear from home owners or buyers on ground.

[networker]

Florida's not even comparable to the Pacific Northwest IMO.

Oregon, Washington (Seattle), California, etc. the prices are just insane.

My sister who lives in Seattle and would be considered "middle class", just spent $565,000 for a home that would typically sell for $125-$150,000 in the Midwest (where I am).

It's that bad.

[touchring]

This thing is not just of great interest in America, but also elsewhere in the world. The world is now depending on American consumers to keep spending, and keep buying stuff (money, credit, whatever), or we'll all be in trouble. As long as America spends, the factories in Germany, Japan and China will keep pumping out stuffs frmo BMWs to Toyotas to electronics to the keychain (many believe china only make these), domestic economies will thrive.

[bwhhisc]

The real estate market was booming for the last 5 years, prices probably doubled in the last three years alone for villas, condos, and homes in some markets, southeast included. Home sales in Florida are tough due to recent years of hurricanes. Not as much demand. Prices for homes have come back down about 20% guesstimate in the last 6 months in Southeast, not sure about California. New home building is insane in our area. A huge boom, probably 75,000 new homes within a 50 miles radius underway.

Some people may be holding off on buying thinking they may slip further. Insurance prices for homes in hurricane affected areas have gone up 100% to 300% depending on type of construction and this is adding to overall costs.

Interest rates for 30 year home loans are still good at 5.75% to 6.95%.
Stock index, NYSE has been hitting around new highs.
Gas prices are back down 30% overall for the moment ($2.15 per gallon average).

Zero hurricanes this year, season is just about over. Whew!
There is (no more than usual) grumbling about the economy.
Politicians are still up to underhanded old tricks, R's & D's alike.

[touchring]

ok, so hot money flowing from homes to stocks? people stopped buying homes to buy stocks? inverse relationship.

that case, stocks might explain the current slump in domains.

do you guys remember during the dot com boom, domain prices peaked before stocks peaked?

[Drewbert]

>Zero hurricanes this year, season is just about over. Whew!

Yeah. No Wilma for me this time. I'm a Cat 5 hurricane survivor. Got the t-shirt to prove it. :)

I think the weather pattern changed over to El Niño, so the Caribbean will not be seeing many hurricanes for a few years - a bunch looked like they were going to fire up, and then they just petered out.

The Pacific Coast of Mexico is now the one that's going to get battered regularly.

[bwhhisc]

[QUOTE=Drewbert]>Zero hurricanes this year, season is just about over. Whew!
Yeah. No Wilma for me this time. I'm a Cat 5 hurricane survivor. Got the t-shirt to prove it. :)QUOTE]

Hurricanes suck...er, blow!
They have really hurt the Convention business in Carolinas, Florida, etc. for September and October the last few years. New Orleans just got their Convention Center back open and is taking on some citywides again. We just dodged cat 4 'Hugo' but those that did stay wish they had left. Can't even imagine being in a catagory 5 especially if the storm stalls over you.

[touchring]

>Zero hurricanes this year, season is just about over. Whew!

Yeah. No Wilma for me this time. I'm a Cat 5 hurricane survivor. Got the t-shirt to prove it. :)

I think the weather pattern changed over to El Niño, so the Caribbean will not be seeing many hurricanes for a few years - a bunch looked like they were going to fire up, and then they just petered out.

The Pacific Coast of Mexico is now the one that's going to get battered regularly.


Yeah, i was affected - rentacoder went down sept last 2 years. They always blame it on the winds. Can't understand why they won't locate their servers somewhere safer. :p

[Rubber Duck]

Florida's not even comparable to the Pacific Northwest IMO.

Oregon, Washington (Seattle), California, etc. the prices are just insane.

My sister who lives in Seattle and would be considered "middle class", just spent $565,000 for a home that would typically sell for $125-$150,000 in the Midwest (where I am).

It's that bad.

You wouldn't get a Hen Coup in London for that!

ok, so hot money flowing from homes to stocks? people stopped buying homes to buy stocks? inverse relationship.

that case, stocks might explain the current slump in domains.

do you guys remember during the dot com boom, domain prices peaked before stocks peaked?

Domain market was and is too small to have a knock on effect in other financial sectors.

[touchring]

You wouldn't get a Hen Coup in London for that!

Shouldn't you compare London with New York instead of the smaller places?


Domain market was and is too small to have a knock on effect in other financial sectors.


What i meant is money flowing frmo the domain market to stocks.

[Rubber Duck]

Shouldn't you compare London with New York instead of the smaller places?




What i meant is money flowing frmo the domain market to stocks.

Maybe, but even by New York standards London is expensive and very big!

I don't believe most domainers flip to take stock positions. I have heard a lot of BS on the subject, but it doesn't make much sense. The level of risk and return are so very different that each market tends to have a very different type of investor. Of course there will be exceptions but I don't think that Domaining is greatly influenced by much other than ever increasing Advertising Revenue Streams.

[touchring]

Maybe, but even by New York standards London is expensive and very big!
.


Caused by height limitations in London? Not enough building space?

Asia doesn't have this problem, they just pulled down buildings to build higher buildings. In singapore, there's a new wave of rebuilding, they even pull down 20 stories buildings to build 30 or 40 storey buildings. And there's a nice term for it - Urban Redevelopment. :p

[Rubber Duck]

Caused by height limitations in London? Not enough building space?

Asia doesn't have this problem, they just pulled down buildings to build higher buildings. In singapore, there's a new wave of rebuilding, they even pull down 20 stories buildings to build 30 or 40 storey buildings. And there's a nice term for it - Urban Redevelopment. :p

Building high in London is not really a problem, but Britains are not generally suited to living in High Rise Residential.

London is has the greatest concentrations of wealth in Europe derived from International Financial Service Industies, which are built on the rubble of empire. I read yesterday that we only have $48 Billion in Foreign Currency Reserves compared with $1Trillion for China, but actually if all the holdings of private companies is taken into account the figure is over $8 Trillion.

[touchring]

Building high in London is not really a problem, but Britains are not generally suited to living in High Rise Residential.


No one really likes high rise living, who likes to park the car far away, take the lift (and climb if there's a power failure - always happen in China during peak of summer, i can imagine people in shanghai having to climb 40 storeys whenever there's a power failure).

The thing about parts of East Asia, culture, particularly so for korean, and maybe parts of china like shanghai i think, people can adopt new stuff, technology and trends very quickly, and discard the old ways.

The same might apply for domains, once a new thing comes along, it might move faster than most people can expect - there are always surprises. Just look how hard the chinese gov is trying to problem idn.cn. Everything's being planned for.

London is has the greatest concentrations of wealth in Europe derived from International Financial Service Industies, which are built on the rubble of empire. I read yesterday that we only have $48 Billion in Foreign Currency Reserves compared with $1Trillion for China, but actually if all the holdings of private companies is taken into account the figure is over $8 Trillion.

Ok, now we know where all the money in hongkong went. Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank?

[jenni]

I live in Central Florida 1/2 hour from Orlando and 1/2 hour from Disney. Lake front homes in my area are hard to come by. A few houses in the area include a tub boat looking house over a big lake is some where over 1.5 million dollars. That is off the road with Cypress trees on both side, can be buggy and the house about 10 years ago was in a movie. Another house down the road is listed for 750,000 and is small house with no garage. That is on about 1 1/2 acres with the house on 1 side of a busy road and about 1/2 acre across the road lake front. No dock and the beach area would have to be cleaned up alot.

In my area lake price house have doubled or tripled in the last 15 years. Off the water house aren't as pricey- some starting the 100k's.

Roofing cost are crazy high! For a metal roof it is about 50k and a normal shingle roof is 20k+.

[touchring]

Roofing cost are crazy high! For a metal roof it is about 50k and a normal shingle roof is 20k+.


As in replacing the roof if it gets blown away? I always see this on the news. :p

Double or tripled in 15 years is quite alright considering that labor and material costs, i.e. the roof, went up as well.

[Rubber Duck]

I live in Central Florida 1/2 hour from Orlando and 1/2 hour from Disney. Lake front homes in my area are hard to come by. A few houses in the area include a tub boat looking house over a big lake is some where over 1.5 million dollars. That is off the road with Cypress trees on both side, can be buggy and the house about 10 years ago was in a movie. Another house down the road is listed for 750,000 and is small house with no garage. That is on about 1 1/2 acres with the house on 1 side of a busy road and about 1/2 acre across the road lake front. No dock and the beach area would have to be cleaned up alot.

In my area lake price house have doubled or tripled in the last 15 years. Off the water house aren't as pricey- some starting the 100k's.

Roofing cost are crazy high! For a metal roof it is about 50k and a normal shingle roof is 20k+.

Your $1.5 Million might get you a refurbished small Victorian Terraced House in London in one of the less sought after areas.

[Drewbert]

Build with concrete.

Wilma took over 24 hours to pass over Cancun, and we had 3 deaths I think, all from people going outside during the hurricane, and getting electrocuted etc.

We hunkered down with supplies, fresh water and a generator. No power for days later, so all the neighbours were dropping in with their cellphones and chargers.

[touchring]

Build with concrete.

Wilma took over 24 hours to pass over Cancun, and we had 3 deaths I think, all from people going outside during the hurricane, and getting electrocuted etc.

We hunkered down with supplies, fresh water and a generator. No power for days later, so all the neighbours were dropping in with their cellphones and chargers.


No powers for days? Oh dear. But fine as long as it didn't happened in July. :p

I live in Central Florida 1/2 hour from Orlando and 1/2 hour from Disney. Lake front homes in my area are hard to come by. A few houses in the area include a tub boat looking house over a big lake is some where over 1.5 million dollars.


Has anyone seen this movie?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3uvzcY2Xug

The End of Suburbia - 52 minute documentary on oil

Funny that Asia's moving in different direction, everything is cramped to the city center.

[jenni]

As in replacing the roof if it gets blown away? I always see this on the news. :p

Double or tripled in 15 years is quite alright considering that labor and material costs, i.e. the roof, went up as well.
Both the homes I was talking about and then my home with the roof were all build in the 70's or 80's. My roof is not one of the blue tarp roofs you see from the airplane and think it is another swimming pool. Its just getting older and starting to leak some.

Back in 2004 parts of central florida were without power for weeks because the huricanes just kept coming. Some people had eletric chainsaws and no power to run them. I only lost power for a few days so it wasn't to bad. But the house was all boarded up so it would get really hot inside.