October 2009 Real Estate Stats: Solds Up 38%

What is your advice for someone who is underwater by about 30% already.

We can’t afford to stay in the building, and we can’t afford to sell without ruining our credit for all time.

We have lost one job, and the other isn’t worth speaking about.

We are falling further behind, and so far have been using our savings to stay even.

Our savings will be exhausted this month.

If we sell, we will owe the bank something like $50,000, which we don’t have.

And, no one is going to lend us a penny with our current income.

So, what do you suggest?

Hi Leone –

I’m really sorry to hear about your situation. It will hurt your credit quite a bit, but a short sale might be the route to go. There was an interesting article I read yesterday: http://budurl.com/wcwr I’m not advocating walking away from your mortgage, but credit is an asset with a value that you have to attach to it.

Eric what we are seeing in Cincinnati is that volume is up but it is the lower priced foreclosures that the investors are buying. That is suppressing home prices and making consumer sales more difficult.

I think that we can really celebrate when we see some stability in the prices and get the individual homeowners set with mortgages they can afford. At that point inventory will realign with the basic supply and demand curves.

We had the same jump in October, but in November the curve continued up, which is nice. I think it also has a lot to do with the credit, and it will be interesting to see how December plays out. I can see a decline in sales over the next couple of months, but it will pick up when the new credit nears an end. :)

Thanks for sharing these statistics. By the way well put together blog!

I’m looking to find a way to identify the amount people own more than 4 properties in my geographic area: Orlando.

Any ideas?

I’d think if you could find it for one city it wouldn’t be hard to find it in the other as well.

thanks,

David