Bargain Basement Fire Sale

As cruel as it may seem, this is a natural market correction. You can't have 6 consecutive years with 10% plus growth and not have a downturn. It is a zero sum game, the economy will come back. Also, even during the depression, 75% of the work force was employed, so the economy shouldn't ever really shut down.

IF I had extra capital I would be buying today

Shwing!

Real Estate is dead money for the next 20 years. Only people who can actually afford to buy will qualify for loans. Such a novel idea. What's the world coming to.

Wow Patrick. Looks like you forgot your meds. Wearing aluminum on your head as well?

Housing is dead and will stay dead for at least 6+ years, probably 3 times that. You've got a better chance of making money in Vegas than on homes, that is unless your going to take advantage of someones big misfortune at a tax sale. But be careful even something that looks like its half off in 2008 may be 20% to high in 2009. If you honestly think it will rebound answer me this were will all the consumers come for these house currently for sale? What about the ones that are shortly going to be foreclosed? Think the goverments going to push Freddie & Fannie to go even lower. The last 16 years of inadequate government pushing credit to the max isn't going to be repaired in 6 months just by spending a trillion dollars or even two. Use some common sense. Only buy a house if you need one to live in.

Moving, unfortunately for most of us we don't have the free cash to invest heavily at a particular time. We take a bit here and bit there and build it up. So, when stocks dive 30-50% a big fraction of people's wealth just dove 30-50% and those people don't take the remaining cash they have out because of both fear and sensibility. You may know the stock market will pay off in the long run at this point, but are you going to dump the rest of your cash in there and risk continuing to lose money in the short term? Then what happens when you need a new roof or a new car and the stock market is still down? This is my basic situation anyway, and I suppose much of middle class america is sitting in a similar spot. I have ~70% of my non-housing and automotive wealth wrapped up in stocks that are down ~20% (I've invested very conservatively and its payed off some). Just recently I put ~20% of my cash into stocks. I'll play the game some, but I can't risk a big bet, even if I'm fairly sure it will pay off in 2-3 years.

Explaining slavery? Incarceration for civil contempt is and appropriate remedy to enforce child support against unemployed parties. Surely, Wall Street is drooling at the thought of housing incarcerated debtors. Bonds, some of them tax-exempt, will need to be issued to fund such construction projects, with many fees to be paid from the public purse. Slow/no jobs "recovery," debtor's prisons will expand payrolls. Many construction estimators, laborers and superintendents will be needed to build these facilities. Lower-paid and more numerous service workers will be hired to staff them. Behold this flavor of "economic development" that creates growth with employment. There are about 7.6 million of these Americans right now are ready to become full time slaves. State leaders from both parties and their business brethren have contributed to the growth of the national prison-industrial complex. Here's the thing: these debtors will be uncounted in the Labor Department jobs reports, thus invisible as prisoners/ free surplus workers. You may be one of them. Can you say; O'bummer!

Hey Cheryl; there are 4,159,593 Real Estate Listings, Homes for Sale, in America today. 14,481 listings found for Phoenix, AZ 85024 and most already owned by Russ Lyon Sotheby's International and their political friends. $12,500,000.00 for 7.57 Acres, Property Type: Land only. EG&G is a wholly-owned subsidiary of URS Corporation, their personnel respond to the US Treasury agency needs in various locations across the country, working daily with federal law enforcement officers and agents at local levels to seize currency and revenues from those who actually own their property outright. The banks buy back all those court defaults at auction. Can you say slavery?

How hard hit are the other areas in Arizona? I live in Tucson, and saw evidence of speculators coming in herds during the market peak. Have values taken the same hit due to the proximity with Phoenix?

As a recent home buyer in PHX who has kept his finger on the pulse of the market some I think I could offer a bit of insite. You are absolutely right PHX was the first to fall and hardest hit. So, while home prices are dropping 18% this month, PHX has already seen this, and home price have been largely unchanged for at least 6 months. Is this the bottom for PHX? I would say yes, or again its at least very close to it, but it is going to take a long time for this saturated market to bounce back to the 2x prices it saw just about 2 years ago. But those areas on the out skirts of town were so over built that even with the quick growth of PHX its not going to be a quick bounce up. And nor should it be. The bubble burst for a reason. However, PHX has some up side compared to other locations, particularly in a recesion. The cost of living in PHX is maybe 1/2 of what it is just a few hours to the west in LA or SD, or farther north in the bay, and still lower than in the California Valley. So families or individuals in these towns with 50-100K income who could previously buy a 500K+ house in california on an interest only or adjustable rate or anything the bank could think up mortgage, are now discovering they can't keep up and have to sell for a loss. Also, new home buyers in this group can't get a mortgage that big anymore. So where do they go if they want to buy housing? PHX. But is this worth speculating on for anyone other than a multimillionare, absolutely not.

IF I had extra capital I would be buying today...I still think you need to be careful and stick with the best locations but the real estate market will turn around some time and if you have cash I would start shopping. Why is it people will go crazy to save 10% on electronics on the day after Turkey Day but when the stock market and housing market go on a 30 to 50% off sale then run for cover?