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Here in the land of perpetually overpriced homes, drunk on a little good news

Email|Link|Comments (3) Posted by Scott Van Voorhis August 28, 2009 09:00 AM

OK, so home prices appear to be edging up here in the Bay State after hitting bottom this winter amid fears that we were headed for another Great Depression.

It may turn out to be the turnaround we’ve all been waiting for, but it’s a bounce after a very long and hard fall.

But many homeowners around here apparently believe the days of haggling with bargain hunting buyers are now officially over, according to a recently released survey of local Realtors by HomeGain.

Wow, that’s sure one quick turnaround

All told, nearly half of Massachusetts homeowners believe their castles should be listed for 10-20 percent more than what their brokers are recommending, the survey finds.

That’s up from 31 percent in the second quarter, according to HomeGain.

But home buyers, not surprisingly from the comments I often see on this blog, take a much different view.

Just 6 percent think homes are fairly priced, down from an already measly 31 percent in the second quarter.

A whopping 65 percent now believe homes are overpriced by 10-20 percent, up from 35 percent in the second quarter.

Still, here’s a bright spot for liberal thinkers out there.

Our local Realtors are much bigger fans of President Obama than their counterparts nationally, with 59 percent either approving or strongly approving of his performance.

I had some fun the other day with the national results, with just 42 percent of Realtors across the country giving our new president the thumbs up.

The outraged comments by Realtors out in the hinterlands of Texas were even better.

Apologies to our local real estate folks, who have much better sense than that.

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3 comments so far...

Ah, the beauty of an artificially inflated (low rates, $8k first time buyer credit) "dead cat" summer bounce to make sellers think that their homes are worth 2005 prices again.

Let the $8k expire in Nov, and rates go up even a bit, and THEN lets see what home owners think their homes are worth.

The serious homeowner who wants to sell should see what his house would RENT for, and then price it to sell assuming a 10% down payment, and that "RENT" price as the mortgage payment.

If they think that they are going to get a 20% premium over renting, they are still living in 2005.

Posted by BostonRenter August 28, 09 04:56 PM

Exactly as boston renter said. Buyers will win. Why? Not because they are morally right, but because banks won't give them the loans to hang themselves this time.

FDIC reports banks are going under at a rate we haven't seen since the savings and loan crisis. This isn't a strong sign where aggressive loans are concerned.

And I'd love to see numbers on shadow inventory that banks have been holding off on releasing to the market. Anyone seen hard data on that?

Posted by charles August 29, 09 05:33 PM

And don't forget "The Alt-A Mortgage Reset Bombs" hitting Jan 10 till end of year 2015. These resets are be bigger than the sub-prime meltdown. This will be the last nail on the coffin. Google for "The Alt-A Mortgage Reset Bomb" and see the articles for yourself.

A recent survey showed a whopping 80% of home owners think their houses will appreciate within next 6 months. According to contrarian or smart money principle the majority opinion when comes to investing is mostly wrong so the opposite should happen. This means buy when theres blood in the street. Unfortunately speculative house fever still persists among the ordinary folks so smart buyers should stay in the sideline for now.

Posted by StillRenting August 30, 09 09:14 AM