MaxEntropy_Man wrote:oh ok. didn't pay attention to that because i wasn't in the market then. i am now and frustrated that boston area prices are so sticky on the way down. i am for the government not constantly tinkering with the real estate market and artificially propping it up. let the chips fall where they may and those still standing pick up properties that they want. it really makes me angry that i should pay for the excesses of somebody else when i had nothing to do with it. whether it is one person or one million people that are being helped by this program, i'd feel the same way. why me?

doofus_maximus wrote:I feel that the prices are staying put on the way down not because of these policies, but because the current sellers holding out to see if the market will rebound. Even in economically downtrodden cities in Michigan prices have stagnated.

seven wrote:buying a house in america is a bad idea. there will always be more homes and less people to live in them. how do we expect the value to increase?

PseudoIntellectual wrote:Foreclosure costs are much higher than the interest free loans.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:oh ok. didn't pay attention to that because i wasn't in the market then. i am now and frustrated that boston area prices are so sticky on the way down.

charvaka wrote:

doofus_maximus wrote:I feel that the prices are staying put on the way down not because of these policies, but because the current sellers holding out to see if the market will rebound. Even in economically downtrodden cities in Michigan prices have stagnated.

This is a large part of it. In many cases, short sales don't go through because banks / investors don't want to -- well, sell short. The big distortion the government did was with the $8,000 tax credit
they gave out last year. According to a recent article in the San
Francisco Chronicle, that boosted prices on average by $30,000 or so for
a while.

Individual homeowners who have the choice to hold out will of course hold out -- nobody is obliged to sell low -- not even those banks / investors. They are of course betting that the government will somehow continue to prop up the housing market. The fact is, if the market is allowed to get into free fall, many more people than those currently behind on payments will be tempted to stop paying their underwater mortgages and walk away. That scenario has the potential to impact all homeowners, not just those behind on payments. It doesn't affect me though, so I wish they let it happen.

confuzzled dude wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:oh ok. didn't pay attention to that because i wasn't in the market then. i am now and frustrated that boston area prices are so sticky on the way down.

I understand your frustration but if you bought your house before '04/'05 you should be alright, right?

doofus_maximus wrote:My house value has already depreciated (from when we moved in the new house at the end of 2008) and I certainly won't welcome any more free fall. But I think this policy won't affect the market either way.

doofus_maximus wrote:As far as the SF Chronicle article is concerned, I think it is a specific case of price increase in and around that city I believe.