FSBO BLOG

it was the banks that solved the financial crisis with government help, it was BP that solved the oil spill problem with outside experts help, it is now TEPCO solving the Japan nuclear problem with outside help. The housing problem needs to be fixed by investors (with government help). Buying a fixer upper/foreclosure property leads to less inventory/higher values, reduced foreclosures,  increased employment, more goods sold, and the bottom line for the government being more tax revenue.  It just seems so simple!!

Lot’s of headlines today regarding February home sales being down. But we like to look for solutions in these reports.  For example, new home prices are now 45 percent higher than prices for previously occupied homes. A more normal difference is about 15 percent, an indication that old homes on the market are being sold at comparatively cheap, and affordable, levels. The underlying problem is the amount of vacant/foreclosed properties for sale, most needing alot of work/repair/updating, etc.  There are two kinds of buyers out there, the ones that want a ‘move in’ ready property and the other willing to ‘fix up’ a property. The ‘move in ready’ buyer won’t buy today, because they are paying a 45% premium. The ‘fixer upper’ buyer won’t buy because they can not resell the property.  Our solution has been the same for over two years now. You need that ‘fixer upper’ buyer to buy the vacant/foreclosed property. We offered the solution two years ago and keep repeating it.  Reduce the number of govt/bank owned property on the market by offering low finance rates to investors. It is very simple.  Read more tomorrow.

from January, seasonally adjusted 479,000 homes, the Commerce Department said today.  Single-family homes, which make up roughly 80 percent of home construction, fell 11.8 percent in February. Apartment and condominium construction dropped 47 percent.

Government and bank owned properties still total over 1,000,000 for sale at reduced prices, tough for the home buildings to compete. You’d think they would be encouraging the government to offer incentives to unload this overhang of inventory. It would help the builders and individual homeowners.

Today, the Labor Department reported Initial jobless claims dropped to the lowest level since May 2008, pointing to a strengthening labor market. Applications for unemployment benefits decreased by 20,000 to 368,000 in the week ended Feb. 26. Fewer claims means more with jobs, and the more jobs means more future real estate buyers. The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, dropped to 388,500, the lowest since the week ended July 12, 2008, from 401,250 last week.