Housing May Be Making a Bottom

It is organizations such as yours that misread the signals for the real estate industry during the last few years. Real estate here in California Inland empire is still overvalued 20-35%. I live in a community where the homes sold in 2005 for 1.2 to 1.5 million. The house I live in was purchased for 1.5 million. The owner put 250k down. She has a 1,250,000 loan. Today three years later, the house could not sell for 750k. Out of 70 homes 20 are empty, up for sale or invarious stages for foreclosure. They move out at night because they are embarassed. Everyone in this gated community is upside down, paying 6-9k per month. I pay 3,250 per month to lease 5,000 sqft, 6 bedrooms 5 baths 4 car garage, gated community, no property taxes nor association fees. We have another 3 years (optimistic) to 5 years (pessimistic) to get out of this housing mess. The only way to end the pain would be for everyone upside down to walk away, and make the banks eat the mess they played a large part in creating.

M. Campbell, CPA, EA, MST, Broker of CA 4:18PM August 03, 2008