Foreclosure Sales and Home Prices

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Foreclosures are also driving rental prices up. In Riverside, CA, the cost of renting a room has gone from $350 a month to $500. I know because I am being foreclosed on and need somewhere to live. Housing and rental prices are much higher than last year also. Because so many people are losing their homes and need some place to live, the market has pushed the rental cost skyward. If you want to make money in real estate, buy rental property in Riverside. I hope my sarcasm has been noted.

Mazie M of CA 8:28PM September 10, 2009

Here in California Bankers are holding mostly all REO's homes, and realestate agencies keep pushing up prices in partnership with sellers.
By holding, and keeping all those artificial prices with the help from government a Bubble is emerging.
When it comes about foreclosures there's another gimmick going of keep high prices, make the foreclosures look like bargens for first-time buyers.
If all of the above is NOT gansterism, I need someone to explain me.

Jc of CA 10:21AM September 10, 2009

This downturn brings to mind Texas after the oil price crash. A huge acreage next to our house in north Dallas sold for $35 million during the oil boom of the early 1980s. In the late 1980s the federal trust that had taken ownership sold it for $120,000., or 3.4% of the orginal cost. The land was then sold to developers that sold lots cheap, depressing prices in the area for over a decade.

tyler of HI 2:27AM September 10, 2009

I think Mr. Mullins makes some good points in his article...to go one step further, in addition to affecting prices, foreclosures have also skewed the recent housing market data that has been mreported in the media as showing the housing industry has hit "bottom" and in some cases that a recovery is even taking place....
The poblem is, the sales numbers being cited are being greatly exaggerated due to the large percentage of foreclosures...I did a post about this, with details about the impact of foreclosures on the data at http://realestateconsumernews.com/real-estate-market/pending-home-sales-increase-in-july-marking-six-months-of-increases-boom-or-bust/

Dennis Norman of MO 12:58AM September 10, 2009

Government assistance with paying homeowners mortgages? That just props up home values and keeps the prices too high. As for current homeowners, nobody held a gun to their head and made them buy a house. And there are plenty of people who held off on buying a home because they knew that homes were overvalued. We need to let the foreclosures happen so that home prices will fall and people who didn't get swept up in the hysteria will be able to buy a home at an affordable price. Don't penalize the next generation for your mistakes.

Capitulation Nation of NY 12:44AM September 10, 2009

You are, if you're a homeowner. Twice.
In your home value loss and probably someday in your taxes.
In hindsight, do you think your government "bailouts" should have gone in the form of house payment assistance? So the banks would still have gotten the money, but WITHOUT THIS SEVERE WAVE OF DEFAULTS AND FORECLOSURES?
Too late. Bush's boys, Bernanke and Paulson, didn't ask you, if you recall. They just gave money to AIG who gave it to Goldman Sachs and foreign banks.

Muser of NM 10:23PM September 08, 2009