Sellers chop asking prices as housing market slows – The Boston Globe
Sellers chop asking prices as housing market slows
Cuts of up to 20% are now common as analysts see signs of a ‘hard landing’By Kimberly Blanton December 9, 2005
Boston-area homeowners trying to sell their houses are sharply reducing asking prices — in some cases, by $100,000 or more — in response to the sudden slowdown in the real estate market.
…”The evidence — both early data and the anecdotes — are pointing more toward a hard rather than a soft landing” in the housing market, said Nicholas Perna, an economic consultant in Ridgefield, Conn. ”Prices could come down. Could it be 10 to 15 percent? There’s no way of knowing, but what we’re getting is more clues that you’ve got a decline in prices underway.
Agents said price cutting began last summer but accelerated in the past two months and is far more frenzied than in 2004
It’s been talked about for awhile, and I think Boston was mentioned in an article as one of those areas that could see a big correction. I am hoping we will see a little moderation and a ‘softer’ landing, espeically if the Fed moderates their interest rate policy.
I have been thrown into the business world by the dual facts of my father’s death in 2003 and my husbands Peter Pan mode of no retirement plans.
I went into a personal banker who asked me if I liked my new-found financial activities. I do. It is scarey to be on such a steep learning curve at this time of my life though. It could be worse though…. there are plenty of older women whose marriages break up and it catapaults them into a different financial reality.
I was totally out of debt until the decision was made to have my mother come to live with us. Now, the house remodeling to accomodate an elderly person has required a home equity loan. That makes me a bit nervous, but you just have to finance some things…especially when there is a gap in the timeframe of when you can accomplish something with DIY and paid labor.
It seems like this is time to look at reducing debt, again.
via winterspeak.com