Comments about ‘For sale: Jobless rate adds to foreclosure woes’

Great time to buy, thats for sure. I think we'll be feeling more optimistic by next summer. We've just had three consecutive months with increasing existing home sales nationally which is part of why the DOW is back up above 9,000.

No more booms and busts, lets get some regulation on these lenders.

This reporting in this article is in line with what I am seeing on the street. This area (Salt Lake Area) was one of last areas in the country to rocket up in prices. It makes sense that it is one of the last to come back down to earth. Until prices return back to their historic norms (median home price should equal three times the average income), I will continue to sit on the sidelines and watch as I save thousands each month by renting. Everyone should not kid themselves that the Salt Lake Metro Area is exempt from the economic forces that work out any excess from the bubble.

Bad time to buy when the house you buy this week will be worth 10k less by Christmas time.

Half-full | 10:04 p.m. you work in real estate. Try:"god isn't making more land." This economy has little reason to turn around. There are more layoffs, people and businesses are spending less as many workers wages are cut.

BAD time to buy. Upticks in sales mean little...you really have to look at the tumbling prices. Why buy now if it will be worth much less a year from now? The rising jobless rate and another round of resetting rates on adjustable mortgages, among other things, will keep prices dropping. I'll be looking to buy in 2011 myself.

I think right now is not a good time to buy, it's just not as bad to buy now as it was a year ago. It's like when gas was $4 a gallon and everyone thought $2.99 locked in would be great! Well, $2.99 a gallon was great when prices were over 4 bucks a gallon. But today, $2.99 is terrible.
Same will be able to be said on home prices.

With land and home values on the decline, why aren't home values also declining in the tax evaluations by the county? The evaluations are also upside down in todays market and very little attention is being made of it.

For many years homes were over valued and over priced in a gluttony of fraud and corruption, now when the real values emerge the county's continues to over evaluate. This process by the tax commissions is very hard to fight when no sales or reasonable values can be determined.

In an economy of losing jobs and cutting wages and inflation to cost of living, our taxing agency's are determined to keep putting more pressure on an individuals already strapped incomes.

Renting can be the best thing you could be doing financially right now, but if you are long term home-owner there is a huge opportunity if you are prepared to buy. Interest rates are well below historic norms. Rates will have a large impact on housing in the future. When the dollar is devalued from printing more money, inflation goes up. Inflation drives up interest rates and eventually wages as well. If you have a fixed rate loan this will be a huge money saver for long term owners as they will not be paying increased rent amounts and will eventually have the home paid off. Long term planning is a good idea even if it doesn't work out exactly how you think it should. Look at history, remember the 15 to 18% rates in the early 1980's. Historically 7 to 8% is more the norm. Look it up, study history, educate yourself.

I've heard so much that Utah considers itself exempt from the problems in the economy, that Utah is somehow different. It isn't. Will a tax cut and more military spending be the solution, as Mitt Romney recently advocated? What else has the GOP offered to pull us out of this mess? At least the President, who inherited a poor economy, is trying to do something. The Obama haters will now come out in force, the socialism paranoids will emerge, but all your pot-shots amount to nothing. Where are your new ideas? You have none.

Unfortunately the greedy will make money and the rest of us will suffer.e will never get it. American dream - oh sure - not.

Our home valuation went down by almost $100,000, so I don't know what county "on the decline" is talking about.

Just because a home is being sold as a "short sale" does not mean the owner is trying to sell it for less than he originally bought it. When housing was booming, many people took out large home equity loans against the perceived increase in value of their homes to go on vacation, buy a new car, boat, or a host of other toys.

A homeowner who originally bought a home in 1997 for $200,000 may be trying to short sell it for $250,000 right now, but owes $400,000 on the house due to all these home equity loans. This may be a short sale, but it is not being sold for less than the owner originally bought it.

Not too long ago an article read that we are coming out of the slump. Experts have no idea when things will turn around. Washington "experts" are ruining our country. How can this be a good time to buy?

When a home is sold on ashort sale, the seller may find themself oweing a large amount in federal taxes.

When someone short sells they need to look at the possiable libility then decide.

I'm not in real estate, but I can do simple math. The fact of the matter is that now is not a bad time to buy a home--even if there is still some downward pressure on prices. If I buy a home today for $200,000, 30-year amortization, and an interest rate of 5.5% (entirely doable), then my P&I payments are about $1,136/month (P&I). If interest rates increast to the 'historic norms' mentioned in an earlier post (and they will, believe me--with the heavy deficit spending the country is engaging in, inflation will drive rates way up), then at an 8% rate, to keep the same payment, I can only afford a home valued at $154,000--and that's a 23% drop. Will home prices continue to drop that much? I doubt it. If you are trying to time the market, one of two things will happen. You will either get lucky, or you will get burned. So, if you intent is to live in the home (vs buy for investment), then now is a good time to start looking.

The government needs to keep home prices as high as possible since tax revenue is based on home valuation, so they will try to paint a good picture the best they can by skewing statistics. Expect another 10% drop in home prices before the upture sometime in summer/fall of 2010.

I agree with what you say. Many people don't understand the full gamit of economics. Sure, house prices will continue to fluctuate in the near-term, but once interest rates go up, and inflation hits the market, watch what happens to the renters then.

Case in point: my parents bought their first home in 1970 for $30K. It's now worth about $200K. How did it get there? Inflation! If you sit too long on the sidelines renting, you miss the opportunity to lock in a payment that is steady.

I'm not a real estate agent, and am not advocating anyone to buy. But there's more to "waiting it out" then just declining prices.

Yes, the eonomy is emerging slowly from a severe downturn. Pent-up demand for cars, computers, etc. is driving a modest up-tick in demand. Low interest rates make current home prices attractive, but only for those who can afford them. Buying a home and then losing it to foreclosure is not only financially devistating, it can be a very emotionally trying experience as well.

The fact that we are seeing the economic tide ebb a bit does NOT mean that Utah housing prices have bottomed. There is a massive overhang of unsold homes on the market and more coming up for sale daily as people can no longer afford their homes. Prices are probably still 10-20% too high across the Wasatch front. Having said this, affordability may be bottoming as lower prices may be met with higher interest rates. Cash buyers may want to be patient while borrowers are in more of a catch-22.

It's interesting that the title of this article refers to a "jobless rate". Could we actually be in a jobless recovery? A jobless recovery or jobless growth is a phrase used by economists to describe the recovery from a recession which does not produce strong growth in employment. The phrase originated in the early 1990s in the United States, to describe the economic recovery at the end of President George H.W. Bush’s term; it came back into use during the early 2000s. Under Obama, the government has given well over 90% of the taxpayers’ money to the richest companies and well under 10% for job-creation programs. Therefore, the "jobless recovery", if that's what we're in, is really a massive redistribution of wealth from the little guy to the big boys.

Home prices in Utah will continue to drop significantly for the next several years.