[hyteckit]

There is an article that talks about the Housing Meltdown in the US that I found interesting.

After housing prices soared in the past few years, it is expected to drop 25% more on average before the market finally hits bottom. It is estimated that home prices will drop from anywhere from 20% to 40% before hitting bottom. Wow, imaging a 40% drop. That would be crazy.

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate...using-Meltdown

[PB2K]

I rent

I will wait for a bargain

[moonmonkey]

Thats awful, 40% loss.
Time to sell up and move somewhere with a growing market, there are places that property prices increased 50% in 2007.

[Chuckit]

Honestly, I have trouble seeing this as a disaster. House prices in the US have been completely unreasonable for quite some time now. When people are still trying to sell a run-down POS for $600,000 even today, that's just crazy. (IANAE, of course.)

Originally Posted by moonmonkey 

Thats awful, 40% loss.
Time to sell up and move somewhere with a growing market, there are places that property prices increased 50% in 2007.

If you're talking about the US: Just wait. Your time will most likely come. Also, why would you move someplace where prices have just increased? That's like telling somebody, "This stock appears to be wildly overvalued right now. You should buy it now while it's high." It seems like someplace that's just about to come out of a crash is the best place to buy, because then you get more bang for your buck.

If you're not talking about the US: Who wants to live there?

[moonmonkey]

A lot of the developed Asian Markets are selling 30% to 40% + growth year on year.
Three years living in the sun with a low income tax bracket and double your investment when you go home.

[Chuckit]

So I'd spend three years living in a country with (without getting into PL issues) somewhat dodgy laws, where there's nobody I know and (as far as I can tell) nothing much to do — and all that because the houses there are more expensive than what I have now? I'm not really seeing the draw, to be quite honest.

[AngelaBaby]

Originally Posted by moonmonkey 

Thats awful, 40% loss.
Time to sell up and move somewhere with a growing market, there are places that property prices increased 50% in 2007.

Yeah, Mexico.

[Eug]

Here's a thread from July 2006 I posted with an article predicting real estate declines, which are happening now. It was interesting to see that some believed such a thing just could not occur, despite similar real estate bubble bursts having occurred in the recent past.

That said, many other countries have seen similar rises, but so far are far away from seeing any declines. Locally, we are still seeing record setting prices. Part of the reason is because of different economic fundamentals, and part of the reason is because of different lending laws. OTOH, if the US falls into a recession, it's definitely going to have some effects on its big trading partners like us.

[moonmonkey]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

So I'd spend three years living in a country with (without getting into PL issues) somewhat dodgy laws, where there's nobody I know and (as far as I can tell) nothing much to do — and all that because the houses there are more expensive than what I have now? I'm not really seeing the draw, to be quite honest.

i wasnt talking about moving to China, a communist state would be a bit of a shock after California, but thousands of US citizens are buying property in Hong Kong and Australia / NZ to take advantage of the fact that the current trend in the US is down. While it may not look a good deal for you, a 50pc return in one year seems very attractive to me.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by moonmonkey 

i wasnt talking about moving to China, a communist state would be a bit of a shock after California, but thousands of US citizens are buying property in Hong Kong and Australia / NZ to take advantage of the fact that the current trend in the US is down. While it may not look a good deal for you, a 50pc return in one year seems very attractive to me.

Real estate speculation has had its negative effects in certain areas of Asia as well. I read a newspaper article a while back about speculators dropping out of the market in certain parts of China for example, because their locales had hit their condo price peaks.

[hyteckit]

Just heard on the news, foreclosure is up 75% in 2007 compare to 2006.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by hyteckit 

Just heard on the news, foreclosure is up 75% in 2007 compare to 2006.

That's actually lower than I thought it was going to be.

I had guessed over 100% higher.

[MacosNerd]

Its kind of grim here in Mass. foreclosures up, houses not selling.