"Blood in the water" in Florida property market

Source: Reuters

CAPE CORAL, Florida (Reuters) - Phone books that were delivered but never opened rot away next to empty driveways and overgrown lawns, telltale signs that once-booming southwest Florida is now the center of the U.S. housing storm.

Until two years ago, middle-class retirees vied with property speculators for houses and apartments in Cape Coral, a town near Fort Myers on Florida's sun-drenched Gulf Coast. Now almost every other house on some of its streets has a for-sale sign outside.

With a bloated inventory of unsold homes and a growing number of homeowners forced by mortgage delinquencies to sell -- thanks to the subprime crisis and ensuing credit crunch -- southwest Florida's once warm clime for property has turned stone-cold.

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"They're saying that we're heading for a recession but I think we're past that," said Setterlund, referring to the housing glut and its effect across much of south Florida. "I think we're headed more into a depression."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1230248820070814

get really ugly. If only the bigoted, Kyl voting, repigs in Scottsdale realized why their economy was still doing so well, they wouldn't be in such a hurry to seal off the border...

Said "F*@& Scottsdale" on it.

in Michigan can't sell for anything. I had to relocate to Ohio for job reasons. It is hard to sell a home in a nice sub that has homes up for foreclosure or up for auction.

socal instead of michigan otherwise the same.

another 12 or so being occupied but up for sale.

This housing market is nowhere near its end and it is starting to look like it is going to turn into a 'banking crisis'.

These next 5 years shall not be 'pretty ones' I fear.

and this is the first time in 15 years I've seen For Lease signs on regular houses that were once very desirable. They can't even lease these suckers let alone sell them.

a nice neighborhood that Detroit would become a spot to locate back-office operations?

I'm just hoping that something positive will happen to my home state. I'm from a little town near Lake Michigan about half-way up the LP.

Summer home buyers from Chicago are still around and there's a major need for housing for the folks who pick the fruits and vegetables.

However, the downturn is bound to affect the less desireable real estate away from both the Lake and the fields.

in Indiana three years ago. Not looking up.

Can't fix a SERIOUS PROBLEM till YOU admit there is ONE. idiots.

in dire straits and have hopes that 'things will change soon'....

long before they get ANY better. Unfortunately, many will be ruined or destroyed by the arrogance and fraud of a few.

I think all of South Florida has gone to hell in a handbasket. I'm in Miami. There are so many houses and condos for sale here it's almost like the Twilight Zone. People can't sell so many are trying to rent. Even when they won't sell or rent, the sellers won't drop the prices... maybe 1,000, maybe 2,000. They'd rather lose money and hold on fast to that dream of flipping the property at prices that are ridiculously high. But it won't happen. Nobody is buying a thing. And, to add insult to injury, builders are still building even more, and providing special offers to go with these new homes: cars, college tuition, etc. Where will it all go?

in these homes and by the time you figure in the real estate agency commission, they are upside down and owe more than the house is worth.

In the end, they will go into foreclosure if the note can't be covered.

That's scary. So these are a whole lot of wanna-be flippers that are about to go bust?!?!

Would it be worthwhile getting out of Florida before the bottom finishes falling out, or will the whole country be affected?

in mortgage that you can afford with a secure job, you are most likely ok.

Regardless, work double-duty to reduce any debt you have.

No debt and paid for homestead is todays "Rolls Royce"....

If you owe no one you have no worries.

they were worth.

Now builders can offer a new home at a lower price than people are willing to sell an older home. That will continue until market forces cause the price of older homes to be less than that of new homes.

Homeowners are definitely going to lose money. The question is how much, 5% or 10% or more?

Homeowners can't declare bankruptcy because Bush made it impossible for working people to use that process.

DUer will answer that question.

With me, it was a health issue and a wife whose job was outsourced.

If you remember in 2002, a lot of 401k's became 201k's. And I was trying to sell retirement property

I had back surgery that ended my career in 2000
We had just refinanced to get money to build a 1200 sq ft addition
but my wife had a great job and I was supposed to get better after the operation.

The wife lost her job and went back to work at half the money.
I couldn't work, but I did try. I ended up filing disability.
The contractor dragged the job out over a year

So even though I had a net $100000 gain in equity.
Our credit rating had gone in the toilet and we couldn't get a refi

And, in 2002, we couldn't find a buyer.

The mortgage company tried to work with us for six months
but we couldn't come up with enough to satisfy them

Then, they filed for foreclosure
and had to put legal notice of a sheriffs sale in the paper

Three days before it was to be sold, we filed Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

So, No, you don't have to pay off the debt.

In that situation, you commit financial suicide

BTW, three years later my now ex-wife bought another home
but was forced to take a adjustable rate mortgage to do it

That sucker if fixing to re-set this year.

My home is paid for
It's a 28 foot sailboat

First, thank you so much for explaining what happened to you. Thank goodness you're okay now.

Too much bad stuff happens to Americans when they get health issues.

Here's an article from MSNBC today about a woman who went through very bad things when she became ill:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20201807/

you can't default on student loans but otherwise, yeah, you can declare bankruptcy

people exaggerate but it's unhelpful when they do

The law was changed fairly recently, no? However, bankruptcy was only made difficult for people, not for corporations. Corporations can still declare bankruptcy as they always did.

As was pointed out, they owe too much to cut prices without bank approval. As they begin to default, that approval will be forthcoming.

In 2002 I sold a condo for 100,000. It appreciated to about 190,000 over the next three years, but that didn't last long. It wouldn't sell for 130,000, which I presume they owed on it from borrowing against the inflated equity, and then there was a short sale for 115,000. Banks are going to eat it one way or the other.

I understand the foreigners with money to visit and invest are no longer heading to US despite our worthless dollars and cheap labor......fearing perhaps getting disappeared or becoming unwell and having to rely on US Healthcare system.

he's taken a major hit equity-wise. He can't afford to sell it - just has to keep hoping he doesn't ned to liquidate during the Bush depression

:evilgrin:

About three years ago we bought our house in Central Fla. for $75k, although it was appraised a little more than that and our sellers were not motivated by greed for the sale. It was a sale based on a normal interest in relocation out of state. And it was not an 'investment property' for us either. We had to find a place to live or we would have faced homelessness.

Less than 2 years later, we could get appraisals of the same for almost twice the original sale. Go figure! A house that was not really repaired or improved in any substantial way during that time.

What's the point of selling if we can't afford to buy a similar house with the same financial obligations?

Basically, housing doubled and inceased in value while real wages and employment was reduced and average income declined at almost the same rate. Factoring in cost-of-living, gasoline prices, ect.

There is a housing crisis brewing, it's probably unsolveable for the same reason that our bridges are crumbling and the national infrastructure is decaying. We have created a war-economy but without war rationing, which only serves to bolster a few narrow sectors of the economy (i.e., Pentagon, military-industrial complex) at the expense of the civilian peace-time economy (i.e. building and operating hospitals, schools, roads, and yes, affordable housing).

It is always nice to know that in time of plague, grave robbers do a brisk business.

It's people like him who prey upon others and older people! The lady who comes down here from NJ for the winter just called me and told me she got an offer from someone to buy her place! I told her to tell him to take a hike! The offer was a joke! But some who aren't savvy enough will fall for this stuff and that's why the RICH GET RICHER!

for a year and half in Ft Myers. Two bedroom villa, backs up to woods, gated community, golf, pool, tennis and of course shuffleboard. Anybody interested?

have been trying to sell for over a year now! But it ain't cheap and I can wait for a while to see if things change again.

The Bushies have bankrupted this country. That was their intention and we have let them get away with it. It truly makes me sick. The deficit, our schools, our infrastructure, health care, etc.- all down the tubes. When will the madness stop and how do we do it???

Thanks, BushCo. :puke:

We just got back from Lincoln City, a popular Oregon beach town, and there were for sale signs all over the town. As one of the above posters said, however, the prices aren't substantially dropping. Very modest beachfront house: 1.5 million. The houses that aren't for sale are for rent. We live in Olympia, WA, and the market is dead here, too. Thank God my kids moved a year ago; they wouldn't be able to sell their house now.

And here's the thing.... buyers know the market is inflated, and nobody is buying. How long can these high prices remain, and the market get more and more flooded with unsold and new homes? A year? Two years?

the words out Florida is going under water

Global Warming
who wants to sign a 30 year mortgage with thoughts of the ocean reclaiming your land

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Probably more than any other state. There are a large percentage of 2nd homes here (with owners in other states), it's always a speculators favorite (going back to the 1920's), and the population growth has been enormous the last few decades.

I live in Florida and, frankly, my house and other properties are still over-valued. The prices were run up artificially well beyond what they are worth and they still need to adjust back to 2004 levels.

extra 5-acres in North Port! I can wait though, but when it was "hot" there my friend sold her place in FOUR hours and moved to NC! I couldn't get my husband to agree to sell back then, so now we sit and wait AGAIN!

But insurance costs on my home are really outrageous, thankfully I don't have to insure the acreage! The taxes were pretty high though!