Bulletproof housing markets get hit

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/real_estate/bulletproof_cities/index.htm?section=money_mostpopular

Bulletproof housing markets get hit
The mortgage meltdown has finally gotten to Seattle, Charlotte and and other cities where prices had been holding up.

By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: May 6, 2008: 11:38 AM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Some of the last, best housing markets - the ones that continued to climb even as the rest of the country cratered - have turned south lately.

Seattle, Portland Ore., Charlotte, NC, and Salt Lake City all posted home price gains during 2007, even as more than half of the 150 markets tracked by the National Association of Realtors registered declines. Now they've joined the losers.

[Warpy]

1. Here in central NM, it's location, location, location

The McMansion neighborhoods on the edge of town are faring quite poorly, with an oversupply of the wrong kind of housing dumped onto the market by speculators hoping to salvage something out of a bad investment. Those houses are not budging and are falling into disrepair.

My area is faring quite well, an area of post WWII starter housing that is close to everything.

My guess is that other markets are similar, with convenient locations doing better as gas prices continue to soar.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

2. As much as I dislike my home I love the location

I live in an inner ring suburb of the twin cities, one of the more affluent ones, But I could not afford a nice place so three years ago when my wife got Pregnant we bought a rondo (rental being turned into a condo) in three block high density apartment complex that was, at the time, 60-90% section eight housing (today its around 30% because the state reduced what they will give for section 8 in my complex). Anyways long story short I own a small 900sq ft apartment in whats is called the ghetto of my city still I am blessed..

9 months after buying I got a job that took me from a commuter the downtown to someone who has 2.5 miles to go to work (and my office is moving down the road to be even closer to me). I have two supermarkets, a best buy, a 24 retail store, and SAM's Club, a YMCA, a great daycare for the girls, etc.. all within 2.5 miles of my home and Im right on a bus route which takes me to not one but two possible transit hubs (one for Minneapolis and one for St Paul).

Still I'm mortgaged for 130 (I spent, including improvements, 144) and I could probably sell for only 140. Still I may save up over the next year and start renting my condo so I can get a proper home with a yard for my wife kids, and enough room for a garden for me.. Its a small dream..

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. 900 sq feet aint too shabby. You already have a "proper home". :-)

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

5. Well its an odd 900

1) There are four of us
2) The bedrooms are crazy small
3) no yard, at all...
4) only two of the bedrooms are functional the other is *technically* a bedroom

--

But you are right, I have a proper home I lack a proper house ;)... I am happy for what I have and if I cant get out of it in the next couple of years Ill live just fine at least if my wife gets well enough for both kids to come home I wont need to drive to work (as it is I drive them into daycare) and I can just bike in.

[Warpy]

4. You might find the yard aint worth it

I know that while I was growing up, the yard was boring but the city parks were great. I didn't even like yards that had swing sets. They just didn't compare to the gear the local park had. That was true in apartment neighborhoods and in single family house urban areas.

There's a lot to be said for an urban upbringing and I'm the first to say it. I was 14 when my folks moved to a real burb, and I despised it. I used to ride my bike 10 miles to get into the city where my friends all were and where there were ice cream shops and bagel shops and PEOPLE instead of the dead moonscape of manicured lawns and closed garage doors.

900 square feet in the city is pretty generous and your girls will have access to a lot of amenities as they grow up and start school. Think twice about retreating to the suburban dream of the house and yard and dog (and yard full of dog shit). It sounds like your area is beginning to transition upwards and you might find that it's the best of all possible worlds for now.

Save your bucks and you might be able to afford one of the smaller houses in the same area eventually.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Good advice.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

7. I loved having a yard as a kid

and while parks are nice on a nice day like today where its beautiful outside but my wife is under the weather its far nicer to let them run out in the yard with toys and a swing set than it is to have to pack up two kids (one of whom is peanut allergic) and go to the park where you have to keep an eye on them.

I'm not after moving too far from where I am, a few miles away are houses of the type Im looking at and I would still be close enough to not be a 'commuter'. I don't want to move miles and miles from where I am, I rather like my little city, especially around the 'town center' where I live..

I grew up between the suburbs and city (South Buffalo) not really urban as someone from NY, LA, or Chicago land would understand the term but not suburban either. Id like to build my kids a big old igloo in the winter, Id like a nice *big* garden, and I'd like my wife to be able to feel the grass between her toes early in the morning in the last few moments of quite time we have before the day begins.

Im not looking for a gated McMansion just something that feels less like an Apartment than a House.