When will real estate prices recover?

[El Pinko]

Poll question: When will real estate prices recover?

When will real estate prices recover (post nationwide year-over-year gains for say, 3 years in a row)?

Best guess.

(This is my last real estate poll. Just curious what DUers think about various aspects of the topic.)

[trof]

1. I guess you'd have to define 'recover'.

Back to 2005 prices?
A long, long time.

We'll see a flattening somethime in the next year or so.
But there's a lot of excess inventory out there and it will be harder for buyers to qualify for mortgages.

[PSPS]

3. More like three years or more

Don't forget the boatload of "option ARM" toxics that reset in 2010 and 2011. Those will have to become REO's, short sales or foreclosurs before there's any chance for a floor to this correction.

[El Pinko]

4. I went ahead and defined it.

"post nationwide year-over-year gains for say, 3 years in a row"

I personally don't think most markets will see 2005 prices again for at least a decade, or much longer, unless wages nationwide start making some significant and widespread gains, and that doesn't look too likely.

[Love Bug]

2. Never.

The prices were over-inflated and are adjusting downward to where they should have been. It till take a long time, if ever, before they are back up to what they were.