Sales up, pricing down

[Hotzcatz]

Hmm, actually, it is interesting to consider how many of the houses in this country which are now owned by the financial institutions. How many big institutions are still left out there and what percent of the real estate do they own? Since they have such a huge chunk of it, it's in their own best interests to not devalue property too much, at least IMHO. I've been expecting prices to take a huge nose dive, but it's been sort of a gradual settling and I don't know how much of this is/was engineered by the big financial companies. Or even if it could be manipulated by them.

We are seeing some prices comparable to 2002 and on some select properties, even lower down to 2001/2000 prices. I believe the reason the property we purchased was so low was because it was priced to sell immediately. It was sold by the children of the folks who built it, none of them wanted to live in it and they would prefer the money from the sale. It is in excellent condition in a quiet established neighborhood and has a clear chain of title since it never went through foreclosure and multiple lending agencies. By getting the new mortgage through our local credit union, the mortgage will never be sold to anyone we don't know and the money we give them will be used to help the community. For anyone else buying property, I'd recommend looking into getting a mortgage through local banks (Bank of Hawaii is a solid institution) or credit unions since they re-invest in our community.

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson