All Forum Posts by: Heidi B.

I've been following this thread closely and appreciate the many viewpoints from such a diverse community, I particularly like the graphs, being a visual person :) .  Understandably, the viewpoints of those people who are familiar with the SoCal market are of particular interest to my situation not having experience buying or selling out here yet.  Please correct me if I'm wrong but the general consensus seems to think that this area here, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills, the neighborhood by Lang Ranch Elementary (all 10s for elementary school ratings) perhaps may level out if the economy continues to suffer but not necessarily begin a downward trend.  There is a lot of money here, cash offers, foreign investors, little inventory so it looks like we will just have to put on our boxing gloves to enter the ring. Having had the sour experience of buying in the height of the market in 2006, I'm thinking it's our turn now to catch a break, ha! They say you never make the same mistake twice but then again, the same people problably also say history repeats itself.  

I should clarify, I understand the last housing meltdown in 2008  was due to shoddy/crafty mortgage lending through the entire country.  I think everyone is clear on that one.  What we are seeing today in Feb 2016 is a worldwide economic slowdown and possibly worse.  Do you foresee a downturn in the real estate market if we do in fact face a recession?  Red flags are waving everywhere.  I see all kinds of international money being dumped into the CA housing market in the form of cash buyers driving up prices considerably however, Im not seeing an end to that.  Additionally, there is in general just a lot of money here in CA.  I guess where else would one live if you were rich! Ha. ;) Thoughts?  

 Thx Matt R, it helps to hear about our local environment.  CA seems to be a different animal than other places in the country. Thanks for your thought. 

I'm appreciating the feedback and so quickly! Do none of you sleep?!   Ok, I do realize that if the housing market is to devalue sometime in the near future , it wouldn't be from shoddy loan methods this time around.  To me it seems more like a global meltdown!   

We thought we would be able to purchase something to fix up ourselves and stay in it but the prices of homes for sale here that need significant updating don't seem to be all the much less than those whose owners put in all the bells and whistles.  For example, a 2650 sq ft home here we put the offer in on was listed at $880000.  This was the first we've seen with great attention to detail and quality of construction.  We've seen other homes that haven't been touched since the 80s sell for only slightly less, obviously not enough to less to offset the updating costs.  We are spinning our wheels in SoCal! 

When we purchased our 3 unit bldg together (newly married) in 2006, there not yet any red flags of the pending housing crash that reared its ugly head that very same fall. Some say 2008 but this part is not impt to the question. We were looking in an extremely hot sellers market and were confronted with scenarios of multiple offers, being outbid and cash offers. We were constantly reminded by anyone and everyone to "buy now, it's only going to continue to go up!" We finally found a place but only just sold it last fall (fall2015) for a pittance more than we paid (10 yrs of ownership). We sold for a few reasons, mainly, because we moved to California for a new job opportunity 5 yrs ago, the market in Chicago has only recently allowed us to sell it slightly more than what we paid, and thirdly, found it was too difficult to manage from CA. You may ask, why the heck we didn't purchase here in 2011 or 2012? Let me reiterate that our money had been tied up in property in Chicago that we only were able to sell last fall for a meager profit. As such, the market is again trending upward at a hideous rate (at least here in southern California, I am only familiar with this small market) and we are looking to buy here. I am concerned about the seemingly red flags; slowed growth in US, China's mess, big oil problems, etc. However, we are finding homes are being snatched up the day they go on the MLS. We put in an offer on a house this past weekend at full price and found we were competing with 5 other full priced offers. I'd like to hear others thoughts on this, does anyone think this is another housing bubble on the verge of blowing or am I just fearful from our last experience. I'm afraid of retracing our steps. Is this still a good time to buy or have we reached a peak and we should now just hold off. Thank you. Heidi