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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Senior who wrote (20940)	3/24/2005 9:19:58 AM
From: Suma	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 78567

I cannot believe what is happening here. Two years ago houses on my block were on the market for months. They brought about two hundred twenty thousand. This month a house two doors down from me sold in three days. The asking price was outbid. There were three who wanted the house bidding against one another. The price was three hundred and twenty thousand. I should have bought up a few. Two years ago a lovely house sold privately for $ 145.000 It was in excellent condition. This is the story all over Florida. A house a year ago that was three hundred fifty thousand is five hundred fifty today.

To: Paul Senior who wrote (20940)	3/24/2005 11:35:34 AM
From: Lazarus	Respond to of 78567

paul - i think i mentioned in a previous post... that i have been taking profits from penny stocks and buying "penny properties." since so much of the fun in is in the HUNT for the bargain i rarely get bored. i purchases 5 properties in the desert for approx $10,000 about 3 years ago. last year i sold one of them for $15,000 and have another on the market for $13,900 and one for $17,500. i purchased a little commercial property [vacant land] last year for $26,000 and have in it escrow now for $47,000 and last nite made an offer for another little commercial property for $10,000 that i think i can resell for $25,000. about 6 weeks ago i came upon a little treasure [6.84 acres] in the midst of the sierra national forest and my son and i scooped it up for $20,000 check it out:http://www.randymcatee.com/mill_creek.htm that year round creek runs right through it! not looking to resell it anytime soon. Lazarus

To: Paul Senior who wrote (20940)	3/24/2005 11:48:04 AM
From: LauA	Respond to of 78567

TARR - coda: my understanding of Tarragon's game plan is that they would buy old high-rise apartment buildings and reorganize them as condo units. Then they started building new highrise condo buildings. Recently they've 'sold' out all the units a year or more prior to final delivery. My understanding is that 70-90% of these units are purchased with the buyers intending to 'flip' them. Buyers never intended to move in. Tarragon has these projects in South Florida, Hoboken, New Jersey (and several other hot real estate markets in the US). Problem with the company projections is that down payments aren't sales. These guys are leveraged to interest rates and building non-productive assets in a jobless recovery. Palm Beach County has a service economy but its housing is so expensive that employees can't afford to live in the county. (I didn't punch into Dade and Broward county data.) I-95 is a virtual parking lot at rush hour, and gas prices are going up. And interest rates are going up. Or are they? Al Greasepan is still lagging the inflation I see, but the 10 year bond keeps sending the message that it's no big deal, or there's a recession ahead. I'm confused. But if increases in commodity prices, gas, energy, construction, housing, food, insurance, education, etc. mean inflation, then the pricing of houses on the basis of the monthly payment should stall, or decline. I thought that there was an iron relationship in residential real estate wherein buyers were cautioned to not spend more than 2.5-3.5 X their annual salary on a house. At current pricing, on the coasts, folks are twice that. And their incomes are not going up. But, what do I know?