Home prices Plunge!

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/25/real_estate/third_quarter_case_shiller/index.htm

Home prices in record decline
Case-Shiller survey shows 16.6% annual decline in summer months as housing picture continues to deteriorate.


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The home price plunge stayed on a record pace this summer, according to a widely watched gauge of national real estate markets released Tuesday.

The S&P Case-Shiller Home Price national index recorded a 16.6% decline in the third quarter compared with the same period a year ago. That eclipsed the previous record of 15.1% set during the second quarter.

Prices in Case-Shiller's separate index of 10 major cities fell a record 18.6%, while its 20-city index dropped a record 17.4%

With foreclosures soaring at record rates, the economic picture dimming and job losses ramping up, all the elements were in place to push prices lower.

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. How come rents are going up?

Landlords are thieves.

[gcomeau]

2. Because people losing their homes...

...still need to live somewhere. It's pretty obvious why rents would go up. Demand.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. They NEVER go down

Why is that? Home prices go up - rents go up. Home prices go down - rents go up. Mortgage prices go up, rents go up. Mortgage prices go down - rents go up. There is no such thing as supply and demand pricing for rentals.

[Diane R]

5. We've often lowered our rent when the rental market slows. And we never raise it 'til they move out.

[Cronus Protagonist]

9. Lowered it for an existing tenant?

Or do you mean when it's vacant and hard to find a tenant willing to pay higher prices? As for never raising the rent, good job on that! That works. Every landlord I've had, I moved out when they raised the rent beyond my willingness or ability to pay.

[Diane R]

4. We're landlords, and we're not thieves. We don't ever raise rent, and we fix things immediately.

We're just a couple who each had bought a house before we got married, and we sacrificed to pay them off while paying a mortgage on the house we live in while raising a family. Our houses are very nice, very clean, and priced low. We've been burned by more renters than you can even imagine...including the gem who burned the carpet and original woodwork everywhere with the blow torch he used to free base. And we've scooped a solid layer of dog feces out of the basement numerous times. Smashed appliances, dead lawns, three foot high weeds, ripped curtains....it's been a joy. Still, we keep fixing them up in immaculate condition for the next renter.

I think it's really unfair to say 'Landlords are thieves' without hearing the other side of the story.

[Ecumenist]

6. God bless you DianeR. Although I understand why you would take

exception at the "landlords are thieves" comment, obviously, it doesn't apply to you. I just wish there were more preople like you out there. To many people who pride themselves as Landlords are indeed creeps and only worried about getting that cheque each and every month with no thought to maintenance, trust me. Unfortunately, I am one of those people who rent from a couple who seem to think that the word "maintenance" is a extraterrestrial word and my husband and I have it looking like a showplace.

I cannot imagine why anyone would live under the conditions that you had to clean out of your rental properties, let alone leave them for you to deal with. I wish you were in my area.

[Cronus Protagonist]

10. I concur with your post

I wish good landlords were the norm, but they're not.

[LisaM]

8. You are not the norm

Our house is has a lot of problems and I'm afraid to ask the landlords for anything for fear they will raise the rent or decide to sell the house to a condo developer. They already forced the neighbors out of another rental house they own by jacking up their rent without much notice (raised the rent 30%). Rents in Seattle are atrocious and tenants have virtually no rights.

[KillCapitalism]

7. They're STILL overpriced. n/t