HOUSING: Key to economic recovery
Pat Tebo’s My Turn titled, “We, the people need to save this country” (June 26) was a well written article with 30 years of personal experience in banking and a solid MBA education to back it up. Right up front he declares there is no political spin from the RNC or the Tea Party, and I will even also throw in the DNC or Liberal agenda after reading his article. He approaches our dire DEBT problem very successfully, but it is much worse than he or anybody else realizes.
Just like Europe right now, we are in the same boat, with the very same problems that caused our way of life to fail. All governments seem to spend, borrow and promise their people everything to get in office. The housing market here and all around the world totally got out of hand, all financial rules were broken, nothing was verified, not even the purchase price, or the buyers’ means to purchase. This bogus housing market has totally crippled the whole financial system worldwide. When buyers stop making payments to the banks, then the banks cannot continue making new loans to new buyers. This causes home prices to fall, and existing home owners to lose any equity they might have in their homes.
How do you know if we are still in a real estate market downturn? Very simple: Read the COEUR d’ALENE PRESS and check out the Legal pages. As long as there are multiple “Notices of Trustee’s Sales” being published we are in a down market. These are notices that the property owner is behind in their mortgage payments.
I have been in the real estate business since 1976, and this is the worst market I have seen in 36 years. It is not a normal market, where sellers could sell for a reasonable return on their past home purchase. Where buyers could buy with confidence that within six months to a year they would not be underwater, and even see some appreciation. The only good thing about buying a home today is the LOW INTEREST RATE and a lot of homes to choose from.
But trying to buy a home today takes some money up front and an A+ credit score and a copy of the current Kootenai County appraisal of the property showing the present market value. With this independent value in hand, I would still make an offer for 5-10 percent less than the current appraised value; forget the listing price. My personal experience is, since we moved here from Texas in September 2009, our present home in Post Falls has lost about $35K. It has gone down in value each year. That’s a paper loss, but if we had to sell now, that would come out of our pocket. OK so you want to buy a home today, one more tidbit to watch out for, NEVER purchase a home through the listing agent/real estate firm if they represent the seller. You want a totally separate agent/real estate firm to represent you and only you.
We will get through this mess if we vote smarter and do a lot of research about each of the candidates. We must look past the (R) or (D) or Conservative or Liberal branding and fully examine each candidate on his or her credentials, otherwise we are just kicking the can down the road.
DAVID CLARK
Post Falls