I love reading about all the prognosticators telling us where values are going to be in the future, like they know. It is going to take as long as it takes, no matter what anyone’s opinion might be.
I have seen real estate values go up and down for many years. So let me share the following story, which will give you a look at what can happen.
In the mid 1980’s I purchased a 68 unit apartment complex, all town house units and converted them to condominiums. Don’t get hung up on these prices. I paid $25,000 per unit, after renovations, started marketing them at $49,900, then $59,900 and finally $69,900. The entire process took 9 months.
In the late 1980’s, values in our area dropped about 50% over an 18 month time period. There were a number of units that got foreclosed and I repurchased a half dozen units and rented them out. The average purchase price was $25,000 and started putting them on the market in the mid 1990’s. The average sale price was $95,000.
Here is the point, values will continue to move, time cures all real estate values, no matter what all these fortunetellers think.
Did the Fed pump QE1, QE2, and now QE3 into the economy in the past???? Were foreclosures purposely hidden to make the market "look" like it's recovering? Bottom line, if we continue to have the federal government not let the market correct itself, our home values will continue to tank.