I agree with you whole heartedly – you only realize a loss if you choose to sell during a downturn. If it is a forced relocation then that is taken care of with the relocation package. If you don’t have a relocation package then just stay put and enjoy the low interest mortgage repayment until the market turns up again.

Don’t forget the extra benefit of the interest being tax deductible. This is not the case in many parts of the world so there is not that much difference between renting and owning in terms of cash flow – if people in Europe had the interest payment deduction then real estate markets would boom even more than they are right now. The UK is still seeing double digit annual house price increases and has done so for the past 9-10 years and the bubble talk has been right there all through this time period.

I have the same experience except all here in this Country. 12 houses, made money on most, broker even twice on short term holds when my husband took a job elsewhere quickly.

Thank you for your comments. My home ownership is from 1982 to present. What is the time span of your 16 homes.

As to people being afraid always, my second house I almost got a divorce when my husband wanted to take on a $100,000 mortgage. My Uncle Morris explained the facts of life to me at the time, but honestly, I was still freaking out about it.

We always made good money or broke even, including closing costs.
Real Estate in the long term is always good. There are constantly more people arriving on this earth but the number of centers to which people want to move to remains the same. The number of prime locations, view properties, airport hubs etc remains the same.

If you take places like London, San Francisco, Cape Town, Amsterdam, Monaco, Paris etc prices do not depreciate over time.
Go back 30 years and people were having the same arguments back then. I am pretty sure Seattle is one of those places.

The more people there are, the more accommodation is needed. As people migrate to the city hubs then price pressure on properties closer to the city centers will always remain.

1. Every house we liked and wanted to buy always cost more than what we wanted to spend

2. Every house we bought was over our initial budget

3. Every house in our budget range – we didn’t like

4. Every house we sold we thought was the best house in the neighborhood and should get top dollar

5. Every house we sold went for less than we wanted

C’est la vie

Do you really think the markets in 16 years in five states have been anything but everything up and down inside and out? When the market is bad, some leave and fewer get their license. It’s all good. I can only handle 2 or 3 people at a time. 8 max including houses for sale, and still know all of the people and their various idiosyncrosies. There’s always 2 to 10 people wanting to buy or sell. That’s my world.

I started in the worst market in history, rode it up, and down again, and back up again and everything in between. Still no clients with any losses. You just have to know what you’re doing.

Losses equals someone who MUST move at the wrong time. Same as buying a good stock, but having to sell it when it’s down. When you get relocated in a bad market, the job offers start including your loss, it’s part of the package. Life changes with the market, businesses act differently with regard to relo packages and very few people have to sell during the correction phase.

Many that DO have to sell, sell for less but not loss. Market goes up 100% and then backs up and then goes back up again past the place it was last. That’s life, as my Frank would say! Stop fighting it and stop being afraid of it. That is life.

Okay, I’m going to post your house now. Tell me how close I am. I’m going to go between $600,000 and $650,000. I will post it as Biliruben’s house :0 this is fun.

Shorter version:

On topic:
I’m looking for a house. I don’t think there are any houses less than $650K that are within 200K of being worth what the seller is asking. None. I have stopped looking for a house.

You say:
“I have nothing TO sell and I have several buyers in all price ranges and places (I won’t take on two that want the same thing). To me there is NO inventory today, regardless of stats.”

So it sounds like we agree. Not much to discuss.

Off topic:

There are something like double the number of agents working now compared to 10 years ago. The population hasn’t come close to increasing to support that.

What has increased is the number of transactions and the fees per transaction, so the market has been able to support these agents.

If the market slows, then then the number of transactions declines.

When we see innovations, then some portion of the work an agent traditionally has performed, some sellers may choose to do themselves, because there are tools that allow them to do that.

Therefore the market can no longer support the number of agents it currently does, or they won’t make as good of a living.

Agents such as yourself may adapt to and do quite well. That doesn’t sound nonsensical to me.

Anyway, I’m looking for a house