Thursday, February 12, 2009

For Sale

Tonight is grocery night, so I drove to the bus station. My fellow commuter Sandy will be going along for the shopping trip. (I had to laugh because one of the days last week that the car was in the shop the Daily Act of Kindness was “Offer a ride to someone who needs it.” As if I could have!)

Driving to the depot, my head almost did a Linda Blair spin when I saw a “for sale” sign outside one of my favorite houses. It’s actually the house next door that’s for sale, but I didn’t realize that initially. So I was able to calm down pretty quickly. Good thing. One less thing to taunt myself with! I know JeanMartha knows that feeling all too well after coveting a certain barn property recently.

What I noticed though after the major realization that my favorite triplet wasn’t for sale, was that a lot of other houses were. In that block alone, I counted eight. EIGHT. One or two are almost always for sale, but eight? The next block, four. Then two. Then one block with none. So that means there are at least 14 houses for sale in a three-block area. Wow. Sounds like a buyer’s market to me.

I heard last night that the home-buyer incentive was one of the casualties of the stimulus plan but there might be an alternative credit included in a future treasury plan. Sounds like it’s something my city is going to need.

6 comments:

Ann said...

So many houses for sale here too, but no one is lowering their prices - it's crazy!

Christopher Busta-Peck said...

Around here, the asking prices don't seem to be moving downward much, either. However, sellers seem to be more willing to consider offers considerably below the asking price - at least that's what we found to be true.

Karen Anne said...

Here's what the NYTimes says:

The Senate had proposed a $15,000 tax incentive for all home buyers, a generous morsel that had real estate brokers smiling. But the final deal falls back to a House proposal that would provide much less money and would limit the provision to first-time home buyers within certain income limits.

Although details were still being worked out, officials said that eligible first-time homebuyers would be able to claim a credit of $8,000.

Karen Anne said...

Yes, my neighbor has had his house for sale for, what, a year, without budging the listed asking price. But he got an informal offer about 20% lower than that, accepted it, then the buyer dropped out.

NV said...

Wow. And you are from all over the country! The people across the street took some months to get their house sold -- but they did it!

Jean Martha said...

the barn...sigh....