I agree with everyone's opinions here. I've been following some listings on Baird and Bird since I purchased in July 2006, and some of the houses are still for sale! At the same price! If your house hasn't sold in a year, either drop the price or drop the listing...

I'm going to be ready to move in about 2-3 years, hopefully the market will slowly correct itself then level out until I'm ready to buy.

I'm not fancy pants economist, but I am in the financial services industry...whomever said the bottom will hit in 2 months has a vested interest in homes selling IMO. In 2 months, we'll barely know the impact of all the bad debt floating around.

Yeah I think a slow moving market, oversupply, tightening credit and fear of recession will drive prices back down to where they should be...It's just hard because I'd like to be settled before my son starts kindergarten, but I guess that getting a great home at a price I can live with is more important.

Wow, that much? I know we live in the same general area. Are you talking about those semi-new homes on a hill? I think they've just come down a bit.

Now here is a rebuttal by a "successful realtor" about how Philly and it surrounding burbs are simply not part of the fallout; I'll tell you: it's enough to make a person crazy. Where does the truth lie? You have to scroll down to get to the article:
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/ho...estate_market/

What a load of BS.

So a used house salesman is mad at the media for overselling the housing "crisis". I'd be mad too, given that they are challenging their best BS lines of "houses never go down in value", "now is the best time to buy", "don't wait and get priced out", etc.

The Main Line. Generally thought of as high $$$. Well no kidding that there may not be a problem there. Cash is king. If you've got it, then none of the outside economic factors are a problem. You've got a 20%+ downpayment for a Main Line house, no problem. Two high income, steady jobs? No problem! Banks just aren't lending at the margin (which is a lot of people), of course they've got money for high FICO, high net worth individuals, buying low LTV properties.

And the best part...if you can afford where you currently live and don't *need* to move, there's no problem!

I'd no more take economic advice from a used house salesman than I'd take medical advice from a house painter. There's a lot of exogenous factors going on besides just "housing prices are currently steady on the Main Line."

Matt Lauer might be overselling the "housing crisis", but the media doesn't cover any economic indicators with any reasonable level of detail. If anything, people are underinformed on where the real economic problems are.

You're correct, Randy. The mainline is indeed insular. The article went on to give pages of median prices for the tri-county area, but those were last year's number, I believe, and they would not give a link to it (you have to buy the mag).

I went to an Open in Middletown, Delco, last Sunday and was told by the realtor that Middletown is actually going UP in price by 8%. I don't think I buy that either: how can he tell what's going up if the houses are sitting on the market? This home was "underpriced" at 269,000 and would need about 80K in renovations; it was a wreck. He showed me "comps" in the 400s, but they were much bigger homes with substantial grounds, unlike the one at the Open. I'm beginning to get really POed at being treated like an idiot. <------ (what I would have liked to do to the realtor)

This one is 7 years old, in a line of 3 similar homes. They are your typical 2 story under 2000 sq foot vinyl sided deals. The home should be $230,000 at the most, but it's listed for $324,000! It's also listed by a property management company rather than a typical real estate broker.

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What were the selling dates of those comps he showed you? Did he also share the days on market? I really think these homes aren't moving because people are trying to get what they owe on the home...which you can't really blame them. You've got to be realistic, though.

My brother in law couldn't sell his home for what he owed...so he had to "give it back" to the bank. He had a job transfer. I don't know all the dynamics of it, but I guess if you move out, leave the home in good condition, and don't force the bank to evict you, it's somehow slightly less damaging to your credit. Not sure how that works technically. Do they write a nice little note in your credit report?

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I have no idea but I'm currently looking out in the burbs and it's true that folks are holding their ground on the pricing. I've seen ones out there for at least 3-4 months now still holding the same price. I even put in an offer on one home and the seller would not come down to our price and we walked. He balked and turned around when he realized his error, but my husband and I decided we liked another area better and it was his loss. As of now, the home is still out there.

We'll see how future bidding goes but for now we know we're in the driver's seat at least. We had a few other homes we thought would "move" on the market and they haven't either, so at least we know we can relax a little, that the snatching up of home frenzy has stopped. The sellers now just have to realize it and settle down on their prices. $200k more than what you bought the home for only 2-3 years ago is a bit ridiculous to me when the surrounding area hasn't really changed.

Exactly. I had a newbie RE agent tell me you can pretty much chop 10% off the listing price of stuff on the mainline before even deciding what you would offer. And you know what? I believe him...he was an honest (some would say naive) guy who was telling me something in my and my family's best interest. If he wasn't so green I would've hired him to be my buyers agent...