[basil_hayden]

Fast forward 5.5 years -

Values never went down to where buying a deal was acceptable. Fannie and Freddie selling properties to hedge funds who now do the renting took care of that.

Instead, values are going up; not as fast as expected in all markets, but most appear to have recovered.

Almost all of the homes in my area that were potential foreclosures (about a half dozen or so on my 1-mile long country road) have changed hands. The homes for sale that weren't in foreclosure (just a typical type of sale) sat much longer before they changed hands, a few years, but they did indeed change hands over the last 6 months or so.

I guess the game of musical chairs is over and we're back to rising prices (as documented in the recent "Real Estate Bubble" thread.

Hope pup55 returns eventually; he's missed and I'll bet he did not have the opportunity to become a slumlord.

[Newfie]

We bought about 20 years ago. I followed a model similar to pups. We were able to buy a 4 unit building that eventually was able to carry its own mortgage.

About 10 years ago I came into some money and wanted to duplicate the process by buying a similar house using the same model. Could not do it, not even close. We took a bit if a hit after 08 but not much. Things have. Ore than recovered now.

We got lucky.

[vtsnowedin]

I haven't seen any recovery here as of yet. The banks are so tight on lending on older houses that they are pretty much cash sales only. New modern houses in good shape have held up well but they stay on the market a long time before selling for about 85% of their 2006 price. One foreclosure that had been listed at $ 174,000 sold for $30K cash but it was in poor shape and never should have been that high to begin with. I'm a thirty-five mile one way commute to the nearest job market and $3.90 gas and heating oil is beginning to effect how much commuters can pay for housing here vs. moving closer to their work.

[Revi]

I was just in a town that I had considered to be a pretty nice place. It's still okay, but there are a lot of abandoned houses right in the middle of town, and it's pretty obvious that it is having trouble. These houses are perfectly reasonable places, but there aren't enough people around here to live in them. Even with a mortgage of $400 a month there aren't enough working people to pay for them. That's why they are rotting away now. There might be a population problem in some places, but from what I am seeing nowadays inland Maine is losing population.

[phaster]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', 'I') haven't seen any recovery here as of yet. The banks are so tight on lending on older houses that they are pretty much cash sales only. New modern houses in good shape have held up well but they stay on the market a long time before selling for about 85% of their 2006 price. One foreclosure that had been listed at $ 174,000 sold for $30K cash but it was in poor shape and never should have been that high to begin with. I'm a thirty-five mile one way commute to the nearest job market and $3.90 gas and heating oil is beginning to effect how much commuters can pay for housing here vs. moving closer to their work.