[urchinMember@urchinJoin Date: 2008Post Count: 2]

October 7, 2008 - 2:12 am

I would take the opposite view of CHIS –

Quote:

House prices may come down a little but when it costs over $400K for a modest house and land package, houses aren’t going to plummet

i think the fact that a modest land/house package costs 400k shows how overinflated the market really is. think about it in terms of risk/reward. your reward for getting in now is a $7000 FHB grant? The risk is hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you knew this stuff backwards and forwards it might be doable but as you admit to not knowing much about the housing market, it seems like a very dangerous endeavor and one that could financially ruin you if not done very carefully.

house prices have come down a lot in the past 3-4 months and it seems that Aus is going down the same road as the US, UK and NZ. it might not implode (i think it will), but someone would have to be foolish or lying to say that there is no risk of a significant drop in housing prices. as such i don’t think the benefit of a FHB grant is sufficient to outweigh the very real and large risks in the market today.

[urchinMember@urchinJoin Date: 2008Post Count: 2]

October 7, 2008 - 1:50 am

devo76 wrote:

NOTE TO ALL PEOPLE READING THIS

Scamp wants to buy into the Australian market and therefore is trying his hardest to drive the market down so he can buy in cheaper. He has stated this on many forums. If this is not bottom feeding i dont know what is.Much of what he says is true but a lot of it is what he personally wants to happen.

Sure scamp is a bit extreme in his views, or at least in how he phrases them, but i think he is right on the basic principles. The economy is in the very beginning of what appears to be a long and painful economic crisis. commodities are plummeting, that means that the mining sector is going to take a huge hit. that means that nat’s husband–who apparently is in the mining industry–faces a real risk of unemployment or at least reduced employment.

the housing market has not tanked yet but that is primarily because there is no volume–buyers and sellers remain a long ways apart. we are getting more and more unsold inventory as buyers are (understandably) reluctant to reduce prices.

in this kind of market, with that kind of risk, i think she should bite the bullet and mark the house down significantly in order to ensure a speedy sale. i am sure that a 10% discount over comparative houses on the market would see real interest generated.

A quick sale is definitely the way to go. prices are dropping, so if you dawdle you may have to drop it even more later. and add to that the fact that you are already losing thousands/month anyway… it seems to me that half a bird in hand is better than 3/4 of a bird in the bush…