Lehigh Valley Housing Market (Emmaus, McDonald: real estate market, oceanfront, mortgage)

[CosmicWizard]

jeffvivian

Even though you are an agent, and I expect you to paint a rosy picture, I sincerely appreciate your upbeat post above. The doom and gloomers are poisoning peoples minds and setting the stage for a self fulfilling prophecy. So much doom and gloom serves no useful purpose.

[jeffvivian]

NewAgeRedneck,

Thanks!!!

Jeff

[lorib49]

I'm by no means an expert on real estate in the Lehigh Valley, but I can tell you that I've been looking at the market in the area for the past year, anticipating a move this summer. Now that it's finally time for my husband and I to seriously look at real estate, we'v noticed that a lot of the townhouses and twins that we had been interested in have been sold. Some of them went on the market and were sold within a couple of weeks. It also looks like most of the prices have been holding. At least in real estate between $180,000 and $225,000 properties are selling.

[jeffvivian]

lorib49,

You are correct. Homes in that price range are moving with regularity. I hate saying this because everyone looks as me as an agent, but putting that hat to the side - This market has so much opportunity for buyers and sellers, it is truly unbelievable.

Good Luck House Hunting,
Jeff

[arielle222]

Originally Posted by jeffvivian

Sirensong,

Sometime its not the townships doing. If a farmer has been working his whole life on a farm and his kids do not want to inherit the work, and a developer says fine we'll pay Mr. farmer and his kids a buyout of $15,000,000.00 for the land. 1- its his and his kids right to take the offer. 2- if the government steps in and says NO we have to many developments. that the kind of government interference that I am not about. The farmer has the right to sell his land just as much as you and I.

My critism of the township comes from the number of houses they allow without the proper planning of infrastructure (roads, lights, signs etc). Anybody who live in that Rt 100 cooridor has to admit that the traffic is becoming unbareable. And that bypass should have been completed about 4 subdivisions ago.

This is just a perspective that I deal with, that many people don't think about because the majority of the developments in the Macungie area have come from a farmer selling his land.

Thanks
Jeff

Yes, Macungie used to be beautiful farmland. Now it's one development on top of the next. I don't think they'll be happy until there isn't one blade of grass left. And the 222 bypass has been in the planning for over 10 yrs! It was met by lots of resistance year after year, as you can well imagine when you follow it along all of the quiet suburban neighborhoods it has turned into just another development in the shade of the freeway. Ahhh, progress!

[markas214]

Originally Posted by southernbelles

Listing prices are inflated, and the sellers act as if they're insulted by the low offers that are coming in. The buyers are the ones who should be insulted by the out-of-line listing prices. More homes are entering the market, and they're staying on the market for a very long time -- months to years -- because they're tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars overpriced. Market price is determined only by what someone will pay for a property in a particular market -- not by a seller-acquired appraisel, a seller's hopeful price, or a realtor's listing price. More and more people are using a property's tax assessement as a baseline tool for value.

PA is not exempt from the woes of the economy. The longer these homes linger on the market, the more the sellers will lose because the market will worsen through 2009.

There are differences in this area than bubble markets. The biggest is that you have far fewer people who are in over their heads who must sell or be foreclosed on. I find most people here can hold on untill things improve. If a buyer is waiting for prices to tank they are in for a surprise. I was here when homes had a huge runup in the 80s and then stayed flat for a decade. I expect that here with the exception of the outer suburbs where new developments were overbuilt. Of course if we go into a depression all bets are off.

[jeffvivian]

What has created these bubble markets is the 25%+ clip that they rose for 3 to 5 consecutive years (depending on your location). So its hard to have that type of inflation go through a period of regulation. And I do not see that type of scenaro here in the valley at all, in fact one must admit when they survey this market that this period is adding a bit of stability in terms of pricing.

One of the other items that is factoring in this marketplace is the saturation rate. When you have a record number of people moving for 3 years, you just hit a "dry spell" of life changing stages. Just happens.

The biggest drag on the economy right now is the housing market, but secondary to that the job market will have to strengthen (feb numbers show a slash of 63,000 jobs), and the oil situation is seriously out of control.

So as we plot are way through this market period, we will eventually get to a softer appriciation rate (3% or so). Housing has bought us into this "recession" (if that what it is, not implying anything just depends on what you read) and housing will be the sector that takes us out of it.

[EmmausRocks]

Originally Posted by jeffvivian

What has created these bubble markets is the 25%+ clip that they rose for 3 to 5 consecutive years (depending on your location). So its hard to have that type of inflation go through a period of regulation. And I do not see that type of scenaro here in the valley at all, in fact one must admit when they survey this market that this period is adding a bit of stability in terms of pricing.

One of the other items that is factoring in this marketplace is the saturation rate. When you have a record number of people moving for 3 years, you just hit a "dry spell" of life changing stages. Just happens.

The biggest drag on the economy right now is the housing market, but secondary to that the job market will have to strengthen (feb numbers show a slash of 63,000 jobs), and the oil situation is seriously out of control.

So as we plot are way through this market period, we will eventually get to a softer appriciation rate (3% or so). Housing has bought us into this "recession" (if that what it is, not implying anything just depends on what you read) and housing will be the sector that takes us out of it.

If anyone wants a great laugh, please review this thread.

[jeffvivian]

Originally Posted by EmmausRocks

If anyone wants a great laugh, please review this thread.

Yes please read this thread.
And lets stop the one-way street that comes from EmmausRoocks.

[jimmyrocks]

From what I've seen, it looks like the market is actually coming back. People move for tons of reasons, upgrading a house, getting a new job. People can only put off moving for a short while in some of these cases, and people are forced to buy/sell no matter what the market.

I don't think we're going to be see prices inflating nearly as quickly as before, but as far of the valley is concerned, I don't think there will be much deflation. Our market was simply not hit by the bubble nearly as hard as other parts of the nation.

And according to a very good website I frequent, home prices are currently going up, although sales are going down. I think this may correlate to mid to high priced homes continuing to sell while the lower priced home market has taken the biggest hit.