More good news - real estate market picking up

strezzed said:

Same thing here. I see more "sold" signs than "for sale" signs now.

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It's that way here in Calgary, as well. Bank of Canada said that one of the two biggest factors in the economy climbing out of recession locally was the housing market taking an upturn.

I feel for people who lost a ton of value on their houses. People who are looking to buy their first home or are looking to upsize/downsize for cheaper than they were before are going to benefit the most. We bought our house when it was listed for $139,900 but we managed to get that down and that was before the market shot up in 2005. I can't imagine trying to buy a house in Calgary when it was being sold for $400k or more before the housing bubble burst 18 months later.

Greebo said:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32104105/ns/business-real_estate/

Foreclosure numbers are also declining, and inventory is declining as well. That means values will at a minimum, start to stabilize, and optimally, start gaining value again - HOPEFULLY at a rational pace now that we, presumably, have gotten over the "everyone deserves a home no matter how stinking awful their credit record is and how unlikely it is that they'll actually be able to pay for it" craze.

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I hope this also teaches the buyers what their real limits are. People buying homes that cost them more than 25% of their income every month should hopefully get smarter with this whole situation.

They really dropped in price here. I checked MLS.ca today for their houses that are roughly the same specifications as ours is (3 bedroom, 1.5 bath, semi-detached in Castleridge). They have detached houses for about $300k-$320k, which is way down from what they were before. It's slightly above appraisal value, which was $259k in January, and it's more than twice the worth of what we paid in June 2005. I guess it's pretty good still.

Our mortgage is withdrawn from DH's checking account on the same day that he gets paid, so we pay it in full and on time every month.