45,192 people think Sally should not have to bail out Bob
By: David Gibbons, Zillow Director, Community Relations | May 9, 2008
As of 9AM this morning, 45,192 people have signed the online petition at AngryRenter.com calling for Congress to not pass any bailout programs that reward risky borrowing and lending. According to the AngryRenter.com website, the preferred solution to the foreclosure crisis is to; “Let the free market sort it out!”
The $300 million mortgage bailout bill has made its way out of Barney Frank’s (D.-Mass.) Financial Services Committee with a vote of 46-21 in favor. President Bush on Wednesday threatened to veto the bill, saying that that “it would “reward speculators and lenders” (h/t Townhall.com.)
AngryRenter.com is just a month old but it seems to have struck a chord. Freedomworks, the non-profit, non-partisan group behind AngryRenter, clearly understands the dynamics of grass roots initiatives on the web. If you don’t know who Bob and Sally are, watch the short video clip I pasted below this. The cause, which posted this clever video to YouTube on April 10th has since been featured on CNN and FOX news and now … Zillowblog!
So, what do you think; should Sally have to bail out Bob?
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Mortgages
Comments
3 Comments so far
Enjoy this post? Subscribe to the Zillow Blog feed or get updates via e-mail
We Help-U-Buy Guy on May 11, 2008 7:01 am
According to an article in the Orange County Register Tuesday, April 25, 2008, pending sales of homes are up 23% over last year’s numbers. If the trend continues, April or May will mark the first time in 30 months that sales have risen YOY (year over year). All this sales activity is going to come at the cost of the median price falling significantly as these increased sales are mainly bank owned foreclosures and short sales.
The banks have finally figured out that if they want to sell their foreclosure inventory they need to cut prices. Boy have they!!! Houses that sold for $550,000 and more just a year ago are now being sold by the bank for under $400,000. I don’t think they were ever worth $550,000 but when you start knocking 30% off the price of homes in less than 18 months it is going to leave a big mark on the median price.
Because so may homes are selling in the low end of the market, the median price of homes sold in the past 4 weeks is $512,000. That is a 20.9% YOY decline in prices. My own study of all pending sales shows a current median price of approximately $475,000, an additional decline of 7.22%.
Within all the negative news about real estate values I’m seeing some stability in market. Investors have started buying property and individuals who have been waiting to buy have entered the marketplace. With homes single family homes selling for under $400,000, some properties make sense to purchase as rentals. Homes in upscale areas that come on the market priced well under CURRENT market price are sold within days. If buyers keep showing up, and barring some other significant event, we may have found a floor for prices.
While there may be floor for real estate prices, I don’t see prices rising any time soon. There are over 4,000 short sales on the market as of today and the majority of them will be foreclosures. At least another 1,000 are bank owned foreclosures. Defaults and foreclosure notices still appear to be on the rise. There is far too much downward pressure for prices to start rising.
Trulia is Your Competitor, Not Your Partner - Help Protect the Consumer - Atlanta Real Estate Blog on May 12, 2008 5:58 am
[...] While I feel that it essential that we stop linking to Trulia completely, be it Trulia Voices or using their widgets, I do not feel that way about all of the third party sites. Louis Cammarosano of Homegain does an excellent job of explaining it in this post and David Gibbons at zillow.com does it by offering excellent insight for consumers like this post time …. [...]
ideal4investors on May 16, 2008 8:41 pm
It was only a matter of time before someone organized the folks who decided not to buy when they couldn’t afford to buy!