Sunday, June 04, 2006

Bubble Sphere Roundup

Another week another roundup. Let us get started. :-)

Over at Urban Digs has a post comparing new listings between April to May in a collection of selected neighborhoods in New York City. There is also a solid graph. "Well on first glance I can't help but notice the surge in new listings in the $501K-$750K price group in May versus April; which is about a 51% increase month to month. In fact, every price group under $1M has experienced an increase in new listings with the exception of the little guys under $250K which stayed the same! The higher end listings data is erratic with a jump in the $3.001M+ price group but a notable decline in the $2.001M-$2.5M price group." Check out Urban Digs.

There is a fantastic discussion over at The Housing Bubble Blog as to which market is Ground Zero for the Housing Bubble . I'm leaning towards Phoenix. Although, most of Florida is NOT far behind.

The Southern Maryland Housing Bubble News is busy investigating and reporting on the apparent fraud going on involving supposed 'non profits' and real estate.

The Washington Post has an article that looks at how 'Condo Fees Are Escalating at a Shocking Pace.' Another reason to rent in the DC area.

6 comments:

  1. And you think the increase in condo fees won't be passed onto renters next time their lease comes up for renewal? Are you really that ridiculous?

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  2. "And you think the increase in condo fees won't be passed onto renters next time their lease comes up for renewal?"

    Generally speaking, rents are already substantially below ownership costs. If landlords haven't been able to pass on all of their costs (real and opportunity costs) up to this point, what makes you think they will magically be able to do so in the future? The answer is - they won't.

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  3. Anonymous, your statement is rather lacking. You take a home ownership expense and then throw it onto renters? This is only even a possibility if the condo unit is rented rather than owner occupied.

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  4. Condo fees are the main reason that condo's are not great investments. It is tough to ever break-even on rental condo's because of these fees.

    I hear that rents are tightening, but you can't expect to pass these increases in fees and re taxes etc. along.

    Owner-occupants can't deduct these fees from taxable income as they can with interest. For the extra "cost", one might be able to get into a townhouse instead.

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  5. VA Investor,

    In your experience then, are townhouse association fees more stable than condo fees?

    Thanks,
    My $0.02

    PS - I hope you didn't misinterpret my luck/smart comment the other day. While you may be lucky, you certainly do appear to be quite smart when it comes to real estate.

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  6. "If landlords haven't been able to pass on all of their costs (real and opportunity costs) up to this point, what makes you think they will magically be able to do so in the future? The answer is - they won't. "

    No, the answer is that rents are skyrocketing locally.

    ReplyDelete