Yesterday my wife asks "are we going to go look at any houses this weekend?" Huh....she hates looking at houses. Must be getting anxious again. I would have loved to tell her yes but there's practically nothing on the market worth looking at. There are hundreds of homes for sale that I would buy if the price was right, but it's not. The market is full of upside down owners and delusional sellers trying to get yesterday's prices. The few well priced REO's that are hitting the market are selling in a day or two. I showed her one last week that was really nice, in the area we like and was listed at a reasonable price. That house lasted 3 days.
I keep hearing from agents how great the market is. But the reasons for this sense of wellness are all not healthy ones. The homes that are selling are primarily REOs and shorts. The only reason there are multiple bids is because most of the buyers are trying to snag one of these (and there's not that many right now). So you have 500 buyers trying to buy 50 homes. And half of those buyeres wouldn't be able to buy a home if it were not for the low FHA requirements and the government tax credits. It's like the market is on life support and the government is keeping it alive with tax dollars.
Kinda makes you wonder, what next?