A glimmer of hope
I could say I’m bitter at the state of the housing market, but that would be both an understatement and completely useless. It sucks. We’ve lost over 40% of our home’s value since building in 2005, and watched large areas of our neighborhood deteriorate as a result of foreclosure and negligence.
CitiMortgage has expressed no interest in working with Kim and me to re-package our loans (that’s for another post)—at times it’s been tempting to think about joining the long line of neighbors who’ve just given up and walked away, but we just can’t do it.
We hoped to only live in this house for five years, and while our timeframe has expanded, we see signs of hope for the future (whether we later want to move or not). Just yesterday, in fact, Granville sent an encouraging email to homeowners, which documents good news. From the email:
For those who own a home and have seen their property values decline for the past several years, the end of that trend appears to have arrived and property values are beginning to recover in this area and around the country.
"The first chart illustrates the increase in sales prices since early this year, after the decline over the past few years."
"This graph illustrates the supply of homes for sale. As the home supply decreases real estate prices historically rise."
"The graph below illustrates the number of homes currently for sale that are currently under contract. Higher percentages indicate that there are more buyers than available homes. This is also an indicator of a strengthening housing market."