[Lancey Howard]

As foreclosures increase and values drop, smart investors should be able to score a coup. Timing is everything.

[NYFriend]

It’s still about location. Values are still up 1% over last year in my town. Now, that’s a big slow down, but it’s not a market crash. My wife and I just bought. The house we bought was being sold by the owner (a corporation, not your typical FSBO). The house we put an offer in on before that we looked at the day it went on, we were the second people to see it, we offered asking price, and we lost it.

Houses under 200K in decent shape are still moving in my neck of the woods.

When you get to the $300 and $400k houses, which are your 2000 sq ft homes in nice neighborhoods, they are sitting on the market, but for the most part they are overvalued. There is a great house that I wanted to look at. It was a 1700 sq ft. raised ranch in a good school district, in a nice, but not great location. No land to speak of, very good condition. They want $318k, I said forget it, they said they were a little flexible, and I said “you won’t be flexible enough”, seven months later, that house is still on the market. Those people were nuts. The $300k houses around here that are on the market three months are really $200-250k houses. Those aren’t going to sell. I have no idea about the market for the very big ($1 million plus) homes. But for the “small” homes, the market by me is fine.