Tuesday, September 20

Long Island Housing Bubble Popping

I first commented about the housing bubble in my post, DC Housing Bubble Popping from 20 August 2005. A month later I see no change in the DC market to change my belief. Two of the houses I mentioned in my original post are now either sold or under contract, but there is one new one added to the market.

This last weekend I went to my parent's house on Long Island. The wife and I were somewhat surprised at how many houses were for sale in the Town of Oyster Bay. There were signs everywhere, including a couple overlooking the Bay. The signs stopped when we got into my parent's town, or at least I thought. When we went out for lunch on Sunday there were 'Open House' signs everywhere.

Why no obvious signs in the village? I suspect that the village has some odd law preventing them. But on Sunday I did see signs posted in windows and in other not so obvious places. I found out that the house across the street from my parents was for sale. I was shocked to hear that the initial asking price of $700,000 was already reduced to $630,000. An open house a week earlier had only two viewers. Two other houses on the block were for sale but have since been taken off the market, unsold.

All of these houses are a block from Long Island Sound, one of them right across from the beach with an unobstructed sound view.

We figure that my parents can sell their house now for about $100,000 LESS than they could have if they had put the house up for sale a year ago. (Not that my Dad would ever sell!)

Popped might be a more accurate description of the housing market there.

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