" The stats are a little deceiving. If you compare 2005 to 2007, it shows the REAL contrast.
2005 home sales minus 2007 homes sales divided by 2005 home sales : Hayden 559-307/559=DOWN 45%!. Post Falls 1074-548/1074= DOWN 49% ! Kootenai County 3231-1919/3231=DOWN 41%! . And that's just year over year. The last quarter of 2007 compared to the last quarter of 2005 would put the DOWN % well over 50%! It's NOT a buyer's market...there's NO BUYERS. And if there were, why would they buy now when we haven't even come close to the bottom? "

" " IDABILLY is not a real word therefore there can be NO correct spelling you silly IDABILLY! "

I guess grammar and writing aren't your forte either.

You are a phuckwhad! Did I spell that right? "

" to the young people out there-- forget buying a house-- buy or rent a trailer and max out your 401k or ira and you'll get rich beyond your "wildest hallucinations" (clint)-consumer reports states that over time -- mutuals or stocks will typically outpace real estate. don't buy a house --contrary to popular belief some of the smatest people i have known; live in trailer courts. "

" Your right, everyone who jumped on the band wagon with no thought of responsibility. My anger has turned more to the home buyer who knew when he signed on the dotted line that he could not afford to live in the property he choose. Then comes the real estate agent that nudged you along towards more exspensive homes with fairy tale wishes and the banks loan officer with its golden egg.

And regarding builders...they too were looking out for number one. Putting policies in place to stop mulitiple sales to investors meant they might have a chance to sale their inventory and not compete with the Flippers or a neighborhood full of rentals in their own development. The "class act" is not for your benifit. "

" Its not all the real estate poeples fault. Its the banks fault too. offering teaser rates to poeple that would not other wise qualify for loans. Plus supply and demand comes in to affect. people from other states come in after selling there homes for $$$$$$ and buy three homes here.
And futher more its your own fault, take a little responsabilty for this inflated market. you saw the big bright lights that said come in your qualified for intrest only on a house you would normally not qualify for.
If you used a little common sense and read the fine print you probaly would have passed.
and if you were smart buyers we would not be in this situation. "

" In regard to unscrupulous builders..
There are some who don't get the credit they deserve but rather are lumped into a category of greedy builders.
Greenstone for example made some very "ungreedy" policies in the midst of the building boom. They required that buyers had to live in the home for at least a year (maybe it was two). That kept the investors/speculators from coming in and buying up mulitiple properties in a new development and making them rentals. It helps keep the quality of a family community up and shows the integrity of a local developer. They could very easily sold untold numbers of homes to "flippers" etc that often buy sight unseen in a "booming" area. I call that a class act. "

" The composition of your letter reveals either no (or poor) education on your part. You're dumb, so you're $crewed. Deal. "

" It seems to me that it's a "buyers" market out there. What's wrong with that. It's a bandwagon I'll be jumping on. "

" Bankers are just as bad,its not just the Realtors. Your all in bed together down the line. Scratchin backs to help each other get that slice of pie. "

" No barbs here, but if you need to sell your home, consider doing it on your own. There is no logical need to use real estate selling entities. I've bought and sold 4 properties in the last decade. All were easy transactions, none involved real estate people, and I saved a TON...I mean A TON of money. 3% to list and 3% to sell is highway robbery. All the additional shennanigans that come with using real estate people artificially inflate the market and hurt everyone. Sell your own home, look for "For Sale By Owner" when buying realestate. You'll save enough $ to put your kid through a year of college. "

" in this election year we are having some hard times as with other election years. our economy sucks big time. the working class wants jobs, yes some are avalible if you are a kid in highschool who needs gas money. if you need a 40+ job with a decent start pay to keep you paycheck to paycheck you may be SOL! the lay off and slowdowns are coming. they are here for me, lay off from my job. don't think you from out of state will make it here unless you are retired. we have more than our share of junkfood restrants with next to no hours and early send home if they dont sell enough food. slave jobs that hold you over if they start selling food or retail. we need real jobs here with a real economy so people that are the working class can have a home. i have a very small home but to be out of work can set me back a long way to catching up. i am sorry for the many who have been laid off. sometimes we have to ask for aid in tough times, i pay taxes and help in the comunity so i feel it is alright to ask for help not over do it just to get to the next job. if this area would stop having lay offs many people would not have to ask. but to who ever built all the vacant homes on the prarie they will rot before you wait for your market to get better! "

" The sky is falling!
The sky is falling!

I am going to crawl to the top of my shrinking equity pile and dive off!

Good-bye cold cruel world "

" IDABILLY is not a real word therefore there can be NO correct spelling you silly IDABILLY! "

" It's interesting that, when Real Estate times get tough, people angrily lash out at an easy target...Realtors.

Like all professions, real estate is made up of different types of people. Some are/were in it for the short hall....just to make a quick buck and move on. Some were trying to make a go of it in a business that they thought would be easy and that they could do "part time." Others are in it because it is their full time profession and it is part of their make-up to want to provide quality, ethical, professional service to people who need it (our clients.)

Rather than resorting to tossing unfounded barbs out about dishonest realtors, clients (and potential clients) have some responsibility to do their homework regarding choosing a Realtor. Put at least as much effort into searching for a realtor as you would if you were looking for a hair stylist or a dentist. Ask friends for referrals for EXPERIENCED agents...... someone who has been in the business for at least a couple of years (or who has a mentor who has.) Interview two or three full time agents. See who is a match for your family, your business, your needs. (There is only one way for Realtors to gain experience....do the job.....write enough transactions, deal with enough people....get additional training...etc..)

The huge jump in property values nationally over the last few years helped real estate become a breeding ground for greed.....a virus that spread quickly beyond just a few real estate agents, their brokers and their clients to developers, builders, appraisers, home inspectors, lenders, investors and on and on the list goes. Not everyone got swept up into the greed cycle but such a frenzy was created and things were changing so quickly that it was difficult to get a handle on what was happening. Trying to slow things down and offer good advice became almost an impossibility. (Yes, we do try to give GOOD, educated advice to our clients and, the reality is, that sometimes they don't take it....)

Obviously the party is over. And these are serious times. Shooting barbs at one another moves the focus from where it should be.....your individual situations. For those of you who are struggling with real estate problems, this is the time to gather information, get professional advice and create a game plan. Find a realtor who is willing to give you some advice and guidance. Talk to an accountant, a financial advisor....Between all of us, we may be able to suggest avenues for you to take that you haven't thought of yet.

It can be a worrisome time all around...with the stock market so volatile, real estate plateauing and wars to worry about...I can see how we could all fall into a state of perpetual angst. And out of the angst and fear is born anger and attacks that prohibit our progressing forward. We don’t know exactly what is going to happen next but we do know, from historical data, that the markets....all of them...... will turn around. And, for some of you, this may prove to be a time of incredible opportunities….... both with the stock market and in the real estate market.

Remember....buy as if you're going to hold for the long haul and location, location, location.

So let's temper the vitriolic dialogue for awhile, try to help each other out as best we can and keep strong. These are not fun times but they are what they are. And we need to deal with them head on, not hide underneath a blanket of negativity and fear.
"

" We all need to stay positive about our real estate market! "

" This is great news. Less Calis with less money, moving up north.

The median price of a home in California tumbled nearly 15 percent amid a steep drop in sales in December, a real-estate research firm said this past week.

The median home price hit $402,000 last month, down 14.8 percent from $472,000 in the year-ago period, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

The state's median home price peaked last spring at $484,000.

Meanwhile, home sales in the state, one of the hardest hit in the nation by the mortgage crisis, plummeted 41.4 percent to 25,585 compared with December 2006.

It was the lowest sales total for any December in more than 20 years, the firm said. December home sales were essentially flat from November.

The state has seen sales decline year over year for 27 straight months as the once-booming housing market tanked and a credit crisis forced mortgage lenders to scale back so-called jumbo mortgages that exceed $417,000.

That's helped skew the median home price downward because fewer jumbo loans have translated into fewer high-end homes being sold.

The percentage of homes purchased with jumbo loans last month fell nearly 70 percent from December 2006, DataQuick said.

The decline in home prices varied widely by location. In Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, the median price plummeted 21.9 percent to $410,000 from December 2006. But the median price for a home in San Francisco County declined only 1.9 percent to $731,000.

DataQuick said the average median price in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties hit $425,000 last month, the lowest level since February 2005, when it was $420,000. "

" "Idabillys are dumb!

Aren't you so clever and witty?

The correct spelling would be Idabillies however.

Don't they have grade schools in California? "

" No it is the real estate offices that advertise along with the chamber of commerce claiming cheap prices, low taxes, good schools, community oriented, good paying jobs, etc., here but in reality they are all lies. Your people will lie through their teeth to make the sale. Look at the KR@P that is allowed in subdivisions and yet you have no problem selling to some unsuspecting victim. You claim that the builders are good when in fact they are not building things to code. "

" Go pound sand We hate you as much as we do the cali's, in fact why dont you move to Cali YOU ARE THE PROBLEM! "

" Not all Realtors are dishonest" -- no, not all, just the vast majority. But you sure do get a lot of awards. "

" I hate to be the one to come to the defense of many fellow Realtors, but contrary to what many of you may believe, for a a varity of reasons...Not all Realtors are dishonest, not all are money grubbing and no, we are not responsible for what you call over inflated prices. We follow the market, we can't manufacture it. Sellers obviously and natrually want to get the best price they can get, buyers want the best deal they can get and they often meet in the middle or not at all. Realtors do not set the market. In any market it is supply and demand. For good and for bad, we in North Idaho have had a hot comodity. People from all over the country have been interested in making our area their home, for retirement, for raising a family and enjoying all this area offers. Some have speculated in RE for investment, some did well, others have not. There is always an ebb and flow in markets. We relish in them in good times and live through them in bad times. Our area is not in the sad shape that many are in other areas. The market is correcting after a boom. That is natural and healthy. But please... don't lump all Realtors together, as in any profession there are reputable, ethical individuals and those that are not.
"

" Did everything right and still caught up in the downward market. Who do you slap silly? The banking industry who gave out interest only loans to any and everyone or to the buyer who signed onto a loan that was beyond their means?
Shame on you who played a part in destroying other hard working families lives with your foolish choices. "

" Now them calaforna people wanten to sell ther houses that they that they sold and got when they sold them calaforna shaks and they moved up to get richer with taken adventage of us locales and such and now they have no more money and maybe they should lern tyo drive in the snow and so they can go back to calaforna and learn how to stay ther caws we don’t want them hear! Anyway you lookat it you cant see a sliver linning and such! "

" Sorry to pee on your parade real estate interest. But, Wall Street this week is flashing in 100 point letters for those that have eye's to see, the bubble is not coming back. Bush's "stimulus" plan of borrowing 150 billion from China to send hordes of consumer rats to Walmart to buy stuff made in China accomplishes nothing. California's foreclosure rates are now heading for the moon, and banks are fearful of making even more bad loans, irregardless of how low the Fed. lowers rates. The nation is now on the cusp of a real estate deflation such as Japan has been mired since the 1980s. Remember when the valuation of downtown Tokyo's real estate exceeded that of the entire state of Florida? Now the joke's on US. "

" Idabillys are dumb! "

" Why am I so stupid?

I sold a modest home in SoCal for a huge profit, then I invested in several houses in Cda and Post Falls. Now they are worth half of what I paid for them and I will lose almost everything I got of my original home.
I have lowered the prices on all the homes by at least 100,000 and I still can't sell them.
Could I be any more stupid?
"

" "You are sceaming yaoohoo and double over laughing when you should be happy"

This must be mexicali spelling?

At least all the hillbillies I know can spell. "

" I'm not doubled over. I'm just a little stooped as I survey the rotting corpse of the previously over-hyped North Idaho RE market. Many tasty morsels to consider. So much Schedenfruede gives me the burps. "

" Realtors sure like giving each other awards, don't they? Must be because of a lack of self-esteem from being so dishonest. "

" What they fail to mention is that sales to out of state buyers has dropped to almost zero, leaving mostly buyers who are tied to the local economy. Buyers beware, with the economy teetering on recession and forclosures on the rise, it may be some time before prices find bottom. Look at the number of trustee sales in the legals section for a reality check, it appears that it may get worse before it gets better. "

" Uh, so the low income housing is dropping so you local hill billies can buy a home. You are sceaming yaoohoo and double over laughing when you should be happy because you can now afford your tract house. Enjoy it while it lasts and get them while they are hot. These prices won't last forever. You would be a fool to think that prices will keep declining over the next 5 years. "

" My gawd. What a total shill for the RE Industrial complex.Rick surprises me with this one. Talk about massaging stats and hype! Talk to any agent privately, and they will tell you IT'S DEAD. Dead, like most of the market in the world. These huge NY banks aren't on their knees begging for money from the arabs because the world is awash in money to loan on crummy McTractshacks.$150-200,000 starter homes?!! Reality is biting and I know just the people that deserve a big hunk taken off. "

" Down with the over inflated price of housing. Its not over,they can be as optimistic as they like it will do no good. Realtors are going to have bad times,and jobs will be lost. So sad for the greedy realtors who overpriced the homes to begin with so they could make big money. How is that greed working out for ya now that reality hits home? Drop, drop ,drop the price if you want to sale. "