After a roller-coaster decade of boom-bust-boom, the U.S. housing market is going downhill just when many economists thought annual sales would be heading up.
It looks like the whole "investment property" idea is losing its charm, probably leaving future slums in its wake, and the banks probably are doing a horrible job of managing all of those foreclosures.
Nelson would like to buy a smaller home with a lower mortgage payment than the 4,600-square-foot (427-square-meter) house she bought in 2010, moving before her daughter goes to college in two years. A lot of what she sees in her price range under $450,000 isn’t worth a look beyond the Web. A bank-owned home that she described as “horrific” and “disgusting” had a $439,000 asking price.
No one is interested in "starter homes" because duh so new construction is all at the high end.