Caught in the Grip of the Great Real Estate Debacle of 2010

Passing through the garage this morning I glanced at the stacks of boxes and the few pieces of furniture that were taking up a good chunk of the garage floor. In anticipation of our move we had giddily packed up what we considered nonessential items that we could do without for a couple of months and stored them here. The list includes among other things the CD collection of our old favorite movies, the Wii and all of its accompanying paraphernalia, misc electronic equipment and our winter clothes. We have since unpacked some of these things, the Wii and movies in particular realizing these distractions might come in handy since we seem to have a wait on our hands. This morning it came to me that there was a very good possibility I would be switching those winter clothes for summer ones before we finally sold and moved out of our house.

It is now late July and our house has been on the market for a few days over ninety and the fact comes jarringly into perspective that we have our house up for sale in the worst real estate market seen in decades. Home values are low, money is scare and most of the potential buyers hurried to make their selections before the tax credit incentive ended in April. In hindsight, listing our house a couple of months sooner would have seemed to be the smart thing to do. Unfortunately that time-line and ours didn’t intersect. Our plan was to wait for spring, knowing that the blossoming springtime displayed our wooded lot to advantage and gave us the time we needed to give the house the fresh face always recommended when selling your home.

We have had a total of nine showings, one open house and a group Realtor critique during the past three months. All of the responses have been favorable. We are assured that the house is showing beautifully and everyone loves it. Our staging is perfect, not too much and not too little and it’s one of the most well kept houses they’ve seen. One Realtor found the loft library so comfortable that she proclaimed, “I’m staying here for the rest of the day!” We do feel somewhat confident that our house is marketable. If only there were a market in which to market it.

By now we have all heard the nightmare stories of short sale homes, foreclosed homes, bank owned homes and homes no longer worth the mortgage balance remaining on them, much less hold any equity. Home buyers and sellers are caught in a vicious cycle. In this real estate debacle few sellers are willing to contract to sell their homes to you, contingent on you selling your home to someone else. Such a transaction could turn into a never ending chain of unsold homes. The few buyers available without encumbrances are scare and they often can’t leap the mortgage hurdles now in place. The wheels of the real estate behemoth have almost ground to a halt.

The banks that once dazzled us with their magic shows by pulling mortgage money out of all orifices now jealously and suspiciously guard those funds. These are the very funds a frightened American people were strong armed into giving them in the first place. They needed the money to save their big corporate butts from plummeting into the chasm of the collapsing world market. Now there is no urgency on their parts to share this salvation with the people that pulled them back from the brink. They are disdainful of those asking for the use of this money while being cavalier in the disposal of short sale and foreclosed homes, making it nearly impossible to clear these homes from the glutted market.

Like so many others in this situation we wait. We wait with the mantra repeating in our heads, “It will happen when it is supposed to happen”. I feel this is true and still I feel impatient at the waiting, at the not knowing.

We excitedly look at houses in Indiana. Determining the area we would like to live in, what type of house we want, while trying to enjoy the process of exploring our options. At the same time we try not to fall too deeply in love with any of the houses we see, knowing we can’t really do much until our house sells.

As to our life in Ohio, we enjoy spending time with our Emma. Knowing that the time allowed to be with her shortens as fall approaches and she starts kindergarten. As she grows older our purpose for staying here gets less and our urge to move back increases. We look forward to enjoying the comfort in the nearness of family and old friends, something lacking in our lives here and sorely missed.
The time frame that has always stuck in my head is September. I’ve always had the feeling that whatever is going to happen, happens then. I guess I will just have to wait a little longer and see if I’m right.

DLF 07/26/2010