I have been looking into buying a home, each area of the US is on it's own timeline. Kramer is looking at the two extreme housing market areas, CA & FL. These were big 'investment property' states.
Many other places where it's real homeowners selling their much loved home have barely started coming down in price, and I predict a crash at some point when owners just cant sustain holding on anymore in the face of all these rising costs.
I have wondered about my own situation where I am looking for a home. The city I am looking in has not dropped it's prices in the 8 months I have been looking. Now with mortgage rates rising, I'm wondering if I will ever find an affordable place, but I am learning patience.
Many experts say that when mortgage rates go up, home prices come down. We'll see.

oh boy...The guys name is Cramer!!!! If you are going to quote a guy,please have his name correct...Now if you are saying Jerry Seinfeld's friend Kosmo Kramer is saying buy a home, then i apologize

Ahh qdognj; I always could rely on your to get over excited about nothing.

Cramer. Not Kramer. If anyone else was completely thrown off by this, then I apologize. Somehow I imagine most people were able to work out what I meant. Especially as I gave his first name.

Anything of value to add qdog??

well, I don't see any INconsistency w/ "buy now, the upswing has started" and "it'll take 10 years to regain previous levels."

I think most people believe it will be a slow upswing.

I don't know about this guy's expertise; I'm just commenting on the logic

I am not an analyst but I have to agree with talley sue! In my "little area of the world" my house has been on the market 124 days and we have dropped our price 2 times! We have an offer coming in tomorrow but you know you "can't count your chickens until they are hatched"!!! I think "recovery" will be slow too and even though I may be a bit biased, I think people should buy now because the interest rate is starting to go up a bit. But the real reason to me, is the prices are falling at least around here.
Just my 2 cents!

If all I do is look at real estate for sale on the internet sites I would think the prices have not dropped at all around here (Raleigh NC). But talk to people that are out there trying to sell a house AND the people that are out there looking for a bargain and the story changes! In some parts of town the prices are so low that the seller is not making any money if you take the rate of inflation into account times the number of years they have owned the house.

Ok,hobokenkitchen, here is my "value" added,lol...
Don't listen to this guy,period.. Buy real estate/homes because you want to raise a family in a home you own,buy it without significant concern in regards to what its value may be today/tommorrow/next year...It is not your ticket to retirement..If it is worth more in the future when you sell, great...If you aren't selling, your home is worth nothing more then what someone may pay you in the future,and todays value is opaque at best

But what is Leonard The Wonder Monkey predicting? You know, the monkey that has out-predicted Cramer on stocks.

Cramer is an interesting fellow. I want to be wrong over 50% of the time and have my own TV show! He is er, energetic and enthusiastic though.

We've been looking for a Florida beach property (investment) quasi-seriously for close to a year now. A drive down there is amazing. We've driven through neighborhoods where it seems ever house is for sale! Prices are still dropping. It is estimated that Florida has a four year supply of houses and condos on the market right now. While all real estate is local (even within a state) I'm not sure the bottom has been reached in Florida yet. Maybe the supply won't grow but I sincerely doubt the prices are at the bottom.

2 things.

I know of NE people who are all talking about buying in FL now - the bargain hunters are in full force. The East coast of FL is unique enough that people will buy and I doubt it will take 4 years (assuming the economy and stock market come back in the next 2 years). The reason that buying hasn't happened yet is the stock market/economy and the big question of a new administration (think higher taxes particularly on capital gains).

Raleigh/Cary - as a looker and (just started) seller - there just isn't a lot of inventory in places I want to live in my price range. Some inventory yes - a lot - no. I last moved 3 years ago and there seemed to be more inventory then and at lower prices (no surprise about the prices). In Cary - new = >$500k for decent sized detached but usually on .2 acre. No question sales are down and DOM are up but I haven't found too many $600-700k houses that I want to live in. I think the phenomenon here is close-in properties are in demand - think gas prices. The exurbs (Holly springs/Wake Forest) are probably harder hit.

I just looked at a 675 sf house in Southern California. It's a fixer on the market for $660K - that's almost $1000 per sf! We looked at another property in the same area that is a tear down - it's on the market as a distress sale for $550K (this property sold in 2000 for $250K and the current owner purchased 2 years ago for just under a cool mil). A person can't even get a "normal" loan for that property. It seems to me (a layperson) that everyone but the sellers have realized that the market is not what is used to be a few years ago. Most bank owned properties are still several hundred dollars per sf - even in areas that aren't considered very nice. I'm still looking and still optimistic.

hobokenkitchen-"So I just saw Jim Kramer on one of the morning shows saying that now is the time to buy both real estate and stock."

Cramer dropped the ball about Bear Stearns. I watched a few minutes of Cramer yesterday, he doesn't seem to be yelling quite as loudly as he has in the past.

Jim Cramer/Mad Mail: Is Bear Stearns in Trouble?

"On March 11, 2008, Cramer told an e-mailer not to sell the beleaguered investment bankâÂÂs stock on his showâÂÂs Web site:

âÂÂDear Jim: Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there? --Peter

Cramer says: âÂÂNo! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, theyâÂÂre more likely to be taken over. DonâÂÂt move your money from Bear.âÂÂ

A link that might be useful:
www.cnbc.com/id/23575614

dreamgarden: "On March 11, 2008, Cramer told an e-mailer not to sell the beleaguered investment bank's stock on his show's Web site:"

That is simply is not true. Cramer was talking about a person who was concerned whether his money was safe on deposit with Bear Stearns, not whether he should sell stock in Bear Stearns. The next sentence of your C&P even explicitly states that. To wit:

Dear Jim: Should I be worried about Bear Stearns in terms of liquidity and get my money out of there? --Peter "

See. Reading is Fundamental.

And as for Cramer's response: "No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, they're more likely to be taken over. Don't move your money from Bear."

He was absolutely right. Bear WAS taken over and people who had their money in Bear were fine!

Geesh.

The only advice I would follow would be that of Warren Buffet. Everyone else is taking $$$ or getting a cut to encourage market shifts/trends.

The last major market shift was real estate and the result banks are failing, developers are bankrupt and many on Wall. St. (saying to buy real estate) made a killing during peak. Each person must achieve due diligence and not throw money because Person A said so. If people stopped listening and instead investigated, researched and asked questions we wouldn't be in this mess.

I'm still trying to figure out why someone would buy a first home on an ARM or IOM if they couldn't qualify or afford a FRM - but at one point I was in the minority posing such a question.

FL, AZ, NV, & CA continue to have the highest foreclosure rates because of overdevelopment, speculation and limited local economy. There may be exceptions to the rule but there isn't a demand of buyers getting off of planes for the great deals or "I must get in NOW" thinking - so there is no urgency.

bethesdamadman- "He was absolutely right. Bear WAS taken over and people who had their money in Bear were fine! Geesh."

So you have stock in Bear Stearns? Lucky you!

"Geesh" back at ya!

dreamgarden,what bethesda was saying was bondholders and depositors were made whole..stockholders took the beating...

qdognj-"dreamgarden,what bethesda was saying was bondholders and depositors were made whole..stockholders took the beating..."

And 14,000 of their employees as well......

bethesdamadman- "He was absolutely right. Bear WAS taken over and people who had their money in Bear were fine! Geesh."

Dreamgarden: "So you have stock in Bear Stearns? Lucky you!"

Wow. There's a real non sequitur.

It's okay, dreamgarden. Don't be too embarrassed that you completely misunderstood Cramer's statement and have now compounded your error with another erroneous conclusion that made no sense whatsoever.

These things happen. You just keep C&Ping articles and we'll try to help you understand the concepts contained therein.

Listen to enough of these guys, and its like throwing you-know-what against a wall..something is bound to stick. After all, they either did not see this debacle coming at them like a freight train..or ignored it in order to line their pockets. Either way, their credibility is tarnished...to say the least.

Bottom line? Mortgage rates are up, and certainly in the NJ/NY home prices are down only slightly...except on old homes that are in questionable condition. So Cramer et al really need to be taken with a grain of salt, as each market is not the same as another. None of them have a magic crystal ball.

Both Cramer and Kramer are in the same biz--entertainment. There shd be one of those disclaimers at the beginning of Cramer's show like there are in those 'psychic' ads--"for entertainment purposes only."

OT--does anyone else who watches baseball find themselves giggling every time someone mentions the new (Detroit?) stadium, Comerica Park? I always think of Kramerica Industries (K's "company" that he invented so he could get an intern from NYU).