[Exmoor]

Cash buyers are not complete idiots. If the mortgage-based buyers they were competing with a year ago have 35% less buying power than why would they spend money they don't need to? The market where I live (Seattle suburbs) has completely reversed in the last year.

A year ago I was surprised if a house lasted more than a weekend, now I'm literally shocked when I see a house sell. I can think of two houses in my area I've seen with sold signs in the last couple months and there's dozens that have been sitting on the market for that time.

[xt00]

Yea likely many cash buyers will sit in a wait and see mode except for amazing properties (like waterfront that is being sold cheaper than expected etc) -- but the ability of the fed to drive housing prices down will probably be seen as a feature rather than a bug to many people -- so I would expect the fed will keep the high interest rates for 2-3 years. There were continual increases from 1977 to 1981 until finally things were reversed.. so interest rates being ~8% + for 3 years would seem cheap compared to the high interest rates of 1981 (hitting 18%). So seems likely housing prices will keep sliding for a while until some sort of equilibrium is found.

[to11mtm]

Cash buyers are -not- complete idiots, but there was (and still is) some portion of people who think that prices will at best plateau, and thus it's better to 'get in' early still.

> A year ago I was surprised if a house lasted more than a weekend, now I'm literally shocked when I see a house sell.

Around here it has cooled down but the market is still... volatile. Ironically I may or may not be 'up' in value compared to the start of this year. But my state has various taxes and insurance costs that have impacts on relative home value.