"According to Fiserv (FISV), a financial analytics company, home values are expected to fall another 3.6% by next June, pushing them to a new low of 35% below the peak reached in early 2006"
http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/31/real_estate/home_prices/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2
Boy, I trust that company... Let's "bring it all home", so to speak. According to Zillow.com my home in early 2006 was worth 203% of what I paid in 2001; That's the peak to use for a reference.
According to the CNN article "The first post-bubble bottom was hit in 2009, when prices fell to 31% below peak." Zillow shows my home was 58% below the peak (and 14% below what I paid for it).
In Aug 2011, Zillow showed my home at 59% below the peak which was then 16% below what I purchased it for 10 years prior.
Who cares about % below peak anyway. That is only a measure of a "missed opportunity". What they are really saying is "You missed an opportunity to sell your home in 2006 at a 100% profit (or 700% profit over investment at that point), live in an apartment for three years, then buy your home back for cash and have 50% left to upgrade the appliances, paint and carpets, and pay two real estate commissions, pay the title company twice, pay the mortgage closing cost twice, pay the state tax stamps twice. *Everyone makes out like a bandit with no losers*."
Thanks for rubbing it in Fiserv and CNN. So I missed an opportunity to put $250k in my pocket at the expense of some schmuck you duped into buying a home at the peak of a boom...(The folks I sold to would have actually lost $200K, but hey, its a free market, right? We would have felt we "earned" that money. )
I'm actually starting to feel better already. I didn't lose anything and I didn't help the real estate tycoons destroy the savings, credit rating, and happiness of someone else.
Maybe, I should get a double tax credit - I lost (missed out on - same thing) $200K on my investment, and I did a charitable thing by not stealing some bloke's $200K. All the government will do is waste my tax dollars building roads and bridges anyway - why shouldn't I get a tax break?
Thanks for trying to make me feel bad, CNN.
