[4RE KLR]

Property values are dropping everywhere. Sure, in some areas they are starting to slow form the free fall but it isn't over yet. The breaks are on, but they are smoking very bad.

There is a lot of momentum that needs to be covered before the market will stop the free fall and actually start to recover. Sure some areas are less hard hit. NONE are immune to the catastrophic losses.

Usually when a neighborhood finishes out the prices do increase a little, then the last few houses the value actually falls. That is because the builders want to get out of the community because there are not enough lots to justify the continued stay in the community. So, they discount the last lots to move them. This will negatively affect the existing homes just as foreclosures would.

House values anywhere...
Whatever the seller can get! There really is no rhyme or reason right now on house values other than to say it isn't pretty for the sellers. Most are in negative equity as they have either bought since 2002 or refinanced since the same time period and "cashed out". That is coming back to haunt many people right now.

It is a buyers market, BUT...
Yup, it is a buyers market, However I have seen mortgage companies turn down what would have been a grade A loan request just six months ago. The customers have 25% down, been on the job twenty years, lived in the same house for the last twenty years. The loan request was denied. Reason they house they were living in was not sold. Here is the deal, the (existing) house will pay off in two years. The people do not have the income to cover both house payments in the normal mortgage guidelines FOR ONE HOUSE! However they could pay off the first house if they chose to and still have the 25% down. Meaning the mortgage is taking into consideration both houses. They are told that once the existing house settles they can re-apply.

Some would say that is not a bad plan. The buyers walked! Forward progress averted!