Buyers walking away from contracts, down payments
In a appreciating housing market, builders often don't have to worry about customers walking away from contracts. In the Washington market, though, buyers are beginning to see the writing on the wall and are backing out of these agreements, losing many thousands in the process.
From The Washington Post:
"Despite the pain of giving up that much money, some buyers are canceling to cut their losses because builders are pricing the same houses for so much less, Alexandria lawyer James C. "Beau" Brincefield Jr. said.
"I have seen people literally walk away from $125,000 deposits rather than go forward with the closing because the value of a house identical to their own was being sold by the builder for $100,000 less," said Brincefield, who is preparing litigation for buyers who want to sue builders to get their deposits back."
Comments
My wife and I have had our eyes on a nice new development in Alexandria, VA and started going to open houses there about 3 months ago.
We checked back this weekend and EVERY SINGLE ONE of 8-10 houses we had looked at was still unsold and at least 10 more were for sale.
Two words for the current market: POP!...sssssssssssss. Nothing could make me happier than to hear how builders and flippers are now duking it out in court over cancelled contracts.
Posted by: eddie | May 8, 2006 02:56 PM