gone2pot

Concerning the Case Shiller Housing Index

Hey dano, my comments have little to do with Case Shiller (although we've used it recently to our advantage) but thanks to people like you, patrick.net, seekingalpha and several others, I am a home buyer. I'm a very smart home buyer and I'm not located on the east or west coast, but in the midwest (St Louis area). I'm an extreme rookie wrt housing and have only been studying what's been going on since I sold a historic home in Clarksville, MO last July. My wife and I made a VERY nice profit after six years (doing all the restoration and remodel work myself). Since we've moved closer to civilization, we've seen a LOT of homes for sale that were on the market for a long time (1 year or more) as well as near empty new housing developments going bankrupt. Because of you guys, I found out why and am now a whole lot smarter. Armed with knowledge, I'm in the throes of buying a very high end preforeclosure home in a well established and desirable neighborhood 35 miles west of downtown St Louis for 17% less than what it sold for three years ago and only 5.9% more than what it sold for new in 1997. I know we're few and far between but if more folks get smarter via you guys, some of us will benefit. You may still think we're stupid to buy now, but without the information you all made available, we'd have taken a REAL stupid plunge last August. I agree with you wrt Case Shiller regarding the house we're buying. CS (using Chicago's trend line) would value the house we're buying 26% higher than our offer and 30% more than what it sold for new. There are several auctions, foreclosures and unsold new homes(being discounted up to 200,000) within a ten mile radius that CS does not take into account. Perhaps this housing deal will cause some of you smart guys to develop a more accurate index.