Cold Feet

Looks like our house hunting may be coming to an abrupt end thanks to cold feet. This is a complete 180 from where we were just 2 days ago. We actually made a verbal offer on a newly constructed house in our neighborhood. Things were looking good in the negotiation process. Realtors were getting excited. Actually, they were bickering over the percentage of the commission owed to each. Then, the builder came back with a counter offer that we felt was fair, but given that the house is on a small lot, we decided to walk away. We were willing to make some concessions for a great deal, but it just didn't work out. No big deal. This wasn't our dream house or anything.

Sadly, there just aren't any houses on the market that we're interested in. About 4 or 5 made our short list, but each of them has some issue that bothers us. When you combine that with news reports that the housing market isn't likely to hit bottom until 2012, you get a couple with cold feet. Plus, the homes we're looking at would require a jumbo home loan and the rates for those mortgages aren't all that great. Analysts predict the real estate crisis will spread to the jumbo market over the next 2 years as those mortgages start to reset. Maybe then, the home owners will be more likely to deal. Right now, they've listed their houses ahead of the crisis, but aren't really desperate yet.

It's not that we're looking to capitalize on their loss, but we certainly don't want to buy a house and have the value plummet over the next year or two. That would just be stupid. So while the hunt to buy is likely coming to an end, I guess we're technically still looking for a new home. It's just more likely to be a rental at this point. Anyone know of any other million dollar mansions that are for rent at a ridiculously low rate?