SS109 wrote: You might even see if the economy worsens, those big homes divided and sublet.
If gas prices keep going the way they are going, I doubt they'd even be good for that. Who would want to live out in some McMansion tenement in the wilds of Douglas County when it costs you $30 a day to commute to your job from their.
Maybe they'd make good chicken coops. Or maybe the meth cookers will be pushed out of the cities as demand rises for close-in housing.
The Middle East will settle down in time and oil prices will return to reasonable levels. WIth that fuel price ought to return to more accustomed levels also. Let's hope it is soon. Meanwhile property values may decrease, but anyone who can hold on will see their investment rise in good time. The old saying goes, they're not making more land. We've lost over 100k in equity we put into the house in terms of down payment, thus not a paper loss. This does not even count the un-financed amounts we put into the actual building costs. It's not a pretty picture, but we're staying put as long as I can keep working.
Yes, the Middle East will settle down, and oil prices will come down, but not quite as far down as they were before this latest run up. But then something else will come along to cause them to spike up even higher. That shock, too, will pass, and prices will come down - but again a little higher than they had been before the shock. That is pretty much the outlook for the next couple of decades, and is, as far as I can see, inevitable in a world where demand keeps rising while production levels will soon peak if they have not already.
Exurban areas are going to contract sharply, or reinvent themselves. And yes, this includes our lovely Conifer/Pine/Bailey area. We'll probably stay put too, but I don't expect to see the equity we've lost in the past couple of years to come back any time soon.
