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Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Other Side of the Housing Crisis

Adam and Lindsey Blackmon are living in their dream home — a 3,900 square-foot, six-bedroom, three-and-a-half bathroom two-story home — almost by accident.

The house features a giant kitchen, master bedroom suite with a Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom, bamboo floors and cathedral ceilings.

"We weren't looking," Lindsey Blackmon said.

She and her husband, Adam, are a working-class family in their late 20s, with an 18-month daughter. "It's almost like we skipped a step in housing. We have already found our 'forever' house. It's fantastic"

It's the other side of the housing crisis, the people buying up foreclosed property, often first-time homebuyers, young couples and investors, real estate experts say.

While the Blackmons weren't looking to buy a house, they couldn't help but notice the spacious house for sale on Deep Creek Road in Newport News a few blocks from where they lived in their 1,600 square-foot starter home. They inquired about it, and almost didn't make an offer. They were surprised when they offered $250,000, and the bank counter-offered at $261,000.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

One daughter and they need a six bedroom house. Ew status isn't what you have, its who you are.

Anonymous said...

A lot of buyers today are realizing the deals out there in the market and taking advantage of it. And with the huge deluge REOs, you can offer substantially less and be very aggressive in undercutting prices. I'm doing the opposite. Going from an 1800$ 30 year mortgage to a 700$ 15 year mortgage. Roughly same size home, on a larger piece of land(going from .20 acres to 3 acres). On mortgage payments alone, I'll be saving an additional 12K a year. Getting close to retirement, but that additional 120K over the next decade will definitely help.