Cheap is realtive...

I saw an article on CNN Money recently entitled "The Power of Cheap." It was a story about people in Florida being able to afford houses because they are now "cheap", where cheap was defined as around $100-200K. That reminded me of a conversation that I overheard between two Realtors from California lamenting that they had to waste their time with the cheap $400K foreclosed or short sale homes that were now everywhere out there. Cheap in California apparently is anything under $500K.

These people don't know what cheap is! I'm regularly showing houses in the $10-20K range here in the Detroit area. I feel fortunate if I find a buyer who wants to look as high as $200K and blessed for anything in the $300K range or above. So cheap is surely relative to the market that one is in. How many of you would even get in your cars for a $10-20K sale? What is "cheap" in your markets? How are you dealing with or coping with what is cheap in your markets?

I posted this blog on LinkedIn, too, and have had several replies, some of which I have copied below:

"Our minimum price range for new buyers is about $150,000. I just reduced it from $200,000. Our average sale is about $300,000. This is Maryland Western Shore and Northern Virginia."

I have to wonder what they do if a first-time buyer comes in and wants to look at a $100,000 house, turn them away?

"Cheap here is $500,000. When I moved here 10 years ago, cheap was $200,000." the author was writing from Jackson, Wyoming

Ok Norm, I am the Queen of the 20k and 30k houses you can be the King. Actually some have been quite ok. The author is a Realtor in Ontario, Oregon

Apparently things are about as bad in Oregon as they are here in the Detroit area.

Well, gotta go. There's a $10,000 house out there somewhere for one of my clients and I'm gonna find it.