Target 5: Could Housing Incentives Harm Some Customers?
PLAINFIELD, Ill. -- The drooping housing market is forcing some homebuilders to offer huge incentives just to get customers in the door.
It's a much different housing market than in years past.
When profits were high, builders would offer some free upgrades, or maybe a new television.
But hard times call for desperate measures and the incentive game is like never before.
But these incentives can come at the cost of other customers, like Bill and Meredith Rogers, who left Chicago for a bigger piece of the pie in suburbia.
They began building nearly one year ago with Gladstone builders in a new Plainfield neighborhood.
Just several months after moving in, the Rogers found an ad offering $100,000 off the base price of homes in their neighborhood.
The couple was shocked -- and immediately worried about their huge investment.
...
The Rogerses understand the struggle, but still want an explanation from the builder with whom they trusted their biggest investment.
"That $100,000 is a lot of money to take from us. It may not be in paper, but it's taken the value from what we put in here," said Meredith Rogers.
Worried about what? That they are fools for overpaying for a house. Tough bananas. You have not seen anything yet!
I don't know how important THIS couple is to warrant a news story about THEM. But, I do know they are not even smart enough to keep their mouths shut. Look people, just sit there and look smart. Can you handle that? Probably not.
2 comments:
What, are people now ENTITLED to make investments that are not supposed to lose value? If the couple's house would have appreciated in value by 100K would they still be whining?
Indeed, the Rogers probably would have been very smug about first-time buyers and others cut out of the market by upward-ratcheting prices, had they bought at the right time.
People need to know that the Law of Supply and Demand never rests and that it cuts both ways.
It's not our fault they mistimed the market.
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