A sign that the economy is starting to improve?

[draggar]

My neighborhood has a lot o abandoned properties. Just in my community, 9 out of 29 unites are abandoned (which is making it difficult to get anything done with the lack of association fees coming in!).

Around where I live I think the abandoned rate is as high as 50%.

The past week or two though I've seen improvements.

A lot of people have been working on these homes / duplexes and even some of our abandoned units.

Hopefully this is a good sign.

One of our abandoned units allegedly has someone moving in today, too.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Cool.

I've been mulling the possibility of maybe buying something. Not sure what I could afford on what I make (and I live in NJ, which is an expensive state). A condo or townhouse...I would prefer not having to deal with mowing lawns and stuff like that. My lease is up in November; even if I rent still, I kinda would like to find a nicer place (also depends somewhat on if my roommate wanted to move with me). I should start looking at what's available.

[Exaspera]

Also, interest rates are down, and the housing market is much cheaper.

[Solumina]

Around many developers have been selling off unsold lots in their developments to real estate companies and a lot of them are renting out the homes and doing “rent to own” kind of deals instead of trying to get people to just straight up buy the homes since a lot of people have been unable to qualify for and/or leery of mortgages (and there aren't a whole lot of people who can buy a home without one of those).