Since we sold our house in September 2007, we have not stopped thanking the Italian woman who bought our house when we were so desperate to sell it. We were going to be in such a deep trouble if we could not sell the house fast. She is like our saver sent by god. Really, think about it. She just came to US for two weeks when she first came to see our house. She works for Italian Consulate. The Consulate does provide housing for higher level employees. She happened to have a teenage daughter who needs to go to high school in September. She happened to have a good friend lives in the same area, who knows the school district is one of the best in PA. Even she did not have credit history in US, her real estate agent happened to have a friend who works for Country Wide mortgage company who happened to have a lot of experience of processing loans to foreigners. All these “pre-conditions” have to exit for the sale to go through.
Short after we sold our house, the housing market became worse and worse, house price has been dropping. Even our old house was in very good condition, if we did not sell it last year, we would not get the price we got then. I guest probably 50k to 100k less. A house on the same street as ours was put on the market at the same time. It had some updates but not as well as ours. They were asking for 5k higher in price than as ours. Of course, they did not sell. They took it off the market for half year; it was back on the market again. The price has dropped 100k and still did not sell yet. My old landlord’s house was on the market since last October. It has dropped price for more than 10%. It is still there. I can not imagine how hard it is for the owners.
I am watching the housing market very closely. I noticed more and more houses were put on the market. They usually stay on the market for a long while. Finally, they disappear from the listing. I do not know if they are sold or pulled off from the market. It is not a market to sell anything now.
I still like to drive by our old house once a while to see how the house looks. The new owner planted some pine trees and put up a fence around side yard. Of course, they do not do good job as me cleaning the leaves from that messy tree. The lawn does not look as good as when we were there. The bushes we planted have grown bigger. But they look like not being watered enough. We had so many memories in that house.
‘Thank you, Italian woman!’ My husband and I always say that when we see another ‘for sale’ sign and remind us about our thrilling selling experience. Thank God for sending us the Italian woman. Now, the whole America need God’s blessing. God, please bless America.
