People keep telling me that this is a good time to buy, but the prices of the homes in Gainesville still seem rather inflated. What do you guys think?

You're not imagining it, GVL is running higher market-wise than a lot of areas, but if you keep looking and paying attention, you'll see prices dropping. It is a buyer's market right now, but you really gotta know how and what to look for. Our neighbors just bought a house in Crystal River for under 100K, and not a small house either; they're selling their house here for a bargain at 220K. So apparently Crystal River is the place to buy, LOL!

We just bought our house here in Dec. 06 and for a long time before we found this one, we really thought we wouldn't be able to afford a house here. My best friend bought a house in GA right around the same time we got ours....hers is a brand new 1700 sqft with a basement and she got it for 180....ours was built in the 80's is 1260sqft with a one car garage and it was 156 and we apparently got a steal because the woman who was selling had to sell right away or should would end up in foreclosure. The house next door to us is for sale...it started at 20 and is now down to 179! It's crazy.

Well we are looking to buy in one year. I really hope that something happens in the market so that we can buy something in a nice area, at a reasonable price. It seems to me that the word "reasonable" has just flown out of the window recently.

If you're wanting to buy, you may want to start keeping an eye out already. It took us three months to find a house that we thought was a decent deal, because like you said, houses in Gainesville are expensive! I found you just have to be patient and not expect to find that perfect home the first weekend. Just take a drive once a month or so to get an idea of what kind of houses are available, what specific neighborhoods you like, etc.

I agree with RaisingBoys...we drove through neighborhoods that we liked to see what we could find. We ended up finding our house online and really lucked out...I didn't even know this neighborhood was back where it is! It is a really nice neighborhood and I know there are several houses for sale over here right now...the only one I know the price of is the one next door. Not sure what size you are looking for...most of these are 3/2. I know what you mean Suzy about reasonable though...we were driving down 39th just the other night and there is that new development going in "With prices starting in the 400's" I said "are you kidding me??" They are not that big and they are right off 39th...where traffic stinks! Yikes!

The deals are out there, you just have to think of it like you're shopping at a store. Sometimes you have to dig through a lot of sale racks to find "the" item that you want. I agree about starting to look now.

Also, have you considered looking for a short sale? That is a property where the seller's lender is willing to take less than what is owed on the mortgage just to get it sold, rather than go through foreclosure. There are quite a few nice homes on the market right now that are short sales.

We are also looking to buy in about a year..thanks for the advice. Houses in my nieghborhood seem to start high and then get reduced over and over. Anything over 200K here is not getting sold.

We need to stay in Talbot school district for my son..so we've been looking in relevant neighborhoods to see what we like. It's just not possible now as we sold for a loss in Atlanta when we moved, but hopefully next year.

My question is how do you get out from under a home that you no longer want? When my hubby and I bought our mobile home, we both had gone thru divorces so out credit was not that go. The home had everything that we wanted, but now the nieghborhood is starting to take a turn for the worst. Since buying the home both of our credit has improves, but now we feel stuck! We have no credit cards, but we do have 2 car loans and the mortgage. We either want to buy land in the Alaucha area or on that side of G'ville and move the home or just get rid of it all together. We just don't know where to start???

Do your research! big time. We plan on turning over our house in a couple years, however it took us 3 years of house searching to settle into a decision. It sounds like a long time but there were plenty of apartments and other things going on in between.

We were new at the whole thing and were sure to do our research. Not only narrowing down what we really wanted (bedrooms for us and the kids, room for an office, biiiig kitchen, 2 car garage, decent back yard, particular sides of town, 1400sqft+, 2 bathrooms at least etc etc) but also finding out what is going for what in what neighborhoods.

Did you know that you can look up info on any house at the property appraisal website? Look at buyer/seller history, floor plans, stats on the house. RESEARCH your interest/house....don't fall into the trap of a lemon! Walk into an offer with a list of things you would need to do to the house (roof, fencing, pain, carpet etc) so that is why you are offering what you are offering. ALSO know what they paid for the house, and when. What other houses in the neighborhood sold for in the last few years. All this will most likely floor the seller and show them you mean business when looking for a house.

It goes back to the old saying 'do what you have always done, get what you have always gotten'

If you want more, better, you need to do more, better. Just looking isn't enough.

GOOD LUCK! Let me know if you have questions, I am quite familiar with the process of searching ha ha ha

Also, don't forget to look into county initiatives like the SHIP program. It is for first-time homebuyers or those who have only owned a mobile home previously. It's worth looking into:
http://growth-management.alachua.fl.us/housing/ship.php