Monday, December 18, 2006

6 Strategies to survive the real estate bust

Source: Fortune, Ellen Florian Kratz

Last year the question was whether the housing boom would slow down. Now it's how bad it will get.

Bret and Tricia Baird are all too aware of what they're getting into.

Friends and family have admonished them to rent when they move this month to Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, for Bret's new position as product manager with Bard Peripheral Vascular, a medical-device manufacturer. In the past few months the Bairds have been researching local real estate online and haven't liked what they've seen.

With an inventory of more than 38,000 homes for sale, up 94 percent from this time last year, Phoenix is one of the shakiest markets in the country. Nevertheless, Bret and Tricia, both 35, have decided to make a leap of faith. Mesa is Tricia's hometown, and the couple, who have four young children, are planning to live there for a while. So they just put in an offer of $400,000 for a 2,700-square-foot, five-bedroom house right next door to her sister.

Read the complete story, HERE.

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