saw several properties in Western PA approx. 6-8 weeks ago... and now, today, all are still on the market. Bottomline: we're turning into a BUYER'S market. Peak was June 2005...(similar to Jan 2000 for stocks).
Just curious, how does the insurance company get away with paying less than half of what it is insured for? What is their reason? In some states they are allowed by law to do that. America the beautiful!!!!. Also when you loose a house in a storm, you may not be allowed to build it back on the same property, if the city or county says you can't and in the event that you are allowed to build back, you may not be able to get insurance.
insurance most of the time is a rip off...i have all my insurance licenses and i can go into detail on this...but it would take too long. let me just put it this way. 1. They are in the business of making money. 2. the basic premise of insurance is that it is designed AT A MAXIMUM to get the insurer back to "even"...but usually doesnt. 3. the insured can never legally profit from owning insurance. yes, on occasion people have payed one premium and then gotten a big payoff.... but that means someone else has to make up for it. so, If the insured cannot legally profit from owing insurance......that means they are losing money.... i have NOTHING insured. not my car, house, belonginings, health, life...NOTHING. why? becuse in the long run i will definately lose, and so will you.
It is the both the insurer and the insured's responsibility to keep the amount of coverage up to date and adequate. If the company has no proof that they notified you each year advising you to increase your coverage, you should check with your lawyer if you have any kind of a case. Perhaps the insurer would be responsible for half the shortcoming or maybe if you raised enough fuss, the insurance company could pay you off to keep quiet. A lot of insurance companies will not notify their clients each year to tell them to increase their coverage. If they did this, they would have to increase your rates and take a chance of you going to another company.
I am a loan officer in the DC metro area and the peak here seems to have been mid to late July. There was a runup during late spring early summer and July was the last of the "I need to buy now before I am priced out of the market" buying. Right now there is a glut of inventory in Montgomery county and Northern Virginia. Amazingly I still have a few idiot customers buying INVESTMENT properties. There are a lot of people trying to unload recent construction (town houses and houses in some planed communites that went up over the last 5-10 years) and the new construction condos are not selling. Lots of "price reduced" signs on properties and a few newer realtors are out of the business. Also some of the appraisers I work with have already said that they have seen about a 5-10% correction from summer peak prices. Things will get really ugly in late 06 or 07 when the interest only ARMs hit the adjustable period and people who are already straped will have to fork over an aditional $500 or so a month. Also a lot of people are being mislead into "Option ARMs" which are negative amortization loans. These will have an astronomically high foreclosure rate and will really send things spiraling down.
i dont live in the USA.....i live in Costa Rica. insurance is worse here..it is a national monopoly. In the states i always only got the absolute legal minimum. I never had a car loan (always paid cash) so i didnt have to pay extra insurance for physical damage and theft. I had decent cars too. a little older, but not junk. Premiums are always a bit cheaper for older cars as well becuse they cost less to replace.