Buyer's market?

They say it's a buyer's market. Yeah, right.

As you know, we put an offer on a house last week, but we didn't get it. We were up against two other contracts and the one that was accepted was 2k higher (we just found out) and the closing date was 6 days sooner. The whole experience felt way too familiar. Kind of like when we were trying to buy the first time around (in 2002-03) when the market was all kinds of crazy. We would see a house on the internet, call or email our realtor, and she'd reply a couple of hours later to tell us that it was already under contract! And this happened repeatedly. Our current house is a "third time's a charm" house. We made two other contract offers (we were outbid on the first one, and we opted out of the second after the seller turned out to be mildly insane).

I mean, choosing a home is a huge decision. And once you make that decision and make an offer on a house, you've already invested some emotion into the deal. You've at least pictured yourself and your family living there, redecorating the (two and a half!) bathrooms, playing in the (nice, fenced in) yard, walking in the (really cute) neighborhood. And not getting that house is a huge blow.

So yeah, I guess I'm still kind of bummed about not getting the house.

But I think the thing that's even worse is that there aren't any similar houses on the market right now in our price range. A couple of weeks ago there were quite a few. But they're all gone. So now we have no prospects. Not a one.

At least there's finally some action with our house (besides the fact that we can barely keep the flyer box stocked). When we came home after grocery shopping at around 8pm on Tuesday night, the young guy (who we hadn't heard from in two weeks) and his wife were standing in our driveway. It is highly irregular to show a house this way (without an appointment), and I was kinda ticked off (read: furious) considering how late it was and how we hadn't even eaten dinner yet. And the house was a bit of a mess with our beach gear, etc. all over the living room. But they could be our buyers. And it's a buyer's market, right? So, I asked them to give us ten minutes so I could throw the stuff into a pile and you know, make sure there wasn't pee on the toilet seat or anything. And we showed them the house. She seemed to like it and gave us lots of compliments on our decor, but I don't know if it will go anywhere. After all, the townhouse they are currently renting has FOUR bathrooms. Our house has only one.

Then on Wednesday, our realtor (Johnny) said he finally got a call back from the old guy (he'd been leaving messages on his voicemail for over a week). Apparently, he's still (telling us that he's) very interested. He wants to see the house again and make an offer. He says he's planning to come to the (third) open house this weekend. And Johnny is going to bring a contract for the old guy to look at and (possibly) sign.

I really wish I could be more excited about it, but I just can't help but think I'll believe it when I see it.

Also, I can't help but wonder, where the heck are we gonna go?