The Housing market is unreal..and that's a good thing

steveinaz

2 days after we put the current house on the market...SOLD, full price with a back-rent clause.

Awesome. The new house is coming along, probably close around 12 June.

PolkThug

nice!

nadams

I'm hoping to see the same thing this weekend. Our house is on the market starting tomorrow... looking to sell it fast, but we can't move out until Mid June.

brettw22

I was thinking about buying a house this year, but I've heard many stories about the prices being bid up 20-40k.

I'll wait until the market slows before I'll even think about paying those kinda prices over asking.......

Shizelbs

The market in Seattle is really **** with us right now. I've watched prices climb up ~$100k in the last two months, in a rural suburb of Seattle. Stupid Microsoft. I'm happy for you sellers, but it sucks to be a buyer. I don't think waiting will help though. We are buying as soon as we can.

brettw22

I don't think rushing into a bursting market is a great idea personally.....

The only thing i keep hearing is the markets are going to slow down and eventually bottom out.....the last thing i wanna do is commit to something that's being predicated to fall soon.

Shizelbs

All I know is that in my area, everyone is saying that, yes, the climb in prices will slow, but they are not likely to go down. It may be a while again before the house we buy appreciates any, but we're not going to lose any money either.

Of course people have been saying this for the past few years and the market is still nutso.

hoosier21

Originally posted by brettw22
The only thing i keep hearing is the markets are going to slow down and eventually bottom out.....

Don't know your source, but I can promise you housing does not come down, unless something BIG happens, like a military base closes, a small town where the one single industry closes or something of that nature.

Reminds me of my conversation with my wife, we want to build, lots prices were 20-25k 2 years ago, she said they are too much, I said honey that ain't gonna get cheaper, now they are 35-40k

brettw22

I think it also depends on your regional markets....

AZ is suffering (that's right) with the onslaught of about 15,000 families per month moving here from CA because they're trying to excape their insane market there. That in turn is causing our market to surge drastically, which (as a buyer) i don't really want to buy in the middle of......i dunno..maybe just a weird way of thinking.

steveinaz

True story indeed. It's crazy the amount of people coming into lil' ol Sierra Vista lately. There is NO industry here, just Ft. Huachuca. I'm glad we pulled the trigger when we did. The amount of money we made on our house borders on insanity.

Ron-P

My brother just bought a house in Irvine, CA. It won't be finished until October. It went up 50k in one week's time. He should have several hundred thousand in equity before he even moves in, that is, if the market keeps going the way it is.

Sami

Originally posted by brettw22
I'll wait until the market slows before I'll even think about paying those kinda prices over asking.......

The thing is, they might not go down but up. The other thing is, interest rates are going up rather fast now. I got my house when the rates were at all time low, I think they are up by 2% already which is a big difference in mortgage payments.

For example:

200k, 30y, 8% = 1468 per month
200k, 30y, 6% = 1199 per month
245k, 30y, 6% = 1468 per month

Luckily for me, I live in Dallas where housing is very cheap. It's not the prettiest place in the world but your money goes much further here.

The one market where the prices might drop is southern CA. People simply can't afford the housing there anymore and many are getting loans with only interest paid, no payment on the principal. What I got for $160k here would have been way over $500k in CA. There might be demand but when people stop affording them the only place to go is down in price. Awful situation to be in to be couple hundred K short on a house that you're only paying interest on. Then again, if it goes up (which it can't do for much longer) you have equity on it.

okiepolkie

We are about to build our first house. Homes in this area are supposedly 20% below the national average. A 75x100 lot is $25,000 in a decent neighborhood. Then it between $80-$85/sq foot to build and between $95-$100 to buy a pre-built home.

We will hopefully be able to break ground to build by the first of June.

Sami

Originally posted by okiepolkie
We are about to build our first house. Homes in this area are supposedly 20% below the national average. A 75x100 lot is $25,000 in a decent neighborhood. Then it between $80-$85/sq foot to build and between $95-$100 to buy a pre-built home.

I got mine for $70/sq.ft., with a large pool in the backyard. 1992, 2300 sq.ft. Lots of high paying Engineering jobs in the area too so I doubt I will move if it is not outside of US. A lot of open jobs at our office in San Diego but only 20% raise in salary, that won't even cover the higher cost of taxes and services, let alone housing.

It's no Key West but at least I can afford to live here. If living is getting too expensive in CA or other high priced areas, Texas isn't a bad choice (and I'm not Texan). It might not be pretty and it is inland with no ocean but it's warm here. Summer 100 degree is great, especially with a pool in the backyard.

landry_p2000

I feel what you are saying Sami. I got a good deal also. my house appraised for $160k and I got a good deal on it for $135k. It is 2,580 square feet with a nice .25 acre lot. My kids can run and play in a back yard now. It is a decent neighborhood also. The house I got was built in 1994. We closed in October at 7.6%, I think. I don't plan on moving any time soon.:rolleyes:

Ron-P

The one market where the prices might drop is southern CA. People simply can't afford the housing there anymore and many are getting loans with only interest paid, no payment on the principal. What I got for $160k here would have been way over $500k in CA.

This is exactly what my brother is doing, he has 3 years of interest only payments. But, if all goes well (it's risky) he'll make several hundred thousand on the house in that 3 years.

I could sell my 1,100sf house for over 700k right now, crazy stuff. Would I, no, I don't want a mortagage.

Sami

Originally posted by Ron-P
This is exactly what my brother is doing, he has 3 years of interest only payments. But, if all goes well (it's risky) he'll make several hundred thousand on the house in that 3 years.

It's like the stock market right now, prices can go up or down. I hope he does good.

Originally posted by Ron-P
I could sell my 1,100sf house for over 700k right now, crazy stuff. Would I, no, I don't want a mortagage.

It's not the profit you could make on the house, it's how much you would need to pay for a replacement. If you know you're moving to a different city then it is great for you but the prices could just be as bad in the next city.

As far for mortgage rates, I got 6.25% on 100% financing. Would have been around 5-5.25% if I would have had the 20% downpayment. Damn, fast cars ate my downpayment, but then again I can afford them better when housing is so cheap.

Mazeroth

What part of AZ are you moving to, Steve? My parents bought a house in Prescott Valley 2 years ago. They purchased it for $191,000. They had it appraised last month for insurance reasons and they got an estimate of $270,000. A real estate agent friend of theirs said by the end of the year it will be $305,000. Talk about sick.

I'm looking to move out there as soon as I can. I was hoping to get a house in Prescott, but with the current prices it's not worth it.

wodom1

I've been looking into buying a condo in Chicago. One-bedroom lofts are going for about $230k + $30k for a parking spot (one parking spot!). I came pretty close to putting some money down on a place that will be finished early next year, but held off. My brother is about to graduate from Harvard with his MBA and he plans on going into real estate development and I've been getting a lot of advice from him about puchasing. He actually just warned me about buying after attending a conference at Harvard. He said that the "bubble is about to burst" with housing costs and prices will be dropping significantly within two years. This is due to the fact that everywhere you look there are condos going up and it's over-saturating the market. I can't remember exactly what else he talked about, other than that it is very much a renters market rather than a buyers at the current time.

Josh

landry_p2000

Originally posted by wodom1
I've been looking into buying a condo in Chicago. One-bedroom lofts are going for about $230k + $30k for a parking spot (one parking spot!).

Josh

Man, I am glad that I moved down to Tennessee.;)

criverajr

Polksters,

Try living in NJ!!, the prices are insanely higher for anything decent bidding wars are the norm. My neice is a real estate agent and she saids their is hardly any inventory available in a good town. I just my house for 3/12 time what I paid for it, just insane!


CRj

brettw22

Originally posted by criverajr
I just my house for 3/12 time what I paid for it, just insane!

Can you clarify this last sentence? I got the 'just insane' part, but the stuff before the comma isn't jivin.....

ohskigod

i think he forgot a "sold" in there. if i made a silly profit on my house, i would be excited and forget to type whole words too.

wingnut4772

I am shopping for a house right now in Miami florida. I have bid full asking price on three houses so far and been outbid each time. A fixer upper in a nice neighborhood here is 500K. My Townhouse built in 77 went up 100K in a year!

jdhdiggs

Originally posted by ohskigod
i think he forgot a "sold" in there. if i made a silly profit on my house, i would be excited and forget to type whole words too.

Yeah, but what does "3/12" mean... I'd be pissed if my house was only worth a quarter of what I paid for it. Maybe a 3.5X value? Who knows... Definately excited!

criverajr

I meant 3 and 1/2 times the original purchase value, I kind of felt sorry for the person but their were 2 other offers above my asking price. I had back up offers just incase this one fell through. The town I live in has access to a new train spur to NYC and it has driven the home prices through the roof.

CRj

steveinaz

Originally posted by Mazeroth
What part of AZ are you moving to, Steve? My parents bought a house in Prescott Valley 2 years ago. They purchased it for $191,000. They had it appraised last month for insurance reasons and they got an estimate of $270,000. A real estate agent friend of theirs said by the end of the year it will be $305,000. Talk about sick.

I'm looking to move out there as soon as I can. I was hoping to get a house in Prescott, but with the current prices it's not worth it.

I'm staying in Sierra Vista, just a 1 mile move. SV is about 70 miles southeast of Tucson, about 8 miles (as the crow flies) from the Mexican border.

My new home is 4 bedroom, 1949 sqft, clay tile, 12x40 covered patio, gas fireplace, 2.5 garage, etc, etc...$243,800.00, base price is $209,900.00.

DarqueKnight

Originally posted by brettw22
I was thinking about buying a house this year, but I've heard many stories about the prices being bid up 20-40k.

I'll wait until the market slows before I'll even think about paying those kinda prices over asking.......

With the influx of rabid California homebuyers, I doubt that things will cool off soon, if ever. A similar thing happened to Seattle with a mass migration of Californians in the late 80's early 90's. A lot of people thought the hoard of Californians would taper off and prices would stabilize back to "normal" levels. These people found themselves priced out of the market.

It's all relative. Making a "killing" on a house is great if you are selling and moving to an area with "reasonable" home prices. In my case, I sold my home in Denver for a handsome profit and moved to Louisiana. On the other hand, if you are selling in a high cost area and looking to buy in the same area, you are pretty much just breaking even, and you may even find yourself at a financial disadvantage, although you may sell your home for 4 times what you paid for it.