This insane housing market.

[LuvOrlando]

I'm glad this is happening, thank goodness we were finally able to break away

I'm glad they are up because people who got caught up in the bubble from 08 can now get out of their homes financially sound. In the news all there seems to be is griping about who can;t get what they want but what about the millions of Americans who got hurt by the housing bubble? I remember the collapse and the foreclosures, the short sales and destruction of wealth especially among minorities when "predatory lending" was tagged as responsible for the slip back into poverty. This hurt poor people the most who couldn't absorb the losses. Now the people who were able to hang on, recapture wealth and get stronger can now sell, acquire wealth and bring everyone in their communities up along with them. Older Americans with fixed incomes can shed their family size homes to make way for new couples with more tax paying dollars in income and new retirees can slide into to the smaller starter size homes favored by new couples and retirees in the same communities - when it works it's a good thing.

Let the markets sizzle with life! Who knew there could be such a monumental upside to 2020 for the US.

 

[monsterkitty]

It's already a very tight market here. When the grass fires went through an area in Boulder County and burned over 1,000 homes, the market just got tighter.

There are people whose houses were not burned but have extensive smoke damage who have already put their houses on the market without doing the mitigation work. There are also a few people who are just selling the lots their houses were once on instead of rebuilding. The local news station reported that these houses and lots are listed at an increased value of before the fire. Because there is a lack of available inventory, they are already getting offers.

Houses in my area which are directly east of the burn area, but not in Boulder CO were already in bidding wars. There are 3 houses in my neighborhood for sale and all 3 had the price increased by the relators and then went under contract after bidding wars shot the prices up over 50,000 of the increased asking price. It's insane.

 

[Miffy]

Houses in the area where I live in a university town in upstate NY are selling basically overnight and almost always for a lot over asking. Asking price here no longer means that, it means "starting price."

There's practically no inventory and even homes that might've been on the market for months just a year ago are now selling immediately. We'll see a For Sale sign on a house in our neighborhood and a day or two later the In Contract sign is up already.

We bought our house late last year--closed at the end of October--and got very very very lucky. We'd been outbid on a couple of houses and had been starting to look in a cheaper housing market area that, frankly, wasn't where I wanted to live, although DH would've been OK with it.

We just happened to be chatting with one of our real estate agents (we had a couple, in different areas) and she mentioned that she'd bought a new house for herself, and her accountant told her she had to sell her current home, even though she didn't want to. One thing led to another, and we ended up buying her house, which, btw, was never on the market so there was no bidding war involved. And she sold it to us for a crazy-reasonable price. We could easily get another $50K for it right now if we wanted to sell it--which we do not!

DH and I regularly tell each other--and the real estate agent who sold us her house and is now our good friend--how incredibly lucky we are.

ETA: It's insane in the area where we now live, but in the Hudson Valley area of NY the housing market is the real estate equivalent of the Wild West. Houses in the Hudson Valley are going for something like triple what they were going for last year, when the prices were already hugely inflated. Kingston, for example, used to be an affordable place to buy a house. Now it's only affordable if you have a high six-figure income.

 

[iivye]

It's crazy! We bought our 900 sf house right before the bubble burst in '08 so we've spent pretty much the entire time since underwater. Now we can sell it for more than we paid but I just can't pull the trigger on a new house with the prices as high as they are now. We need something bigger but I'm worried it be a repeat of what happened the first time around.

 

[GreatLakes]

I'm glad this is happening, thank goodness we were finally able to break away

I'm glad they are up because people who got caught up in the bubble from 08 can now get out of their homes financially sound. In the news all there seems to be is griping about who can;t get what they want but what about the millions of Americans who got hurt by the housing bubble? I remember the collapse and the foreclosures, the short sales and destruction of wealth especially among minorities when "predatory lending" was tagged as responsible for the slip back into poverty. This hurt poor people the most who couldn't absorb the losses. Now the people who were able to hang on, recapture wealth and get stronger can now sell, acquire wealth and bring everyone in their communities up along with them. Older Americans with fixed incomes can shed their family size homes to make way for new couples with more tax paying dollars in income and new retirees can slide into to the smaller starter size homes favored by new couples and retirees in the same communities - when it works it's a good thing.

Let the markets sizzle with life! Who knew there could be such a monumental upside to 2020 for the US.

I bought in 2007 so I felt the crunch of 2008. I think a lot of people panicked unnecessarily. Don't get me wrong, I didn't like paying a mortgage on a home that lost 30%-40% of it's value, but unless I sold I didn't actually lose that 30%. I just knew I needed to stay in it until it came back which it did long before the current housing inflation.

 

[MillauFr]

I wonder if these crazy housing prices will cause a movement from high cost areas to lower cost areas? My coworker recently moved from Seattle back to Toledo, OH. She showed me a picture of a grand old home in the historical district of Toledo that was selling for $250k. Same place in Seattle would be $3m. There are great places all over the country. Maybe companies will move some operations to lower cost cities to spread around some of the economic growth which would be a positive for everyone.

 

[MillauFr]

I bought in 2007 so I felt the crunch of 2008. I think a lot of people panicked unnecessarily. Don't get me wrong, I didn't like paying a mortgage on a home that lost 30%-40% of it's value, but unless I sold I didn't actually lose that 30%. I just knew I needed to stay in it until it came back which it did long before the current housing inflation.

Many of those people were getting loans with low teaser rates. The mortgage brokers were just telling the people with increasing housing prices they could just refinance to a fixed mortgage right before the teaser rate expired. That was a good plan until housing prices collapsed and they couldn't refinance.

 

[GreatLakes]

Many of those people were getting loans with low teaser rates. The mortgage brokers were just telling the people with increasing housing prices they could just refinance to a fixed mortgage right before the teaser rate expired. That was a good plan until housing prices collapsed and they couldn't refinance.

Caveat Emptor.

A sucker is born every minute. I'm astonished by the number of people that signed mortgages without reading it thoroughly and doing some research.

 

[DLgal]

Ugh, don't even get me started on this.

If you do a search for a 3-4 bedroom house in my area, the minimum price of the listings is $1.3 MILLION DOLLARS.

These same houses were purchased for around $700-850K just a few years ago. It's an absolutely bonkers level of appreciation in that amount of time.

If I could go back in time, we would have stretched ourselves to the breaking point, financially, and BOUGHT one of these houses in 2015 when we moved back here. The fact that we could be sitting on $500-700k worth of equity right now makes me want to throw up.

Of course, back in 2015, we wouldn't have been approved for a $750k mortgage either, so it's a moot point.

Some places are just better suited for renting. The whole housing system in our country needs an overhaul.

 

[DLgal]

I wonder if these crazy housing prices will cause a movement from high cost areas to lower cost areas? My coworker recently moved from Seattle back to Toledo, OH. She showed me a picture of a grand old home in the historical district of Toledo that was selling for $250k. Same place in Seattle would be $3m. There are great places all over the country. Maybe companies will move some operations to lower cost cities to spread around some of the economic growth which would be a positive for everyone.

When people from high cost areas flock en masse to low cost areas, suddenly they also become high cost areas. Look what is happening in Florida right now, specifically Pensacola area. Its nuts. There is nothing in the local economy that supports the insanely high FL real estate prices right now. That is gonna come crashing down eventually.

 

[soccerdad72]

I wonder if these crazy housing prices will cause a movement from high cost areas to lower cost areas? My coworker recently moved from Seattle back to Toledo, OH. She showed me a picture of a grand old home in the historical district of Toledo that was selling for $250k. Same place in Seattle would be $3m. There are great places all over the country. Maybe companies will move some operations to lower cost cities to spread around some of the economic growth which would be a positive for everyone.

I think the trend of businesses moving to remote workplaces has definitely helped in this area, although I also saw an article recently talking about companies adjusting people's salaries (down) to account for them moving to lower cost areas. Especially the Silicon Valley companies.

 

[TinkBink]

We are lucky to be in a great home in MA but are looking to see if we can get into a better school district. We went to look at a 1.4 million dollar home and had to stand in the driveway and wait in line just to get inside to see it

 

[Skippy918]

This makes me wonder what the housing market will look like when my kids grow up and want to buy houses. Will they be able to afford anything? Still have 8 years before the oldest finishes college.

 

[MillauFr]

Caveat Emptor.

A sucker is born every minute. I'm astonished by the number of people that signed mortgages without reading it thoroughly and doing some research.

People are so easily influenced. Look at all of the rubes buying into the bitcoin scam. They even bid up Dogecoin which was invented as a complete joke.

 

[neverlandsky]

Older Americans with fixed incomes can shed their family size homes to make way for new couples with more tax paying dollars in income and new retirees can slide into to the smaller starter size homes favored by new couples and retirees in the same communities

It's definitely great if it's been going this way. Yet it hasn't. Older American aren't shedding their family size homes and are aging in place due to the horrid cost of retirement communities & assistant living communities. What's happening instead is the younger generations of aging parents, Boomers/GenX/Mills & sandwich generations are moving into their parents homes and becoming their caregivers. Also know a few Older Americans in good health are renting out their empty bedrooms as income to sustain rising cost of medical bills & well inflation in general. Makes no financial sense to move from a larger home already costing less or paid off to a new smaller home costing 40%-100% more than what you originally pay for it. Some that need to move are becoming landlords instead because with "marketplace rates" you can charge way more than the mortgage you're paying and make a great profit in doing so.

For those that were wiped with The Recession, it's good the housing market is back to those levels. What's different today is that builders are only building what makes them money and that's multi-residential units, commercial, and higher end homes. The starter homes that were being built before The Recession are almost nonexistent in this market and have been for a few years now.

 

[mikehn]

I wonder if these crazy housing prices will cause a movement from high cost areas to lower cost areas? My coworker recently moved from Seattle back to Toledo, OH. She showed me a picture of a grand old home in the historical district of Toledo that was selling for $250k. Same place in Seattle would be $3m. There are great places all over the country. Maybe companies will move some operations to lower cost cities to spread around some of the economic growth which would be a positive for everyone.

This movement is already underway. With the shift to remote work brought on by covid, people are now moving away from high priced big cities to more affordable (relatively) areas. A bunch of people in my office have submitted address changes that are out of the local area.

 

[MillauFr]

When people from high cost areas flock en masse to low cost areas, suddenly they also become high cost areas. Look what is happening in Florida right now, specifically Pensacola area. Its nuts. There is nothing in the local economy that supports the insanely high FL real estate prices right now. That is gonna come crashing down eventually.

Exactly. We were in Tampa recently and liked the houses in Hyde Park. I can't believe they were selling for way over a million. There is no way the local economy is supporting those kinds of prices.

Although I'm not so sure I agree that prices will collapse. Only way that will happen is if interest rates approach 10% and the economy craters. There is far too much loose cash floating around in the economy.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Houses in my area (outside DC) have always been way higher than the national average, but now it’s insane. A house on my parents street just sold for over $600,000. This is for a typical suburban 1800 sq foot, 4 bedroom, 2 car garage house. 2 or 3 years ago it wouldve sold for 350-400,000, which is crazy too. A house like this in other states used to be about 200-250,000

 

[DLgal]

It's definitely great if it's been going this way. Yet it hasn't. Older American aren't shedding their family size homes and are aging in place due to the horrid cost of retirement communities & assistant living communities. What's happening instead is the younger generations of aging parents, Boomers/GenX/Mills & sandwich generations are moving into their parents homes and becoming their caregivers. Also know a few Older Americans in good health are renting out their empty bedrooms as income to sustain rising cost of medical bills & well inflation in general. Makes no financial sense to move from a larger home already costing less or paid off to a new smaller home costing 40%-100% more than what you originally pay for it. Some that need to move are becoming landlords instead because with "marketplace rates" you can charge way more than the mortgage you're paying and make a great profit in doing so.

For those that were wiped with The Recession, it's good the housing market is back to those levels. What's different today is that builders are only building what makes them money and that's multi-residential units, commercial, and higher end homes. The starter homes that were being built before The Recession are almost nonexistent in this market and have been for a few years now.

I am so thankful my parents moved to FL when they retired in 2014 and were able to buy a new home in a retirement community for well under $200k. They had been renting a $3000/month apartment in Los Angeles and could not afford to maintain such a high housing payment in retirement. They are in great shape now, paying something like $800/month on their house payment. I don't know what they would have done had they needed to retire right now. They sold our last "family home" in 2004 when they relocated due to my father's job (yes, he had to relocate at the age of 57).

Starter homes are still being built here in large numbers. The problem is, they now cost almost $1M. I'm talking legitimate starter homes: 2-3 bedroom condos or townhomes, or very small single family homes (under 2000sq ft). The wait lists for those new homes gets full within minutes of the builders making them available. It's impossible to even buy a new starter home here unless you have all cash. They take cash buyers as first priority.

 

[DLgal]

Exactly. We were in Tampa recently and liked the houses in Hyde Park. I can't believe they were selling for way over a million. There is no way the local economy is supporting those kinds of prices.

Although I'm not so sure I agree that prices will collapse. Only way that will happen is if interest rates approach 10% and the economy craters. There is far too much loose cash floating around in the economy.

What I think will happen is the buyers of these houses will eventually decide they either don't like where they moved to, their job will change and require them to come back into the office, or something else will happen that will suddenly make these people change their minds. Then, you will start to see more and more houses listed for sale, and prices will have to become more competitive and the market will flip in favor of buyers. That is when we will start to see the correction in the local markets. I don't foresee a large scale housing crash, but more of a gradual shift back to reality pricing in many currently overpriced markets.

A lot of people are making rash, emotional, spontaneous decisions right now. I don't expect a lot of it to stick.