This insane housing market.

[mefordis]

Everything is the millennials fault, don’t ya know!

I love being Gen X. We skate under the radar unnoticed and we get blamed for nothing.

 

[mefordis]

I didn’t say it was But it would be illegal to jack up someone’s rent like that in response to market rates. So if you’re paying $2k a month in rent you don’t have to worry about suddenly having to pay $2800 at lease renewal. If you’re looking to sign a new lease, that’s a slightly (but still not as drastic) story.

But there is no state law in NYC that will limit the amount of rent increase by your landlord if you are renting a non-stabilized apartment.

For a unit to be classified as rent-stabilized, it must fall into one of the following categories:

• Have had a rent of less than $2,000, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment between 1993 and June 23, 2011.
• Have had a rent of less than $2,500, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment between June 24, 2011 and June 14, 2015.
• Have had a rent of less than $2,700, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment since June 15, 2015.
• Have had a rent of less than $2,733.75, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment after December 31, 2017.
• Have had a rent of less than $2,774.76, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment after December 31, 2018 but prior to June 14, 2019.

 

[dvcgirl67]

I love being Gen X. We skate under the radar unnoticed and we get blamed for nothing.

I love being Gen-X too....we only skate under the radar because nobody has every paid attention to us....ever. And we're totally fine with that.

 

[QueenIsabella]

It's been getting nuts in the past couple years here. For one thing, the city is booming--much construction all over the place, the airport is expanding, that kind of thing. Plus, the city is shaped like a big ice cream cone, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side, and a river on the other, so growth is tricky--there are bridges over the river, of course, but the main one is a drawbridge. Most growth is headed north.

Our neighborhood is particularly desirable--it's built around a golf course and has no HOA. Frankly, it feels like a resort, even though we're walking distance to stores and restaurants. Two houses on our block went on the market and sold within a few days, for over list value. It's kind of funny to us--Zillow lists our house's value at almost twice what we paid for it in 2015. The really funny part of it is, it was just dumb luck that we landed here--we came down on a house-hunting trip for a few days, and picked this house out of the 5 or so that we visited. It was the builder's own home, so it's large (but was very dated when we bought it), and has plenty of closets and outlets. We've been upgrading things over time.

 

[rajak73]

I get a minimum of 2 calls per day and sometimes up to 6 wanting to know if I want to sell my house. They are all the same: will pay cash, close when I want, and bought "as is". I just need to move out. I never answer them. I will not deal with some fly-by-night outfit looking to make a quick buck.

I got one of those calls one day on a rental house I own, Zillow has listed and $180,00 estimate, told the guy that for $350,00 it was all theirs! Haven't heard back yet. And, Not all landlords are bad, we haven't upped the rent on our 3 places since we bought them in 2018, rent is still the same, also, we send xmas cards to the tenants and tell them for Jan rent to only pay half and have a merry christmas. Also have great tenants who know they are supposed to pay rent for living there.

 

[butterscotchcollins]

But there is no state law in NYC that will limit the amount of rent increase by your landlord if you are renting a non-stabilized apartment.

For a unit to be classified as rent-stabilized, it must fall into one of the following categories:

• Have had a rent of less than $2,000, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment between 1993 and June 23, 2011.
• Have had a rent of less than $2,500, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment between June 24, 2011 and June 14, 2015.
• Have had a rent of less than $2,700, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment since June 15, 2015.
• Have had a rent of less than $2,733.75, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment after December 31, 2017.
• Have had a rent of less than $2,774.76, if a tenant initially moved into the apartment after December 31, 2018 but prior to June 14, 2019.

I’ve lived here my whole life but thanks for chiming in I hope you feel better.

 

[RangerPooh]

We are in the Bay Area, definitely not in the nicer areas either, and houses aren't even making it to market. They go from coming soon to sold. This is for 1,000-1,500 sq ft homes built in the 70s selling for about 1.2 million, it is truly insane.

And sadly this is why we left California. DH and I could never have afforded to buy in our home state. I grew up in a smaller community south of San Jose and miss it, but can't afford to move back.

Last summer a friend of mine posted a home across the street from hers that hit the market in east San Jose for 1.2 mil. It was stuck in the 70s and needed a major over haul. Neither the schools nor neighborhood were the best in the 90s.

 

[HeatherC]

My daughter has been living at home since college and saving for a few years. She now has a huge down payment, but is deciding to hold off buying for now. She wants to move from here in MA to South Country, RI where prices are insane. Bidding wars and houses sell before listed. And we are talking older, ugly homes that need a lot of work.

There is no urgent need for her to get into a bidding war or make a rash decision, so she is continuing to save and will be ready to buy when prices start to stabilize a little.

I feel bad for those who are under pressure to find a property right now.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

she is continuing to save and will be ready to buy when prices start to stabilize a little.

The only downside is not knowing will that will be, also would also depend on what price range is even in the comfort range.

Since ours has been in a seller's market for 6 1/2 years people would be waiting a long time and probably would have been better off financially speaking had they purchased early on in the seller's market instead of waiting and waiting and waiting. They kept talking over the years about "will our market cool" and the answer has been "nope". It's always a possibility, almost like waiting for that shoe to drop and eventually it finally will but I would have lost that bet if I had thought we'd be in this market for this long. You couldn't build a home in the price range we did (not without getting a severely downgraded home) for multiple years (long before the pandemic) for example.

I do think regardless people def. should not rush too hard irrespective of where the market is. There will always be things you find later on after actually living in the home but it's totally different than having a never-ending list of things you don't like about your home and property.

 

[barkley]

And sadly this is why we left California. DH and I could never have afforded to buy in our home state. I grew up in a smaller community south of San Jose and miss it, but can't afford to move back.

Last summer a friend of mine posted a home across the street from hers that hit the market in east San Jose for 1.2 mil. It was stuck in the 70s and needed a major over haul. Neither the schools nor neighborhood were the best in the 90s.

the houses in the neighborhood in northern california that i grew up in were built in the late 50's/early 60's. these are around 1100 square foot homes and unless someone has already done renovations there are no laundry hookups inside and many have carports vs. garages. the listing prices for most (non renovated) are closing in on 800K that's just to buy the place. to make the places SAFE for habitation would cost a fortune in asbestos remediation alone but then if you want the luxury of something like say, a dishwasher you would be looking at a major kitchen reno, want a shower in the bathroom the 3 non primary befrooms will share (cuz the primary bathroom is tiny with no room absent an addition to expand)-looking at a another major reno.

it is either people buying them with plans/ideally a s--- ton of money to renovate OR people that have no idea how much renovations cost so they will be paying out the wazoo to live in poorly (at best) insulated homes that have leaky 60 odd year old windows and then complaining about their winter heating bills and lack of a/c in the summer (in the 80's when my mom sold, the only way you could do central heat and air began with a total rewiring of the house to support it so most of those homes still have a single wall heater in the living room and a table fan as their hvac systems). i can see pouring money into an older 'classically designed' home but these are not the mid century moderns that you see on hgtv-these were mass produced inexpensively built subdivisions to provide housing for the now non existent naval shipyards.

 

[RogueX]

I love being Gen-X too....we only skate under the radar because nobody has every paid attention to us....ever. And we're totally fine with that.

Yeah, we're like the middle child of generations. I know the feeling, speaking as a middle child and a Gen-Xer

 

[barkley]

dh is a gen-x'r and i've noticed via facebook that allot of his friends from back in the day have only recently been able to get into the california real estate market as homeowners b/c their parents who bought in the late 60's/early 70's stayed put/never bought up/never pulled out equity loans so while the parents thought they would be leaving an asset that could be sold off and create a financial windfall for their kids-they've, in reality, afforded them the only opportunity they could likely see for the rest of their lives to be homeowners in their own hometowns. we are also getting to point now where dh's contemporaries are talking of those homes passing down to their kids or grand kids so it's a throwback to generational same home ownership. fascinating to see each generations spin on decor/renovations (people post lots of before/during/after photos when they've lived in or been associated w/going on 60 years ).

 

[mefordis]

dh is a gen-x'r and i've noticed via facebook that allot of his friends from back in the day have only recently been able to get into the california real estate market as homeowners b/c their parents who bought in the late 60's/early 70's stayed put/never bought up/never pulled out equity loans so while the parents thought they would be leaving an asset that could be sold off and create a financial windfall for their kids-they've, in reality, afforded them the only opportunity they could likely see for the rest of their lives to be homeowners in their own hometowns. we are also getting to point now where dh's contemporaries are talking of those homes passing down to their kids or grand kids so it's a throwback to generational same home ownership. fascinating to see each generations spin on decor/renovations (people post lots of before/during/after photos when they've lived in or been associated w/going on 60 years ).

That only works if you are the only kid who inherits the house, right?

 

[VandVsmama]

And sadly this is why we left California. DH and I could never have afforded to buy in our home state. I grew up in a smaller community south of San Jose and miss it, but can't afford to move back.

Last summer a friend of mine posted a home across the street from hers that hit the market in east San Jose for 1.2 mil. It was stuck in the 70s and needed a major over haul. Neither the schools nor neighborhood were the best in the 90s.

That’s why we left CA, too. I went to high school in Morgan Hill.

 

[gillep]

And sadly this is why we left California. DH and I could never have afforded to buy in our home state. I grew up in a smaller community south of San Jose and miss it, but can't afford to move back.

Last summer a friend of mine posted a home across the street from hers that hit the market in east San Jose for 1.2 mil. It was stuck in the 70s and needed a major over haul. Neither the schools nor neighborhood were the best in the 90s.

Yes, exactly. Our house could easily sell for 1.25mil and it is in OK shape, lots of new infrastructure (pipes, central AC, wiring, bathroom) but needs cosmetic work and is from the 70s, we are in South San Jose so the neighborhood is far from the best and the schools are not good at all (we don't have kids so it wasn't a priority). The only reason we were able to buy even ~6 years ago is because we owned a house in TX before this that we made money on for a down payment, none of my other friends who live here could have afforded the house prices then and certainly can't now that they have more than doubled!!! I know they say people are fleeing CA, and people certainly are, but not from houses around here, there's so little home inventory and it has been like this for years.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

I did not read the whole thread but this is my theory people are rushing to buy before rates go up. What they do not understand is that interest rates can change but the price you pay on the principle does not. If you buy with a higher rate and lower principle it might even out BUT you can pay down the principle and offset the rates. YOU cannot change the price you pay for the house so if you lock in at a million and the price drops you are pretty much stuck if you want to sell and move. I am an advocate putting away a goodly amount of money and then paying down the principle as fast as you can.

 

[StephMK]

Houses around us are being bought up by investors. Our neighbors sold to OpenDoor in July. An investor bought it in September. It is still vacant after workers spent several weeks in November/December redoing a less than 3 year old house. The rental sign is down so hopefully someone is moving in soon.

We are glad we moved in early 2020, despite the stress at the time.

 

[Skippy918]

dh is a gen-x'r and i've noticed via facebook that allot of his friends from back in the day have only recently been able to get into the california real estate market as homeowners b/c their parents who bought in the late 60's/early 70's stayed put/never bought up/never pulled out equity loans so while the parents thought they would be leaving an asset that could be sold off and create a financial windfall for their kids-they've, in reality, afforded them the only opportunity they could likely see for the rest of their lives to be homeowners in their own hometowns. we are also getting to point now where dh's contemporaries are talking of those homes passing down to their kids or grand kids so it's a throwback to generational same home ownership. fascinating to see each generations spin on decor/renovations (people post lots of before/during/after photos when they've lived in or been associated w/going on 60 years ).

My friend is trying to figure out what to do with his childhood home since his mom just passed away and him and his sibling inherited it. It’s in SoCal. It’s not in great shape. I’m sure he could get a decent amount for it. His parents probably bought it in the 60s.

 

[longboard55]

When we bought our first house prices were much lower but mortgage rates were 12%. Basically the first ten years you hardly paid off any principal

 

[RangerPooh]

That’s why we left CA, too. I went to high school in Morgan Hill.

Live Oak High? I grew up in Gilroy. Spent a lot of time in Morgan Hill. As a teen in the 90s that’s where you went to see a movie, or for Target. Much safer drive than the alternative, Hollister.