Unexplained property price increases

not only houses, materials up 20-50% or more....

the annual property taxes are growing at a staggering rate too

i don't understand how the year plus CIVID pandemic shutdowns/lockdowns where schools are closed, the school buses are idle, malls and movie houses vacant, police shifts under staffed by design, restaurants at 1/3rd capacity and social distanced enforced by the police-state camera footage used as enforcement & proof to fine the establishments a heavy penalty !

Just Why, with a stricken economy, with little people traffic spending money or else restricting the velocity of money...
Why are property taxes increasing instead of shriveling lower as the public personnel and public services have been strangled for te past year and a half because of lockdowns & restrictions of all activities


We need more street cops for very smaller crowds of tourists ? smaller crowds that spend less monie$ to do fewer things that are under restricted occupancy rules ?

it makes no sense what-so-ever to have property taxes here in myrtle beach increase by 5X last years millage
where my tax payment per year is just under $3k and soon to jump to $3.6k

instead of the nominal $500. per year for 'homestead exempt houses' ------>>> which most other people pay


the NY & Northern cess-pool cities have domicile taxes at $11k a year in comparison to me --BUT--- NY & NJ metro folks got lib-tard socialist lefties to tax the wizz out of the public as the natural course of things...with income increases in the stratosphere as is the Norm up there in Demo-rat hell holes since at least the 1950s

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

Same thing here in Texas. Rural, small towns away from cities have seen an explosive influx of house and property buying by people leaving the cities. One reason is that COVID enabled so many to work remotely that they are now free of having to go to offices. Another complaint we hear is that due to poor or nonexistent planning, getting around in the cities has gotten very painful. As well, with so many closed restaurants, bars and other venues, there's not much left to do in the cities.

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: robsmith

It's happening all over the world. People living in small apartments have cabin fever and want bigger places to live with proper gardens after having spent so long cramped up in doors. This demand is pushing up prices.

Also people want bigger places with home offices so that they can telecommute. Which is also pushing up prices.

Basically, the people who can afford it are now upgrading.

It can actually cheaper to get a mortgage on a house in the burbs than it is to rent an apartment in a city.

Ok this makes sense as I'd been wondering too. I live in a rural area and most people here are utterly broke and stuck but this explains it especially with the benefit of city living such as restaurants, theatre, etc being shut I'd imagine the appeal of city life is gone too. With life now involving just work and home might as well go somewhere with space and they have the money for it. Friends of mine sold a tiny, fixer-upper house in Vancouver, that they bought years ago before prices skyrocketed, for a huge profit and were able to partially retire on an island acreage. So, city folk whether they are paying high rent or mortgage can afford rural or suburban. My mortgage is $500 a month and I could never of afforded a city property so it's no surprise they are snapping these up.

originally posted by: igloo

My mortgage is $500 a month

Where is that????

originally posted by: AutomateThis1
Where is that????

The 1970's.

a reply to: robsmith

So in November 2019 I purchased 10 acres of property about an hour outside of Charlotte, NC. Tax value was 60k, I ended up paying 65k for the property as the owner really would not budge on that 5k. This was undeveloped property, rural, surrounded by farms and some fairly impressive houses.

I looked a couple of weeks back on Zillow for some property listings just to see what things look like. Similar property of 10 acres, undeveloped, in a similar location are now going for between 150-200k or so. There are 2 other pieces of property, each 2 acres that sit down closer to the road from where I live now, tax value total was 15k when I looked back at the end of 2019. Was going to offer the owner that in cash so I could have a little more wiggle room. Around April of 2020 my neighbor picked them up...for 35k. So much for that idea lol.

I work in mortgage finance. Purchase market is hot right now.

Many people buying in suburbs. People looking for more space. A lot of buyers of second homes in the country too. Even seeing decent city purchases as well.

There is a lot of pent up demand, demographic shifts, etc. It is basic supply and demand. Inventory of homes to buy is also low and it is putting pressure on prices.

I can also tell you this. We have a cabin in the middle of nowhere and I'm making it a tiny home. The addition is built by a group of Amish and sold through a small company. I've been told that both during the lockdown and up to currently, that last year at this time they had 30 orders for their cabins. They currently have 270 waiting to be built.

And that's with the price increases (mine was $5,700 in January, $7,900 now). Something is going on that's for sure.

a reply to: robsmith

It's an easy explanation in my area. I live in red state/free state, and people from states like California are selling out and moving here if they can work remote.

Then they can actually live life out from under constant lockdown. Plus, real estate is so expensive in Cali that they can easily take the money they make selling out and bid up for most anything local as we are low cost of living.

We would happily sell out of our current house, but squaring something to move to is a challenge for this reason - someone bids you out.

originally posted by: Edumakated
I work in mortgage finance. Purchase market is hot right now.

Many people buying in suburbs. People looking for more space. A lot of buyers of second homes in the country too. Even seeing decent city purchases as well.

There is a lot of pent up demand, demographic shifts, etc. It is basic supply and demand. Inventory of homes to buy is also low and it is putting pressure on prices.

Selling my parents house, four full price or above offers in two days waiving inspection.
Their house is old and doesn't look great but it has a big yard and is roomy with 2 garages.
The timing couldn't be better.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

It's not that bad, I'm no more than an hour from everything, beach, city, country, sacrificial altars, you know, all the good stuff.

Yeah, it's alright I guess. I've been to worse places. Been to better places too. If I ever lived there it would have to be upstate.

a reply to: AutomateThis1

After growing up here and traveling the US and foreign countries there are only a tiny handful of places I'd consider moving to.

To be honest with the all the price increases I feel like I'm just going to have to settle for never owning another house. I guess I'm going to move in to a trailer park somewhere since apartment rent is even more than a mortgage.

massive forest fires, new safety regulations, the shutdowns, people not buying new homes, rising interest in new building materials, all these issues just piled onto one another over the last few years.

originally posted by: AutomateThis1
I guess I'm going to move in to a trailer park somewhere since apartment rent is even more than a mortgage.

I'll send you the appropriate t-shirt as a housewarming gift and alert the local po-po.

a reply to: robsmith

Investors realised they best get any money out of the bank and into assets such as property. Once various governments started throwing money about like candy to semi prop up the economy which they forced to shut down.

Where I live (Royal Oak, MI) has been a trendy city for a while, but over the last couple of years it's begun to gentrify at a rapid rate. Every house that goes up for sale gets torn down and replaced by a huge house that fills most of the lot, leaving only a tiny yard. There have been several such sales in my neighborhood over the last year or so.

I'm getting concerned that the city might try some sort of eminent domain scheme to push out the rest of us. It's not a blighted area by any stretch, but the city would doubtlessly love to get the extra property taxes that would come from replacing my middle-class neighborhood with a neighborhood of McMansions that cost double.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: AutomateThis1

After growing up here and traveling the US and foreign countries there are only a tiny handful of places I'd consider moving to.

That's how I feel about Tennessee lol. Only other place I'd move to would be one of the states that have deserts to camp in.

The Carolinas are pretty nice though.

originally posted by: AutomateThis1

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: AutomateThis1

After growing up here and traveling the US and foreign countries there are only a tiny handful of places I'd consider moving to.

That's how I feel about Tennessee lol. Only other place I'd move to would be one of the states that have deserts to camp in.

The Carolinas are pretty nice though.

My in-laws used to live just east of Memphis, Cordova I think. We'd always travel down to visit them, usually around Thanksgiving. I really enjoyed it there, seemed like a nice place to live. As Connecticut embarks on the classic Blue State socialist trajectory I am on the lookout for states that value personal freedom and are not launching into programs around social experimentation and wealth redistribution. Seemed like Tennessee would be a good place to move to get away from that crap.