What’s Happening with Housing near you

Though it has slowed down a bit near Seattle as interest rates rise, it's still out of control. The houses around me are listed for about $1.4 Million. Although "nice" middle-class houses, they really aren't at all spectacular. They are not McMansions or anything close. I wonder who is buying these things and how they can afford them. I certainly could not afford my own house. Although suddenly my "net worth" is up, I still have to live somewhere, so all this really does is raise property taxes. And that means people are going to be taxed out of their houses. The tax bill is more than the house payment. All things considered, not a good thing.

originally posted by: schuyler
so all this really does is raise property taxes. And that means people are going to be taxed out of their houses. The tax bill is more than the house payment. All things considered, not a good thing.

It's so strange to me, and house prices cannot possibly keep increasing every single month, who on earth can afford 2 million for a simple little box?
And worse yet, rents being $3,000 are just ridiculous - some mortgages are less than that, and why those around us are throwing $3,000 a month out the window is a mystery.
The whole housing structure is off-balance completely, and I am waiting for it to crash.

a reply to: SourGrapes

Also live in Waukesha county, awesome community and great people. Wisconsin is a wonderful state, as long as you stay away from the big cities.

I’m in East Tennessee, it looks like we may have peaked and seemed to have slipped a little. Prices are still approximately 25% higher than they were a couple of years ago. We still have a high influx of families coming into the area from California, NewYork, and Illinois.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I wish I knew what was happening. It makes no sense to me.

For the last couple of years, I have been seeing larger homes built at an astonishing speed. About half seem to be occupied now, but they are still going up. The first thing I noticed about it was that these new houses are being built on prime farmland. Seems like a waste to me; there's one new house mansion on the way into town that sits right in the middle of what used to be a huge field.

And all this was happening when plywood was hovering around $100 a sheet... four times higher than it was and should be.

Now I'm seeing a lot of existing houses going up for sale. All this in an area where the growth rate is positive only on a good year. I'm not sure what is happening.

Another thing I am seeing is more of the "we buy ugly houses" places starting to advertise, and land/housing costs are rising along with everything else except wages. Who is buying these houses? We do have some out-of-staters moving in and pushing real estate prices up, but nowhere near enough to explain the glut of new homes going up.

I'm hanging on to what land I have with both hands, and so is everyone else that lives near me. This is how areas turn into housing projects with high crime.

TheRedneck

a reply to: JAGStorm

In Auckland, NZ it seems to have just stopped. The banks are not lending even good professionals are having problems getting loans. A small economy seems to react a lot faster. But on the other side it picks up faster, but in most major areas prices are dropping.

5-25000 dollar price cuts in the interior of alaska, that still leaves many of these homes 30-40k (at least) over priced considering size and age, and changed enviromental regulations (lets go brandon) with regards to wood burning stoves.

Nobody is building new, and the new projects that had been started are being sold (unfinished) and prices are dropping even faster than the old home prices.

Should be interesting to see what happens when the army moves a large unit up here in the near future and the housing market has already lost the majority of its inventory.

a reply to: JAGStorm
The housing market in nova scotia is insane. The owner of my apt just put it up for 3 mil. The rent on my unit got jacked 350 a month prior to it being listed to sweeten the pot for a potential new owner. The ad reads that all the units are leased hundreds undervalue with plenty of room to increase.

Kids going back to university are being forced to rent apartments en masse to afford the expense. It's nothing to see a listing for a 1 bdrm advertised as suitable to sleep 4. Homeless camps are popping up everywhere as if that's normal too.

The markets are at an extreme. Long time owners are selling to take advantage while others are just no longer able to pay the bills. A lot of folks moving and selling and being displaced by the economic storm.

There's always a delay in reaction to rising rates. Probably won't see the effects of a fed funds rate of 4% for about 6 months. But IMO rates are going to rise. They were at history's lowest ever, for 10 years straight. That's a huge bubble in the debt markets. It's going to pop and the pop will be as big as the boom, always is, just happens faster.

We're a low income neighborhood with multigenerational housing in one of the poorest states in the Union.

A few months ago there were a bunch of "WE BUY HOUSES" signs all over the place.

We would take turns pulling them up and dispose of them in dumpsters.

They eventually got the hint and gave up.

No idea what's going on in the wealthy areas, not our concern.

a reply to: TheRedneck

Who is buying these houses?

I think corporate America is getting into the action. Just like the tech companies pushing people to cloud services for infinite monthly payments investors switched from house flipping to house renting.

Remember you will own nothing and be happy , well they are working on it.


We were pretty hard hit with hurricane Ian down here so I'm watching closely to how the market reacts. For the short term housing inventory will likely decrease further than it was due to so many houses having wind and flood damage . However I wonder how many NY , NJ, Cali, and people from chicago stick around after their hurricane initiation with Ian. Also Desantis recently said something about restricting foreign buyers like the Chinese from buying in key areas (which i agree with) that also contributed to boom in the real estate market.

a reply to: JAGStorm

Prices of houses jumped way up and it became a bidders war over the last couple of years, but I hear prices are coming down now on houses but they are not selling them as much now because interest rates are going up which raises the payments past what many can afford. So they are not selling like hotcakes anymore. I would never have paid what they were charging for houses the last year, and I sure wouldn't pay the prices they were getting for used cars either.

I gave away two cars I had to my granddaughter and her husband in the last year, a ford explorer and a Buick century which had jumped up in value but were not worth the amount they were selling for around here. The Buick had eighty thousand miles on it and the ford explorer had about a hundred thousand miles on it. We kept them for loaner cars fully insured in case the kids needed to borrow one if theirs broke down....just had to put a powersteering line on the buick, and my grandson in law had to buy a battery for the explorer when he got it because the battery was weak. They did not have to pay sales tax on the cars and they even got plates transferred that lasted for many months.

a reply to: tamusan

It helps to sign in to Zillow and claim your home. Then add some details, and boom, the Zestimate goes up.

I'm in NE PA, it's always been a FLAT market historically. I always consider it undervalued, but finally prices are up, some 50% in cases. That's coming from an undervalue condition....I think it's still a good deal compared to NJ or SE PA.

Back in the day, I did rehab of Philly townhouses and once sold for 20x what I paid. Nice. That was 20 yr ago....even though it's the city, prices still up. My friend in NYC is taking a bath on her Central Park West apartment, now she's open to country living....suddenly. I'll help her find something.

Cousin is stuck with her (dad's) townhouse in North Jersey. Took too long to get it listed and asked too much....she missed the market. I told her to drop it $5k a week until it sells....but crickets.

I flipped a place in Daytona right as covid was hitting....I was the last closing for the year in 2019, signed the sales agreement and hopped on 95 north. Everything was frozen for like a year from then. I got lucky. That placed doubled in 4yr, plus I rented it out. I had already bought my upgrade house, so everything fell into place. Obviously that one has doubled since covid, about 20 miles north, and not St Augustine. I was sick of it, and my wife was still working her .gov job, so I rented it out, which only killed a year. Now wife took retirement and we have more time....ing back in a few weeks to decide what to do with it. We have 2 dogs, so options are limited.

The big surprise for us was buying an elementary school with 31,000ftsq in Bradford County PA (North Central). Folding walls and a multi purpose room with a stage and basketball plus a proper cafeteria, etc etc. One end is a giant hexagon, gonna use that for my residence and build a bunch of appts in the 8 classrooms. Don't want to compete with cheap commercial space. 6 acres with a creek and empty lots on each end. I still can't wrap my head around it. It was so cheap I'm embarrassed to say. Only issue was an underground fawlt in the 900A 3 phase service. Since there was only one bad leg, I taped it off and only use 2 phases It works and is legit with a 600A breaker, a $50 investment. New membrane roof, one downspout was misaligned...fixed with a $10 PCV adapter. That whole corridor on Rt86 from Binghamton to Elmira is under appreciated.

I called about an apartment in a desirable area -
the owner told me 'he is taking bids on the apartment'.
And this is the situation in NJ, did you ever hear anything like this??

a reply to: FlyingFox

The big surprise for us was buying an elementary school with 31,000ftsq in Bradford County PA (North Central).

I'm somewhat familiar with PA as that is where a lot of my family is.
I know a lot of people have left due to high taxes and not enough or high paying jobs.
It's such a pretty area but one that I've always considered depressed.

If you can make money outside of the area and buy in the area you can get a good deal.

a reply to: RonnieJersey

Yes. It happens here in Central Florida. He wanted you to make an offer over the phone. I have some friends who have rentals in the area who are offered non-refundable 'payments' to secure the hone all the time and they are usually from out of state seeing the place unseen.

a reply to: FlyingFox

That is very very cool...

originally posted by: matafuchs
a reply to: RonnieJersey

Yes. It happens here in Central Florida. He wanted you to make an offer over the phone. I have some friends who have rentals in the area who are offered non-refundable 'payments' to secure the hone all the time and they are usually from out of state seeing the place unseen.

I told the person that I am not bidding on their home, it's an apartment for heaven's sakes.
And it was in a flood zone, no less. LOL
I am starting to wonder exactly what country I am living in now.

Houses are selling fast, usually above asking.

90% foreign, either Chinese or middle eastern

Chinese pay with cash...