Housing Prices hit a new record, but fewer owners benefit (1 Viewer)

I get what you're saying. I think everyone experiences that anxiety to some degree. Some more than others of course. You have to get past it an have confidence in yourself and your abilities. I was in somewhat of the same boat when I bought my first house. In fact, I DID get laid off only three months afterwards. However, with good money management and multiple contractor jobs, we never missed a payment up until I found a permanent gig. It's funny because now I make 5x times the money I did in that old job and I still get the same anxiety every once in a while. It's just part of life.

thanks for the words - and not to derail too much - but confidence doesn't really come in to it
i lost my job in a palace cleanse - had 8 yrs of excellent evaluations and was very over-qualified for the job (by 2 masters degrees and tons of professional credit)
the anxiety comes from having no control over the whims of others
i'm getting a bit better, but even now, anything that's not spelled out and plainly spoken gets twisted into palace intrigue

add to that, i now wonder "what if trump craters the economy? what if we only thought we knew what predatory lending was?"
plus why would anyone jump in as the market rises and could be cresting?
 
These appraisals, are they someone actually coming out to houses and walking inside or these drive down your block (never leave the car) and throw out a number?

In my case it was a walk around and inside along with consideration of neighboring values. The bank required it. That said, the values are legit in the sense that this is what people are paying. A home on my block doesn't last 12 hours on the market right now. My friends wanted to buy a couple of houses down. It was their first house so they dragged on placing an offer overnight. The house was sold before their offer made it to the realtor.
 
we are closing on a our home tomorrow. I cant wait to finally have this over with.....1900sqft granite counters and hardwood floors, stone fireplace, whirlpool tub. they were asking 160 we got it for 151. housing market here is very competitive with lots of homes on the market. We do have a huge market for large home that have no luxury items and many people are buying these 2800sqft homes for about 180k. Id rather have smaller with nicer finishing.

That's a deal wherever you are.

Congratulations. I couldn't build a stripped down shack for less than 100 per sq ft. so enjoy. That's a hell of a bargain.
 
That's a deal wherever you are.

Congratulations. I couldn't build a stripped down shack for less than 100 per sq ft. so enjoy. That's a hell of a bargain.

The avg around here is about 85a sqft
 
The avg around here is about 85a sqft

building codes are much more strict here and the cost of worker's comp I believe is 3 or 4 times higher in Florida.

I guess it's the price we pay to live where people want to visit, but it sure drives up costs.

I did some work in Texas after Hurricane Ike and was shocked to see how much cheaper things were to build in SE Texas than here.

Enjoy.
 
we are closing on a our home tomorrow. I cant wait to finally have this over with.....1900sqft granite counters and hardwood floors, stone fireplace, whirlpool tub. they were asking 160 we got it for 151. housing market here is very competitive with lots of homes on the market. We do have a huge market for large home that have no luxury items and many people are buying these 2800sqft homes for about 180k. Id rather have smaller with nicer finishing.
A friend of mine is a home builder. He uses a graphic illustration to prospective customers that goes like this: He has 3 wooden circles, one says quality, one says quantity, and the third has a $ sign on it. He tells the customers to pick the 2 characteristics most important to them and he keeps the third. I chose Quality and the dollar sign when I built my home, and Frank kept the quantity. Like you, I got a smaller home with many amenities and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg.

Frank said maybe 20% of his customers chose those priorities. The vast bulk wanted the biggest home they could get for the least money, so he was building 3500 sq ft 250K (20 years ago) homes with vinyl siding, 100.00 windows, shag carpet throughout, and clamshell moulding. :jpshakehead:
 
building codes are much more strict here and the cost of worker's comp I believe is 3 or 4 times higher in Florida.

I guess it's the price we pay to live where people want to visit, but it sure drives up costs.

I did some work in Texas after Hurricane Ike and was shocked to see how much cheaper things were to build in SE Texas than here.

Enjoy.

Know anyone that does building in south Florida that isn't just mansions?
 
What is sustaining higher housing prices while home ownership rates continue to fall?

I think the highs of the home ownership rate that we saw beginning in the late 90s and up to the crash in 2008 was unsustainable, obviously. But wouldn't you expect to see stable or falling home prices until reaching the bottom of the ownership rate?
I know a lot of this is regional. But even where I am at, middle Tennessee - which is seeing relatively high growth each year, housing prices are seeing big increases every year, and yet just anecdotally I see more and more single family homes being rented. And for very very high prices.
 
What is sustaining higher housing prices while home ownership rates continue to fall?

I think the highs of the home ownership rate that we saw beginning in the late 90s and up to the crash in 2008 was unsustainable, obviously. But wouldn't you expect to see stable or falling home prices until reaching the bottom of the ownership rate?
I know a lot of this is regional. But even where I am at, middle Tennessee - which is seeing relatively high growth each year, housing prices are seeing big increases every year, and yet just anecdotally I see more and more single family homes being rented. And for very very high prices.

There are so many people with bad credit on their records from the 09 crash that it's hard fro them to get loans for houses in the price range they want. The higher required down payments also prevent people from having no savings from purchasing houses with no ability to withstand a job change.

I think the status is just about where you'd predict it to be.

If interest rates stay low and incomes continue to increase, the rate of home ownership will increase as credit problems roll off and savings accrue.

Not like what I said is particularly insightful, but it's what I would have predicted years ago given the situation.
 
What is sustaining higher housing prices while home ownership rates continue to fall?

I think the highs of the home ownership rate that we saw beginning in the late 90s and up to the crash in 2008 was unsustainable, obviously. But wouldn't you expect to see stable or falling home prices until reaching the bottom of the ownership rate?
I know a lot of this is regional. But even where I am at, middle Tennessee - which is seeing relatively high growth each year, housing prices are seeing big increases every year, and yet just anecdotally I see more and more single family homes being rented. And for very very high prices.

Without doing any research and just going off of your premises, doesn't all of that suggest that homes are being bought for business (rental income) purposes? If home ownership is fairly flat (as it has been for at least a year), but prices are going up on demand while rents remain high and rental occupancy remains strong . . . that seems to me to say that people are buying houses that they're not living in but renting out.

I think migration plays a part in it as well. If areas with net gains on migration see demand-influenced price increases that exceed the rate of price declines in the areas with net losses on migration, the total price trend will be positive.
 
Without doing any research and just going off of your premises, doesn't all of that suggest that homes are being bought for business (rental income) purposes? If home ownership is fairly flat (as it has been for at least a year), but prices are going up on demand while rents remain high and rental occupancy remains strong . . . that seems to me to say that people are buying houses that they're not living in but renting out.

I think migration plays a part in it as well. If areas with net gains on migration see demand-influenced price increases that exceed the rate of price declines in the areas with net losses on migration, the total price trend will be positive.

I think this coupled with flipping homes with a quick remodeling job.

And people who do own are staying put. The houses that open up on the market are Grandma and Grandpa's old house. Rarely it's form someone moving.
 
I think this coupled with flipping homes with a quick remodeling job.

And people who do own are staying put. The houses that open up on the market are Grandma and Grandpa's old house. Rarely it's form someone moving.


People move all the time. I sold a house last year because we moved.
 
People around here move frequently and there are generally two types: one sells and takes the profit and moves further away from the city and buys a cheaper but bigger and nicer house.
the other moves to a more expensive house/area.
I estimate a little less than half of the latter group do not sell their existing house when they owe. Instead, and to Chuck's point, they rent it out. And given what rentals go for they are probably getting twice to three times what their mortgage payments are.
 
I think this coupled with flipping homes with a quick remodeling job.

And people who do own are staying put. The houses that open up on the market are Grandma and Grandpa's old house. Rarely it's form someone moving.

Flipping has become a necessary evil.

If you can't pay cash, you have a very hard time getting a loan for a house with need of significant upgrades or repairs.

To do it, you have to have a contractor, architect, engineer and others to price it out and determine a scope of work all the way to contract and a bank willing to finance the purchase and restoration. That's a tough sell and I'm surely not working up a $250k estimate on the hope someone can qualify or negotiate a deal.

As such, it's necessary for those with cash to buy and rehab houses to get them ready for inspection and occupancy. It forces buyers to pay retail and leaves a nice margin for those of us who do it, but the alternative is tough if you don't have a bunch of cash and/or very strong credit.
 

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