I was just looking at this yesterday, because we have PMI but will hit the 80% this year.
I’m still unsure how it works, as I’ve gotten conflicting info, but if I have to refinance to get rid of the PMI, it will be cheaper for me to keep the PMI and my 1.9% interest rate.
Also, I was talking to my parents who are considering downsizing and my SIL was like, this market will make VA loans so much more attractive, and I’m like, huh? (They believe they’ll be able to buy any house they want with a VA loan when they return to the states)
Oof. Maybe? In super-competitive hot markets, VA loans don’t compete well against conventional loans….and the rates aren’t THAT much better than conventional. If they don’t put much down, they’ll still have very large monthly mortgage payments that likely will not be covered by their housing allowance.
I think she was saying that people will be interested in taking the VA loans because people will stop buying?
But I’m not quite sure…she was sort of responding to me saying that there are some predications that in 10-15 years, first time homeowners will be obsolete, corporations will be buying homes with cash and everyone else will be renting from them.
But also, her and my brother have been entirely foolish with money and are likely banking on some inheritance from my parents (not gonna happen).
When I bought my first house at 27, my (US) interest rate was 6.5%. I'm now in my 2nd "forever" home at 3.5%. I'm stuck in it til I can't climb the stairs anymore b/c of the interest rate. Then again, I have no current plans to move from my city b/c of multiple factors.
Between housing/rent, cars, food, gas and utilities and everything going up? I feel like people are going to start defaulting on their mortgages. I have no proof of this to back me up, just my gut telling me its not sustainable.
So I have a lot of these thoughts. "Young" (because us close to/around 40ish folks aren't old) people saying they can't wait for the market to crash so they can buy a house gives me hives. I know they were too young for the '08 crash and the follow up, but bruh you don't want 1000 foreclosed and short sale houses etc. Never mind how awful it is for the folks who default and could potentially end up homeless, no one buys the homes because of the banking issues. DH and I tried to buy going in to the 2010's (whatever those are called), but got stalled with things like foreclosures and short sales, layoffs because the economy was trash etc.
We got really lucky we eventually found something in a relatively limited market, albeit better than what it is today. We got a decent rate under 4% and had an aggressive mortgage person who got us to refi even lower. *Thankfully* (not thankfully) we can't move for other reasons, so we're here for a long time.
People now way, way overpaying is also going to crash and burn just like the '08 crash. I've talked to folks about how our house values are no where near correct to how much the house is actually worth. We'd luck out selling (making a big profit), but the next person would be deep under water within the next couple of years and either default or remain stuck in the house because they can't recoup the value of what they owe when they sell again. Keep in mind too employers sure ain't raising our salaries to match housing, food, gas prices, and are trying to get us to go back to the office after people are moving with remote jobs (as mentioned before).
I have no idea where people are coming up with the cash to pay an all cash, and typically $20, $30K+ over asking price. Not even investors, just regular folks like us. How have people been able to save? We paid over $1K a month in rent before we bought a house, there was no money left to save for down payments and all cash prices!
Finally, I agree the rates seem high, but are pretty normal. My dad will still tell stories how he couldn't get a bank to give him a loan in the 70's even if you had all the "right" stuff (credit, income etc.)
Between housing/rent, cars, food, gas and utilities and everything going up? I feel like people are going to start defaulting on their mortgages. I have no proof of this to back me up, just my gut telling me its not sustainable.
So I have a lot of these thoughts. "Young" (because us close to/around 40ish folks aren't old) people saying they can't wait for the market to crash so they can buy a house gives me hives. I know they were too young for the '08 crash and the follow up, but bruh you don't want 1000 foreclosed and short sale houses etc. Never mind how awful it is for the folks who default and could potentially end up homeless, no one buys the homes because of the banking issues. DH and I tried to buy going in to the 2010's (whatever those are called), but got stalled with things like foreclosures and short sales, layoffs because the economy was trash etc.
We got really lucky we eventually found something in a relatively limited market, albeit better than what it is today. We got a decent rate under 4% and had an aggressive mortgage person who got us to refi even lower. *Thankfully* (not thankfully) we can't move for other reasons, so we're here for a long time.
People now way, way overpaying is also going to crash and burn just like the '08 crash. I've talked to folks about how our house values are no where near correct to how much the house is actually worth. We'd luck out selling (making a big profit), but the next person would be deep under water within the next couple of years and either default or remain stuck in the house because they can't recoup the value of what they owe when they sell again. Keep in mind too employers sure ain't raising our salaries to match housing, food, gas prices, and are trying to get us to go back to the office after people are moving with remote jobs (as mentioned before).
I have no idea where people are coming up with the cash to pay an all cash, and typically $20, $30K+ over asking price. Not even investors, just regular folks like us. How have people been able to save? We paid over $1K a month in rent before we bought a house, there was no money left to save for down payments and all cash prices!
Finally, I agree the rates seem high, but are pretty normal. My dad will still tell stories how he couldn't get a bank to give him a loan in the 70's even if you had all the "right" stuff (credit, income etc.)
Oh I know. I hope it does not crash. I dont think 6-7% rates is bad but the costs are too high. Historically when rates higher, house costs are lower and vice versa.
This is likely a regional issue I am running into but a small 1200-1300 3 bedroom home is averaging 300k right now. they also changed the mill rates and reevaluated the homes and taxes shot up. If I had 20% to put down, I'm still looking at $2300 mortgage. I make good money but I cannot afford that.
I'm dropping $1400 a month on food/hpuse goods. And I meal plan and shop sales.
I was rear ended in December. the car was perfectly drivable. the trunk was a little buckled but it still closed/latched. They totaled my car because it was apparently a 10k fix. I had to buy a new car. The cheapest I could get was an 18k car and it's over $400! I went from a nice little $247 payment to $410!! And it's a 6 year old car!
I honestly just have a very bad feeling. I hope things start to level out an drop slowly. I'm in a 2 year lease recently and i got a second job. We are just holding on tbh and if I'm struggling? it's not good!
Post by maudefindlay on Jul 11, 2023 10:50:04 GMT -5
We are in the Midwest and the inventory is low, but there are 3 houses locally that have each dropped 200k+ recently. One has been on the market since last August. All 3 appear move in ready based on photos, descriptions, ages of big things like furnace, roof etc. Not sure why they aren't selling except for the inflated prices. Damn if you bought a comparable home last August and then see that price drop, it'd have to hurt. We could make a good profit on our house now and pay cash for a new, upgraded one, but there is nothing here to buy. We are fine in this house and we will find something some day. I'm glad we didn't buy yet as watching the trends has been helpful.
This prompted me to look at house sales in my neighborhood and YIKES. We've lived there for 11 years, and looking at houses with similar floorplans and updates, I'm guessing ours is worth ~65% more than we paid back then. At least in my area, the market has cooled a little in that houses don't always sell w/in days of listing, but I don't see prices dropping significantly either.
While I think we made some good choices along the way, in general we just really lucked out on the timing of when we've bought/sold houses and that's why we had the opportunities to make good choices in the first place. We were also very lucky to be able to refinance to a lower interest rate/shorter term loan when rates were really low. Real estate feels like such a crapshoot.
Post by DotAndBuzz on Jul 11, 2023 12:40:24 GMT -5
Where I am in the midwest, I'm seeing housing prices shoot up, but not like they have on the coasts.
Also, I'm noticing a TON of California people moving here. Like, I legit know of 5 families people from Cali who have moved just to my neighborhood in the past 3-4 years. I'm wondering if they're some of the cash offer folks, who's homes in VHCOL areas sell for well over what they paid for them 10 years ago, so they have that cash difference to spend here. example - my neighbor moved here from the Bay Area 10 years ago (and is likely moving back for job purposes, so he's looking at real estate back there again). The people he sold his house to recently re-listed it for 1.6M MORE than they paid him for it. So when you're talking a 1M home selling for 2.5M, or even an 500k home selling for 1M...that's a big chunk of change to spend here in the midwest.
But folks in those markets, my heart goes out to you. I have no idea how anyone can buy out there. Truly. Even in our local market, I don't know that we could buy our current house for it's current value and interest rates. We got in at the end of the crash in 2013, and refinanced with low covid-era interest rates.
So I have a lot of these thoughts. "Young" (because us close to/around 40ish folks aren't old) people saying they can't wait for the market to crash so they can buy a house gives me hives. I know they were too young for the '08 crash and the follow up, but bruh you don't want 1000 foreclosed and short sale houses etc. Never mind how awful it is for the folks who default and could potentially end up homeless, no one buys the homes because of the banking issues. DH and I tried to buy going in to the 2010's (whatever those are called), but got stalled with things like foreclosures and short sales, layoffs because the economy was trash etc.
We got really lucky we eventually found something in a relatively limited market, albeit better than what it is today. We got a decent rate under 4% and had an aggressive mortgage person who got us to refi even lower. *Thankfully* (not thankfully) we can't move for other reasons, so we're here for a long time.
People now way, way overpaying is also going to crash and burn just like the '08 crash. I've talked to folks about how our house values are no where near correct to how much the house is actually worth. We'd luck out selling (making a big profit), but the next person would be deep under water within the next couple of years and either default or remain stuck in the house because they can't recoup the value of what they owe when they sell again. Keep in mind too employers sure ain't raising our salaries to match housing, food, gas prices, and are trying to get us to go back to the office after people are moving with remote jobs (as mentioned before).
I have no idea where people are coming up with the cash to pay an all cash, and typically $20, $30K+ over asking price. Not even investors, just regular folks like us. How have people been able to save? We paid over $1K a month in rent before we bought a house, there was no money left to save for down payments and all cash prices!
Finally, I agree the rates seem high, but are pretty normal. My dad will still tell stories how he couldn't get a bank to give him a loan in the 70's even if you had all the "right" stuff (credit, income etc.)
Oh I know. I hope it does not crash. I dont think 6-7% rates is bad but the costs are too high. Historically when rates higher, house costs are lower and vice versa.
This is likely a regional issue I am running into but a small 1200-1300 3 bedroom home is averaging 300k right now. they also changed the mill rates and reevaluated the homes and taxes shot up. If I had 20% to put down, I'm still looking at $2300 mortgage. I make good money but I cannot afford that.
I'm dropping $1400 a month on food/hpuse goods. And I meal plan and shop sales.
I was rear ended in December. the car was perfectly drivable. the trunk was a little buckled but it still closed/latched. They totaled my car because it was apparently a 10k fix. I had to buy a new car. The cheapest I could get was an 18k car and it's over $400! I went from a nice little $247 payment to $410!! And it's a 6 year old car!
I honestly just have a very bad feeling. I hope things start to level out an drop slowly. I'm in a 2 year lease recently and i got a second job. We are just holding on tbh and if I'm struggling? it's not good!
What’s different now is fewer subprime mortgages. The mortgage default rate is actually way, way lower than it was 15 years ago. But also, buyers have changed. Owning a home used to be a marker of making it into the middle class. Now it’s a marker of making it into the upper middle class, or even being wealthy in many metro areas.
Owning a home also used to be more like owning a bond — meaning you could expect slow and steady returns. Now it’s more like owning stock, with sometimes wild swings in value.
Finally, plenty of people DO have money. The Boomers, like I mentioned above. Anyone who gets paid or invests in stock (the stock market has recovered close to its historic highs). Anyone moving from a more expensive metro to a less expensive metro because of remote work policies. Generational wealth transfer. The default rate shows it’s not (primarily) people over-leveraging. It’s the wealth gap widening — which is a different sort of problematic.
So I have a lot of these thoughts. "Young" (because us close to/around 40ish folks aren't old) people saying they can't wait for the market to crash so they can buy a house gives me hives. I know they were too young for the '08 crash and the follow up, but bruh you don't want 1000 foreclosed and short sale houses etc. Never mind how awful it is for the folks who default and could potentially end up homeless, no one buys the homes because of the banking issues. DH and I tried to buy going in to the 2010's (whatever those are called), but got stalled with things like foreclosures and short sales, layoffs because the economy was trash etc.
We got really lucky we eventually found something in a relatively limited market, albeit better than what it is today. We got a decent rate under 4% and had an aggressive mortgage person who got us to refi even lower. *Thankfully* (not thankfully) we can't move for other reasons, so we're here for a long time.
People now way, way overpaying is also going to crash and burn just like the '08 crash. I've talked to folks about how our house values are no where near correct to how much the house is actually worth. We'd luck out selling (making a big profit), but the next person would be deep under water within the next couple of years and either default or remain stuck in the house because they can't recoup the value of what they owe when they sell again. Keep in mind too employers sure ain't raising our salaries to match housing, food, gas prices, and are trying to get us to go back to the office after people are moving with remote jobs (as mentioned before).
I have no idea where people are coming up with the cash to pay an all cash, and typically $20, $30K+ over asking price. Not even investors, just regular folks like us. How have people been able to save? We paid over $1K a month in rent before we bought a house, there was no money left to save for down payments and all cash prices!
Finally, I agree the rates seem high, but are pretty normal. My dad will still tell stories how he couldn't get a bank to give him a loan in the 70's even if you had all the "right" stuff (credit, income etc.)
Oh I know. I hope it does not crash. I dont think 6-7% rates is bad but the costs are too high. Historically when rates higher, house costs are lower and vice versa.
This is likely a regional issue I am running into but a small 1200-1300 3 bedroom home is averaging 300k right now. they also changed the mill rates and reevaluated the homes and taxes shot up. If I had 20% to put down, I'm still looking at $2300 mortgage. I make good money but I cannot afford that.
I'm dropping $1400 a month on food/hpuse goods. And I meal plan and shop sales.
I was rear ended in December. the car was perfectly drivable. the trunk was a little buckled but it still closed/latched. They totaled my car because it was apparently a 10k fix. I had to buy a new car. The cheapest I could get was an 18k car and it's over $400! I went from a nice little $247 payment to $410!! And it's a 6 year old car!
I honestly just have a very bad feeling. I hope things start to level out an drop slowly. I'm in a 2 year lease recently and i got a second job. We are just holding on tbh and if I'm struggling? it's not good!
I agree with you that something is going to have to give. I don't know that it will be the housing market per se, but we are getting to a point where people are going to be unable to live. Really a lot of people are already there. Regardless of historical rates or what prices should be, wages are not keeping pace with prices and there comes a point where people just can't spend $2500 a month on housing payments, especially if the price of everything else keeps going up. I don't know what will happen economically to change things, but we are going to be seeing more and more people living on the streets if this keeps up. It might be one thing if some of these cash buyers were then renting out their homes at affordable prices, but often they end up charging MORE than an owner would pay (not counting substantial upkeep costs, at least).
On a personal level I find it frustrating because while I like where we live, the location probably doesn't make as much sense in the long term as it did when we bought. But with our buying price and interest rate, I think we are pretty much stuck here. We got extremely lucky to buy at the right time, but things have skyrocketed so much since then that there is little chance of changing our minds without a great financial cost.
Post by litskispeciality on Jul 11, 2023 14:05:04 GMT -5
goldengirlz, I think you're in a very HCOL area. I am too. For years and years people have moved further and further out, and commuted long distances to live in the more affordable, or even sometimes bigger house areas. You end up losing a lot of money that way because your city or town has high property tax (esp when there's little commercial business), you pay a lot in gas, tolls etc. We had to buy where we are because of my husbands job, and then I had to commute because there are no jobs out here. It's only getting worse because a lot of the old mill towns mentioned before are trying to reimagine and rebuild, which is driving up housing prices. There was an article about the city where my husband works refurbing old factories in to nice apts (like $2K a month+), and restaurants etc, only for people not to want to live there for that much money.
You can't even move to the "cheaper" state next door and commute back in because those houses have gone way up in price.
I also feel bad for everyone. Like I said I'm lucky I bought a house when I did, although I've paid a lot in mortgage, taxes and commuting etc., but feel bad for my friends who can't afford to own after finally getting on their feet financially with student loans and stuff. I had loans, just got *lucky* enough to pay them off before 40 (not PSLF eligible.) It's a huge mess and it's only going to get worse.
Plus there's always a good time to blame the rich white people who move "to the good school districts" (aka almost to all white student population), who drive up the prices and take the money from other districts.
Also to wildrice point, it's frustrating to feel you can't move if you're lucky enough to own. Things are going to come up where it makes sense to move. For us being a lot closer to my dad would help. I still don't understand forever homes and how folks can be guaranteed not to want or need to move later in life if they have any option.
It HAS to right? I am thinking about training to be a mortgage broker so I can be ready to pounce when interest rates go down and everyone refinances.
I mean, they don’t HAVE to come down. We were spoiled with historically low interest rates because we came out of a historic recession, but that was a blip in history if you look at the rates our parents and grandparents paid. Now we have persistently high inflation and the Fed won’t lower rates until that stabilizes.
Is this the one “good” thing that has panned out for millennials!? A low interest mortgage.
Post by sporklemotion on Jul 11, 2023 18:24:12 GMT -5
wildrice, I agree with you. @: We live in an HCOL area. We bought in what was a relatively affordable area in 2008, just as prices had started to fall. We are lucky in that our mortgage is comfortably affordable to us. However, our family has grown and, while we can stay here, we probably can’t move to a bigger place because housing values in our area have skyrocketed. We are fine in that we don’t really “need” more space. However, many of our kids’ friends are being forced out because they are renters who can’t afford to stay because rents have gone up, but also can’t afford even a one bedroom condo in my area, never mind a two or three bedroom one. Gentrification has hit us big time and I don’t know where people will go. Even places an hour away have gone up in price and are being bought over asking for cash.
I hate to break it to anyone, but housing prices won't fall to 2008-2010 levels. Houses have increased in value too much over the last 13 years, not just 2020 til now. Things are leveling off here. Some houses that have been on the market for 45-60 days are coming down in price anywhere from 5-15% (15% more on the 500,000+ end). There still isn't anything in my area under $300,000 except for a few older 1200 sq foot town houses and 1-2 BR condos (condos in older but very nice complexes). MCOL in a suburb of a major southern city.
I was just reading some articles about this. The tl;dr is that interest rates will probably remain where they are for now, but because inventory is still low, home prices aren’t declining as much as you’d expect (although they have declined.) You can also blame the Baby Boomers who are selling their houses in more expensive metros and retiring to cheaper locations, with cash.
Prices have definitely come down in my market, but we were talking to a realtor at an open house just yesterday and he mentioned that the stock market recovery has meant people have more cash to spend. (Of course, I take anything realtors tell us with a grain of salt.) For better or worse, I think this IS the housing market dip.
It seems like prices are down slightly in my area too. Some houses seem to be sitting longer on the market here as well. While the property prices are lower, I don’t know how anyone is affording the risk of buying right now. All the major insurance companies have stopped selling new homeowner’s insurance policies in CA. Many homeowners are underinsured or uninsured as a result of CA’s home insurance crisis. This has to be affecting the construction of new housing developments too. Are other states affected by this insurance crisis?
Post by litskispeciality on Jul 12, 2023 8:25:51 GMT -5
@@@ sporklemotion, I have friends that have pre-teens and teens who're stuck in apts they're having trouble affording, but can't get in to a house because of the shortage and pricing. It's a nightmare. One friend has a 2 BR apt with 2 kids, and they're just too cramped. To further complicate matters they don't want to re-district their kids who're so involved in activities, scouts etc. unless they absolutely have too, so the search is much smaller.
Really no offense to town houses and condos, but those have always been way overpriced in my area, at least since all the '08 stuff. DH and I really wanted free standing, no HOA's etc, but were pushed to research condos and townhouses by realtors (just to make the sale.) We were sticker shocked that some of them were on par, or maybe even more expensive than bigger, free standing houses. Now they've re-purposed an old amusement park in my current area in to super nice condos, but as mentioned above they're as expensive as owning a big house, pricing out a lot of folks who don't need that much space.
Apartments have always been an issue where I grew up too, there just weren't enough options. I lost a really good friend going in to high school because her single mom's rent went up too high and there were so few apts they were too expensive. I don't even know what I would do now if I lost my house, I don't think there's a ton of apts in my town.
I hate to break it to anyone, but housing prices won't fall to 2008-2010 levels. Houses have increased in value too much over the last 13 years, not just 2020 til now. Things are leveling off here. Some houses that have been on the market for 45-60 days are coming down in price anywhere from 5-15% (15% more on the 500,000+ end). There still isn't anything in my area under $300,000 except for a few older 1200 sq foot town houses and 1-2 BR condos (condos in older but very nice complexes). MCOL in a suburb of a major southern city.
Right. The market started going berzerk around here (NYC plus surrounding area) in 2016-2017. Obviously covid then blew everything up even more.
This prompted me to look at house sales in my neighborhood and YIKES. We've lived there for 11 years, and looking at houses with similar floorplans and updates, I'm guessing ours is worth ~65% more than we paid back then. At least in my area, the market has cooled a little in that houses don't always sell w/in days of listing, but I don't see prices dropping significantly either.
While I think we made some good choices along the way, in general we just really lucked out on the timing of when we've bought/sold houses and that's why we had the opportunities to make good choices in the first place. We were also very lucky to be able to refinance to a lower interest rate/shorter term loan when rates were really low. Real estate feels like such a crapshoot.
This is the case for me too. I've owned for YEARS and it's worth 200%what I paid. However, the prices won't be coming down in my area. It is rare for homes in my neighborhood to even be put on the market and the surrounding neighborhoods are a lot more pricey. Schools are some of the top in the state so they always sell fast.
My DD bought a house last march and it hasn't really appreciated as it's a new build but the interest rate was great. She's currently getting a divorce and luckily she has an assumable loan so she won't have to refi at a higher rate or sell and take a loss on closing costs.
A 1000 sq foot tear down a few blocks from me just went on the market for $1.1 million. It’s on a 2500 sq foot lot. It’s disgusting inside. Like paint peeling, floorboards missing, all plants in the yard are dead, bathroom still has the original pink tub and tile from the 60s when it was built. For $1.1 million. And it will likely sell for more. I don’t think the market is slowing anytime soon in my area.
And rentals are just as bad. Our renters asked to extend their lease when rents started creeping up. We could probably get $1000 more a month for our rental house, but we like that it’s being rented to a nice family who has ties to the neighborhood. They are fantastic tenants. So we extended for 18 months at the below-market rate. But watching the rental market in our neighborhood, it’s all crazy!
Post by Velar Fricative on Jul 12, 2023 9:05:56 GMT -5
This whole discussion is why I've given up thinking of my house as a true asset. I knew I can tap into my house's equity, but ultimately it's only as valuable as what someone is willing to pay for it, and I don't plan to sell anytime soon. And in 2023 America and beyond, I can't make any guarantees on that when things like migration, the economy and climate change could impact the market.
I purchased a place to live that I can eventually pay off in full, and that's the benefit I see to owning this home. I know it's easy for me to say that as someone who bought during a buyer's market in 2014 and has adequate space for their family in NYC of all places - we've never experienced owning a home that's underwater. But given how affordable our house is now that we've had 9 years of increasing salaries, I also figure we can cut and absorb our losses if and when shit hits the fan climate-wise. If we paid what our house is possibly worth right now...we'd be in serious trouble. And DH finally changed his tune when we refinanced to 2.75% a few year ago because he had always wanted to eventually "upgrade" our house - upgrading would mean more limited buyers in the future which would make that more expensive asset potentially not be an asset after all if we can't sell the damn house eventually.
What we really need around the country is more housing, which people will not like because that means their own property values may go down when potential buyers have more choices. Which goes back to the issue of housing being moreso considered an asset/investment. And we need more housing that aren't McMansions either. What's happening in my area right now is because it's so much more cost-effective for people to stay in their homes, if they need more room they are adding additions to their homes. But what this means is now there will be fewer smaller homes that could eventually hit the market at a more affordable price point to first-time buyers or even downsizers. So the answer isn't just more housing, it's more of the right kind of housing (read: smaller houses and apartments, which also aren't cost-effective for builders outside of wealthy mega-cities).
Velar Fricative A local church wants to give their land (or lease it? not sure) to Habitat for Humanity to build 20 small nice homes on so there is more affordable housing in our county. Folks living there would likely be people in civil jobs with low pay. Like teachers, cops, etc. The neighbors are throwing an absolute shit fit over this as if the people that move in won't have mortgages and jobs. It's not free housing! It's just not 500k mcmansions!
Inflation is high, so interest rates should be high. Higher interest rates *should* push home prices down, but in this case the opposite is happening because of low inventory. I think the QE flat interest rates that were pushed for so long really did a lot of long term damage and threw everything out of balance.
I don't know how people are swallowing these prices and interest rates, there are 5 houses for sale in my town and the lowest is 589k for a super basic 2bed/2bath.
The economy isn't bad. Or at least it isn't as bad as people's perceptions of it. For the purposes of the thread, though, in that article it attributes most of the inflation for June (70%) to rental housing costs.
@@@ I have friends that have pre-teens and teens who're stuck in apts they're having trouble affording, but can't get in to a house because of the shortage and pricing. It's a nightmare. One friend has a 2 BR apt with 2 kids, and they're just too cramped. To further complicate matters they don't want to re-district their kids who're so involved in activities, scouts etc. unless they absolutely have too, so the search is much smaller.
This is me. We are in a 2 bedroom rented condo with a 17yo and 14yo. There is nothing I can do. It sucks for them and I feel like I let them down. Their friends are all in nice houses with their own rooms.
I hate to break it to anyone, but housing prices won't fall to 2008-2010 levels. Houses have increased in value too much over the last 13 years, not just 2020 til now. Things are leveling off here. Some houses that have been on the market for 45-60 days are coming down in price anywhere from 5-15% (15% more on the 500,000+ end). There still isn't anything in my area under $300,000 except for a few older 1200 sq foot town houses and 1-2 BR condos (condos in older but very nice complexes). MCOL in a suburb of a major southern city.
I don't need/want them to go back to 2008-2010 levels. I think that is unreasonable.
But if they could get closer to 2020 prices, that would be great.
I live in a HCOL area where prices for attached townhomes have ballooned from $6-700k to $1.2-1.5 million in those 3 years. Home prices literally doubling in 3 years feels unreasonable/unsustainable.
we are currently in a townhome that was never intended to be our forever home. at the time i wasn't even working after our second kid was born. now i make what would have sounded like an unbelievable amount of money to us just a few years ago, but we kind of feel "stuck" here with our 2.0% 15 year mortgage. he wants to start on investment properties and things and just... not now man, that's a quick way to end up underwater with how inflated things feel right now.
It's just another really awful part of considering divorce. Our house has gone up in value over 400k in the 7 years we've lived here. Which is awesome, right? But I don't have 200k to buy him out of the mortgage. And I certainly can't afford a loan for that on top of the current mortgage. So we will have to sell. But buying something new at these prices and interest rates is so intimidating and depressing. Even with splitting the equity from the sale.
We separately bought our first houses in 2005/2006 and dealt with some really hard years when the market crashed. Paid ahead every month and still eventually sold both for a loss. The thought of entering into another potentially overinflated market makes me feel legit panic.
We are buying a house now. It's 350k with a 7% interest rate. The house was under priced and it was sold by owner. We think interest rates may go sub 7% but not by a lot. Our mortgage broker has told us we will likely refinance in the next 2-5 years because rates may be better. However, housing prices will not. Most of the comparable houses in the neighborhood are selling between 360-380k and one across the street just sold for 411k. Based upon location and school, we thought it was the best choice to buy now.