It is going crazy here. We bought two and a half years ago. The house down the block (same size lot, a little larger and renovated) just went on the market for almost twice what we paid. It is already under contract for above asking (according to the rumors).
Crappy. We passed a street recently that had 4 houses in a 2 mile stretch for sale. The houses are dirt cheap here but there aren't any jobs. Lots of people are picking up and moving closer to State College and Harrisburg and even Pittsburgh. And not many people are moving into the county because there is just nothing here, so houses sit and sit.
Post by walterismydog on Mar 28, 2013 11:05:57 GMT -5
My neighborhood is INSANE. I don't know about the suburbs, but where I live (central Denver) the market is truly going out of control. The rental market, too. The same place I rented for 565 when I moved here six years ago now goes for 900.
I know someone who bought a house in my neighborhood in the early 2000s for less than 100k (I think it was 86, IIRC). Same neighborhood houses are now going for 300+.
Post by Ohhmm(bligo) on Mar 28, 2013 11:07:12 GMT -5
Prices have shot up pretty high, and it seems like they're not sitting for too long. We are in a gas and oil boom, though, so I don't think our economy has reflected the rest of the country for a few years.
"You. You and your crazy life. You and your geographic anomaly. You and your drunken lesbianic ways and terrible navigational skills." - ProfArt and her holy baby
Post by litebright on Mar 28, 2013 11:07:35 GMT -5
Not quite that crazy, but within the past year I've gotten a phone call asking if we or any neighbors that we know of are willing to sell because people want to live in our neighborhood but there aren't enough houses to sell them. Houses in our immediate surroundings are selling much faster than in the past few years -- usually less than a month, sometimes a matter of days.
It's actually a pretty tight market in the $250,000-$350,000 range, which is where we are. We didn't lose much value even during the worst, but now I'm pretty confident that we'd be able to sell above the price that we bought at, even if it wasn't by a huge amount.
It's been picking up in the last six months or so, but not crazy. I'd say that prices are still lower than they were a few years ago. Xh and I bought our house for $328,000 3 years ago, and two realtors just valued it at $300-305,000.
Post by firedancer49 on Mar 28, 2013 11:11:47 GMT -5
We've been looking and last week we wanted to see 6 houses. By Wed 3 had gone under contract already and then by Friday 2 more. We saw 1 house... and it was a house that already had an offer and they were looking for back up offers. I found a few this week that are new that I want to see but it's not looking promising.
Post by goaskalice on Mar 28, 2013 11:13:37 GMT -5
Prices are up 8% in the last 12 months. It's a seller's market for sure! We're seeing multiple offers over asking. Being a buyer is hard, but interest rates are still so low it's a good time to get in there.
Post by janiejones on Mar 28, 2013 11:15:15 GMT -5
It's not bad. We bought in 2007, and our house has gone up in value more than 50%. The next price point up from where it would sell is not comfortable for us yet (and there aren't any houses with the criteria we want), so we've resolved to stay longer than planned.
Maybe if e stay I can convince MrJJ tot get a vacation home like I've dreamed.
Post by mrsjuleshs on Mar 28, 2013 11:15:17 GMT -5
Houston has a really healthy housing market. There are currently 0 houses in our whole neighborhood for sale or even lease. They are still building new homes like crazy around here as well.
It is nuts. My Neighbor just sold in 3 days with 12 offers, most above asking. He accepted an offer 10% over asking with ALL contingencies waived. He had an offer $73,000 above asking (13%) but he didn't choose it because of the contingencies. Since then 3 other units have gone pending, but I don't know the details yet.
We recently bought in a market 2.5 hours away and it was similar. There were multiple offers and we got our home because we waived the appraisal contingency. We had to put more than 20% down to keep the loan jumbo conforming so we didn't need it to appraise for as much. (It appraised at the contract price anyway).
Post by pantsparty on Mar 28, 2013 11:21:46 GMT -5
It seems like houses are moving pretty quickly. I read a stat that 30% of houses purchased in our county were all cash, which blows my mind. Although there are other stresses involved with buying a new house, I'm really glad we opted out of searching for existing inventory.
I had only been looking at the listings in the cheap seats. I just looked at the stats on the town overall. They are even more insane. Median list price is $6 million. Clearly the people in the big expensive view houses on the hills are ready to sell (and the little "cheap" ones are flying off the market too quickly to factor into the stats).
The cheapest thing is a 2,600 sqft lot for 700K. Max house size is a third the lot and that is only if the town will let you go that big. Usually they don't. The lot is badly positioned and steep so it will be difficult and expensive to build on. So 700K for a lot that probably will have weirdly shaped 500 sqft house.
I live in Dallas and we never really took a bad hit, though. We bought our house in 2008, the height of all the housing bullshit and when everyone was losing their houses. We thought that we'd get a great deal on a house but houses were selling left and right here. Every time we'd try to make an offer on a house, they were already under contract. Our house was only on the market 16 days when we bought it and the house next door to us sold within a week a couple of years ago.
Post by gnomesweetgnome on Mar 28, 2013 11:33:48 GMT -5
In my city, it's apparently very competitive for the 100-200k price range - sellers are getting multiple above-asking-price offers and are sold within a few days of going on the market (this is what I hear from a couple I know who is house hunting).
Post by lightbulbsun on Mar 28, 2013 11:36:37 GMT -5
Bad. Prices have dropped in my neighborhood since I bought 2 years ago. A similar house down the street from me with a garage (mine doesn't have one) just sold for $25k less than ours. And ours was a fixer-upper.
Post by DotAndBuzz on Mar 28, 2013 11:43:02 GMT -5
It is pretty tight. Not many homes have listed for the expected spring inventory "boom" yet, so everyone we know that is looking is getting anxious. Most of the homes that are listed have sat around for a few months, and gone nowhere, even w/ price reductions. Prices in general are pretty high for what you get, but that's an artifact of the specific area we're in, not so much a reflection of the strength of the market. But that said, we did end up getting our house for about 9% less than asking price, and the sellers are taking an 11% loss from what they paid for it 6 years ago.
Ours is alright. Our area though is booming. More new homes are being built and houses for sale aren't for sale long.
MIL asked her realtor to evaluate our house and she said if we wanted to sell, she would feel comfortable pricing it about 50k over what H bought it for. Our neighborhood is in the $150-300k range
NOOO! Parts of Michigan are beautiful. I never thought I'd say this, but there are parts of mid-michigan that aren't all bad.
There are nice parts! If you go an hour north, south, east or west of me.... it's wonderful! I live in basically the suck circle. But it's cheap, and it's where I have a job. Ohhh well.
Post by CityLights on Mar 28, 2013 12:00:50 GMT -5
The market here is insanely competitive. Even the rental market is crazy. When we were looking for a place last year, people were offering above the asking amount for rent on certain places, multiple people viewing and putting in applications for the same apartment, etc. We basically had to view a place and submit an application on the spot to have any chance at getting it.
We are in NJ right across the river from NYC. We have more affordable housing and very close proximity to the city so everything is in demand and the market never really took a hit like others have.
I am not sure we will ever be able to own something in this town.