Housing update thread !

[carrotsmakemefat]

Who bought / sold / or rented recently and how has it been going ?

Did you close ? Notice prices continuing to keep going up around you ?

We just bought our first SFH and 2 houses a street over already listed for 17k over what we closed for.

[brooklyn]

I’m so glad we closed in August. We paid $25k over asking. Now similar houses are going for $100-130k over asking. 😫

[sadlebred]

I refied back in June. I should have waited til August when rates dropped again, but what's done is done. It doesn't make sense financially to refi since I can't go from a 30 year to anything lower.

I've noticed prices around here are "dropping" a bit. Some houses around me but not in my neighborhood are on the market longer than 30 days and they are cutting prices by $10,000-$35,000. That may mean they were overpriced to begin with. Houses in my neighborhood rarely stay on the market for more than 2-3 days even in a buyer's market.

[Deleted]

We closed on the sale of our rental home on Thursday. We got $15k over list plus a nice credit toward closing costs and all fees paid except the title insurance. I'm so happy to have it gone.

We should be closing on our refi in the next 7 to 10 days. I got 1.99% on a 10 year and we plan to put a big chunk of the money we made from this house sale toward the mortgage to have it paid off even sooner.

[Susie]

We closed on our purchase last week.  Everything went reasonably smoothly, and right on time, although our sellers left a mess of a yard.  It had not been cut in several weeks, except for a few random intersecting stripes cut with a mower.  WTF!?  Over the weekend it rained so I painted my DD's room and our vaulted ceiling family room.  I feel like I have an eternity of painting to go.  I think this week the hardwood flooring install (whole house) starts, which is exciting.

I'm not sure I can say much about price trends lately because inventory has been SO LOW.  I thought it was low in Jan/Feb/Mar when we were hunting, but it's even lower now.  It's crazy.  There is nothing on the market at all at our sale price point, and only one large, dated house in our purchase price point.  There have been a couple closings, and they've all been high.  One went for $425k, after asking $375k.  

Our sale is still pending, and still a complicated mess.  Closing is tentatively on/around 6/25, but it's feeling awfully tentative.  Fingers crossed.  I hate the idea of re-listing, it's so so frustrating.  But hopefully if we have to, we can wait til we're pretty much moved out so we don't have to live it on such a personal level.  And with inventory so low, it would hopefully get snapped up quickly.

[carrotsmakemefat]

May 31, 2021 15:55:15 GMT -5 brooklyn said:

I’m so glad we closed in August. We paid $25k over asking. Now similar houses are going for $100-130k over asking. 😫

It is quite crazy. I really wish we had bought last summer and I had pushed myself harder to choose a location.

We went under our budget and then overbid by 52k to get our house we closed on a week ago. BUT I’m also glad we were under budget and didn’t overbuy for the neighborhood. If there is a correction it will not be as “bad” as it will hit other areas around me

[dr.girlfriend]

Not really meeting the criteria for your post but I'll chime in anyway -- about a year ago we built an almost-$200k addition on our house, making it the fanciest 3-bedroom known to mankind. We did it with the attitude of "We'll never get our money back, but..." We still have no intention of selling, but now I think we'd get our money back in a hot minute if we were listing it today!

[dcn]

We are set to close Wednesday! We bought a new build that was pretty much done bc existing homes were going so fast and for over asking. We were crunched for time so went the easier route. The market still seems pretty hot with low inventory. I know so many military families scrambling to find even rentals this summer.

[ellipses84]

We talked to a mortgage broker last Fall. Financing wasn’t feasible due to recently changed, unique employment situations, despite having more guaranteed income. We decided to move into a larger rental and it may be another year + before we even consider buying.

Our market is bananas for sales and rentals. Prices had been steadily increasing the last 3 years (with dips in the winter) until this year when prices skyrocketed. We looked for 3 months for a rental and got a good deal on a place we love (the layout is great, but the finishes are NMS). It was competitive and people were putting in applications sight unseen the first day properties were listed for rentals! My realtor friends in our neighborhood say they hate the deals they are having to make for buyers (as-is, no contingencies, etc) and think we should try to convince our current landlord to sell to us. Ideally we want a fixer upper, but so many houses get snapped up by cash buyers and flipped poorly. I wasn’t too sad about not being able to buy because our next home is supposed to be our forever home and I’m not 100% sure I want this to be our forever neighborhood. We’ll also be in a way better financial position in a year and we have the ability to be picky and wait until we find what we really want. I’d love to do a garage apartment or ADU and we couldn’t do that in our current house, but our current house has 4 bedrooms so that’s a trade off I’d be willing to make.

[Pom]

We closed May 18th on the sale of our house in north Houston area. Buyers paid asking and didn't ask for contingencies and we did not pay any of the previous closing expenses that we have as sellers in the past except for REA fee, title insurance. We were supposed to close 5.4 after 4 days on the market, but our buyers had issues with the loan and had to switch lenders part way through which was to back it up to a 5.25. The lender pushed it through and it ended up closing a week earlier for which we were grateful.

We are moved to our second home, but are still looking for another lake or river side cottage to keep a boat. We are in a resort area of Michigan and real estate is insane here too. I expect we won't buy again for awhile. We did remodel last year so it is quite livable. We need a new sofa and it is 6 months to get one.

[wildrice]

We bought on May 1st, 2020. We got in right before things exploded. It's hard to say exactly because there hasn't been another house that is our exact model up for sale recently, but Zillow says our house is estimated to sell at about 36k more than we paid, and I would believe it. There have been a couple of models similar to ours but without our basement (so losing about 1/3 of the square footage and a bathroom) that have sold for just over what we paid.

We aren't planning to sell for several years so it's really neither here nor there, but it's been interesting to see. I was really leery of buying at the start of the pandemic - I was actually more afraid of a housing crash if a lot of people had to foreclose - so I often thing how glad I am that we took the gamble we did.

[Susie]

Wow! $1M over asking (Chevy Chase, MD): www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/01/a-million-over-list/

[brooke77]

We are just starting the process and will take all advice!

Moving from Boston suburbs to Atlanta suburbs. I spoke with realtors in both locations today. I’m super worried about being able to find a house we like and being able to move and close in time. We are on a super tight timeframe (I want to be in for August 1). Our house here will sell quickly, so I’m less worried about that.

[plutosmoon]

I'm going to call a realtor and start looking in July. I'm hopeful I'll find something by October/November so I can close by year end, the inventory is really low, and when winter comes around it will only get worse. I'm only in month 4 of my year lease but I don't want to live here any longer than absolutely necessary. The rental has several issues that aren't repairs but bother me, like doors that can only be locked from the outside, or can't be locked at all. I'm leaning towards bumping my budget a bit and doing less than 20% down. I just want my own house again.

[imojoebunny]

Jun 1, 2021 14:37:34 GMT -5 brooke77 said:

We are just starting the process and will take all advice!

Moving from Boston suburbs to Atlanta suburbs. I spoke with realtors in both locations today. I’m super worried about being able to find a house we like and being able to move and close in time. We are on a super tight timeframe (I want to be in for August 1). Our house here will sell quickly, so I’m less worried about that.

Which Atlanta suburb?  We are intown Atlanta, and it is crazy.  I just helped my aunt find a house, and she made so many offers.  

[carrotsmakemefat]

Jun 1, 2021 18:09:08 GMT -5 plutosmoon said:

I'm going to call a realtor and start looking in July. I'm hopeful I'll find something by October/November so I can close by year end, the inventory is really low, and when winter comes around it will only get worse. I'm only in month 4 of my year lease but I don't want to live here any longer than absolutely necessary. The rental has several issues that aren't repairs but bother me, like doors that can only be locked from the outside, or can't be locked at all. I'm leaning towards bumping my budget a bit and doing less than 20% down. I just want my own house again.

I was afraid of that too, but with the average price around here 500k + we were fine with 10% down and keeping our budget low so I could put 10% versus 5%. We made sure our loan was one that took into account appreciation as well,
hoping we can drop the PMI more quickly.
Sure we could have gotten a home 45k more expensive but I wanted to ere on the side of lower payments and also not going too crazy for when a correction does hit.

They also had a mortgage where the PMI was rolled into the life of the loan, only $40 more for the whole 30 years. Lots of options to talk about with your lender.

[brooke77]

Jun 1, 2021 19:27:47 GMT -5 imojoebunny said:

Jun 1, 2021 14:37:34 GMT -5 brooke77 said:

We are just starting the process and will take all advice!

Moving from Boston suburbs to Atlanta suburbs. I spoke with realtors in both locations today. I’m super worried about being able to find a house we like and being able to move and close in time. We are on a super tight timeframe (I want to be in for August 1). Our house here will sell quickly, so I’m less worried about that.

Which Atlanta suburb?  We are intown Atlanta, and it is crazy.  I just helped my aunt find a house, and she made so many offers.  

We are looking in Johns Creek/Alpharetta/Suwanee area. Our realtor said the inventory is really low.

[Susie]

Jun 1, 2021 18:09:08 GMT -5 plutosmoon said:

I'm leaning towards bumping my budget a bit and doing less than 20% down. I just want my own house again.

We actually only put 5% down on our purchase.  In our case it was because we bought before selling, and we temporarily have equity tied up in two houses.  We're around 50-55% LTV on the the house we're selling, and 92-95% LTV on the house we just bought.  The plan was to use the proceeds to pay down the mortgage on the new house to 78% LTV to drop PMI as soon as we sell the old house, and then recast the mortgage to lower our payment.  At 2.75% though, I have to admit I'm thinking through whether that's the best use of the money!  I'm definitely not paying the mortgage down a dime beyond 78% LTV.

[heygrey]

We bought in September and since then the average selling price in our neighbourhood has risen $110,000. A house just down the street listed last Friday for $153k over what we paid. They had back to back showings all weekend so I'm sure they got asking if not more.

[lolalolalola]

We are signing to build a house on Friday. I am scared that it will be delayed beyond the 9 months they have quoted us! I am also afraid the market will crash between now and then and we will lose on the sale of our current home

[pinkalicious]

I’m a Realtor, and it’s been crazy here in the Chicago suburbs. I have a few new listings coming on the market that I’m expecting to go into multiple offers. I put a house in the MLS as a coming soon (but the sellers were allowing showings) and we had a few showings, and offers for up to $45k over list.

[coffee]

What are your thoughts regarding re-adjustment of hosing prices in the future?
I first thought prices will re-adjust for sure, but then I started reading that it might not go down due to inflation in general these days. That it is expected to stop going higher and higher once there is more inventory ( and lumber) but not expected to go back down. It made me second guess my thoughts...

[carrotsmakemefat]

Jun 3, 2021 11:52:40 GMT -5 coffee said:

What are your thoughts regarding re-adjustment of hosing prices in the future?
I first thought prices will re-adjust for sure, but then I started reading that it might not go down due to inflation in general these days. That it is expected to stop going higher and higher once there is more inventory ( and lumber) but not expected to go back down. It made me second guess my thoughts...

To add to this, a lot of homes are now basing price on the latest tax assessment and those are being driven by the current market and pricing.

[cuadrado]

We’re house shopping right now. People are offering 10%+ above ask and it’s crazy. Our realtor said they think the market will be up like this for a while.

[imimahoney]

In the process of selling and buying!

Closing July 1st on our new home and July 8th on our current.

We paid 100k over asking but so did our buyers so I don't feel completely ridiculous 🥴

We live about 15 minutes north of Boston.

I will say with rates so low still the high prices don't hurt as bad I thought they would.

[melmel48]

Jun 5, 2021 6:49:04 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

In the process of selling and buying!

Closing July 1st on our new home and July 8th on our current.

We paid 100k over asking but so did our buyers so I don't feel completely ridiculous 🥴

We live about 15 minutes north of Boston.

I will say with rates so low still the high prices don't hurt as bad I thought they would.

I am roughly 20 miles north of Boston! 

Good luck on both your sale and purchase. 

[melmel48]

Jun 4, 2021 18:31:13 GMT -5 cuadrado said:

We’re house shopping right now. People are offering 10%+ above ask and it’s crazy. Our realtor said they think the market will be up like this for a while.

There are many reasons I am not selling my condo, even though I could make a handsome profit..one of them being I can't afford the asking prices of a new place, never mind over asking. I also do not think I can mentally handle the shit show of a bidding war. 

Good luck!

[imimahoney]

Jun 5, 2021 8:12:43 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

Jun 5, 2021 6:49:04 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

In the process of selling and buying!

Closing July 1st on our new home and July 8th on our current.

We paid 100k over asking but so did our buyers so I don't feel completely ridiculous 🥴

We live about 15 minutes north of Boston.

I will say with rates so low still the high prices don't hurt as bad I thought they would.

I am roughly 20 miles north of Boston! 

Good luck on both your sale and purchase. 

Thanks! It really is an insane market. My 925 ft ranch with 1 bathroom is selling for 620k 🤣🤣

[melmel48]

Jun 5, 2021 8:42:04 GMT -5 imimahoney said:

Jun 5, 2021 8:12:43 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

I am roughly 20 miles north of Boston! 

Good luck on both your sale and purchase. 

Thanks! It really is an insane market. My 925 ft ranch with 1 bathroom is selling for 620k 🤣🤣

That is WILD!!!! 

[cuadrado]

Jun 5, 2021 8:14:24 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

Jun 4, 2021 18:31:13 GMT -5 cuadrado said:

We’re house shopping right now. People are offering 10%+ above ask and it’s crazy. Our realtor said they think the market will be up like this for a while.

There are many reasons I am not selling my condo, even though I could make a handsome profit..one of them being I can't afford the asking prices of a new place, never mind over asking. I also do not think I can mentally handle the shit show of a bidding war. 

Good luck!

We saw a house we loved and it was under contract within 12 hours. It’s crazy.