We could be far worse off.
We made a decent chunk when we sold last year. I thought at the time the market might settle and we’d be in a better spot, but that hasn’t happened.
What’s sad to consider is those just leaving school or newlyweds who haven’t established their careers yet. My wife and I bought our first house 8 years ago at $124. That’s a pipe dream now in Grand Rapids.
We’ll be fine, it’s just demoralizing.
Yeah, houses basically start at listing price down here. I forget the term, but they set up the sale so if somebody outbids you, your bid automatically increases in increments until whatever point you set to tap out.
Its nuts. The home three doors down sold for over 100k over list the same day as the initial open house.
Building new might still be the way to go. Meet the price asked and get a lot. Vs bidding vs over ask with cash buyers.
We lucked into getting acceptance on our first offer last yr when the sellers came back to us when the all cash offer they had accepted backed out due to strong association rules on rentals.
We had put another 5-6 offers on other houses before our lucky news.
Escalator offers suck. Better to put a offer with a set time of 24-48 hrs to accept. Otherwise you will lose out to cash offers less than your escalator offer anyways. Its not always top offer that gets the house.
I work in real estate in the GR area (various parts of it, although I am not a realtor). There are VERY early signs of things beginning to calm down slightly. The ‘days on market’ metric is slowly creeping up, and some listings are actually reducing their listing prices. Of course, they are all very high compared to even two years ago (which still seemed crazy at the time).
If anyone is in West Michigan and wants to discuss anything in housing, I’d be happy to chat with Den members (don’t worry, I don’t have anything to sell you and don’t take commissions/etc). Just send me a PM.
And @Nate - I am sorry you are going through Alzheimer’s in your family. I have seen that to the end in my family as well, and it is brutal. I wish you all strength and the well wishes I can muster.
So, one of the guys I smoke cigars with in Denver is a real estate attorney and he said that a lot of home purchasing was being done by the owners of the dispensaries.
For sure, the housing market in Canada is completely insane. Young people simply can’t afford to buy a home anymore. Sad really.
Buy a motor home, live in that until the housing market crashes again. Then buy in at the bottom.
I have a better idea than a motor home! I am 35 years old, thrice divorced, and I live…
I have a friend that lives in a motorhome while working remote and lives in different parts of the US depending on where the weather is warm to avoid cold weather. Sounds like a good idea
Interesting. I like the escalator because I know I’m not bidding against myself, and can set a firm “if someone wants to go over that, they can have it.”
Although your point on cash is right. When we sold, it was two escalators which met at the same limit and we took the cash offer. No inspections. On an old house.
I’d totally do the 24-48 hours but most listing agents are setting a deadline for when all offers will be heard — not sure how that would work.
Id wait 6-12 months to buy, personally.
I have a feeling the interest rates are going to burst the housing bubble soon. We’ve been looking at buying a condo but it’s just insane. Sister In law just got into her new house this year and after she bought it she was offered 40k more for it 3 months later. Just crazy.
People said that last year. I just think it depends on location. To @Weaselpuppy point, West Michigan had been severely undervalued in relation to the rest of the country, so it’s sort of catching up.
I used to be a real estate agent. Gave my friend the advice to give seller deadline before the cash offers hit their desk. He got the house.
HOLY SHIT
Yup - or get lucky and land a foreclosure/repo. There’s much more competition for those now too.
In terms of being yoru own general contractor, you save about 1/3 the cost by doing that yourself, If you have the time. There’s a franchise that helps you to know which questions to ask, as well as having lists of contractors that are reputable (like Angie’s list). Save a ton by doing that yourself.
That could work, particularly if you don’t care where you end up. One of the big problems is tough one to fix… supply vs. demand. New build homes were incredibly slow from 2007-2015, so a lot of areas got WAY behind on inventory. In addition, the age 25-45 group (those most likely looking to move or become homeowners) are the largest generational group in the country. They can’t build them fast enough to offset the overall housing shortage.
It is much worse for homes priced under $150k. Very few builders are building those kinds of houses without some serious government incentives, because they make less (or no) profit on some of those places. So, it is possible no ‘crash’ will come due to the pent up demand. Of course, I am not very good at predictions, I don’t know.
If interest rates continue to rise and there is a recession, it is likely some people will have trouble with foreclosures. But, if that causes a ‘crash’ will depend greatly on the speed and number of those folks.
well all the given materials and tools TO complete a home, have also risen price-wise…just to do the job–along -with house prices rising to.
Similar thing happening here in parts of Michigan. Between the electric company and the code authorities’ they’re starting to limit the size of electric service that can be connected, drastically limiting the amount of dope they can grow.
I bought a cheap cheap place near caseville 6 years ago. If I were to list it today, it’d be 6x the price I paid.
Meanwhile, back at the homestead, we’re finally at a point where it would sell at a profit over what I invested in it 2003-2007. Not a big profit, but we’re finally in the black. Our area (Genesee, Lapeer county) was SEVERELY hit by that last housing bubble. I don’t worry about us crashing, to be honest. We were so undervalued and so slow to recover, I bet we show up on some reports as still undervalued.