Thanks! I didn’t realize that was happening…then again not like I check it much. It is funny, prices are still crazy around me here in Northern NJ, but whether they get the asking prices I don’t know. They put up these new houses that if you looked at them, don’t look like much (they kind of look like housing in old neighborhoods in some cities, they are lengthwise down the property bc it is narrow, boxy), they aren’t particularly big and they want over a million dollars in a neighborhood that is mostly smaller 1950’s/60’s cape cods and such.
1 Like
Have maine housing prices cooled down yet? We love Maine, for a lot of reasons, but when we looked at house prices we were shocked at the level. We were told it was people doing remote work moving there, especially in the Portland area (we looked near Brunswick, which we have some ties to, our jaw hit the ground).
One of the things that attracted us years ago was the nature of the people there, wasn’t the same kind of mad hustle and bustle, and we also liked when people we know who are natives said that it is considered gauche to be overtly political in anything; in this world I can appreciate it, fortunately where i live now is like that.
The market seems to have cooled in the two areas I am familiar with. The part of NJ (morris county area) we sold in last year and the part of MA (south shore) that we currently live in. More inventory, properties having multiple open houses, and taking longer to sell.
1 Like
That cooling market scares me. We are in NJ and hope to sell our large suburban home in next few years and downsize. Fingers crossed!
Supposedly our house value has gone down, at least on Zillow. But it’s still ridiculous. And meals are so expensive! Eating in Austin and Philadelphia recently was sure cheaper. That’s the main reason my daughter moved to Philly - the cost of living is lower.
4 Likes
I live in Morris County and what I see are crazy listing prices with few sales. With mortgage rates so high, I am not surprised, it really has gone crazy. There is this little house around the corner from me (I am in the Morristown area, north of it), that is on half an acre, it is a really small house (prob 1200 sq ft, 3 bed, 1 bath), and they want like 700k for it. Another person was selling a house on a little under 2 acres (which is rare in my area), and they wanted like 2.5 million for it. Even if a developer bought it for the land, that is way, way overpriced.
I think selling prices way outclassed the markets in terms of being able to afford it. Morris County is well off, one of the more affluent counties in the country, but it is just way out of line with reality I think. Like the houses I mentioned in another part of this thread, new Houses that really aren’t that attractive going for over a million, it just went too high for income. Other areas I think are going to experience this if remote working starts getting push back the way I see. All these cities where people flocked to them because they were affordable made them not so affordable. If remote jobs start becoming less common, that could hurt them.
Where i live I don’t think this is going to be like 2008, I think that prices will still be strong, but just won’t be crazy. The area around here has things that people like, access to the city, shopping, good schools (and where I live, low taxes, at least by NJ standards), we didn’t get hit as hard in 2008 either.
1 Like
Portland, Maine seemed like a nice place when I visited there for business a while back.
However, it seemed like my presence meaningfully increased the ethnic diversity there, with corresponding limits on the selection of ethnic restaurants, etc… I did get the “where are you from?” question, ironically from a waiter at one of the few ethnic restaurants (non European ethnicity), and my answer of a place in the US was apparently not the desired answer. (Note: not saying that it was malicious, but I can see why it can get tiresome rather than amusing if it happens repeatedly.)
5 Likes
There are now many, many refugees from Africa in the Portland area. I was in the minority when I was at the DMV recently.
Hawaii is a melting pot of people, food and cultures. People tend to know others and it’s definitely expensive. Real estate and food and childcare and schools are all very pricey.
1 Like
When DH and I were first looking for jobs and the Texas economy had tanked, we sent resumes all over the country, including Hawaii. An engineer in Hawaii wrote us (snail mail in those days) and said he didn’t recommend it as a place to live - too expensive.
3 Likes
Hawaii is one of those places that seems absolute paradise . I have friends who retired there, but they bought their place (a condo) a long time before and they were well off. There was a woman with her family that lived there that vlogged, and she spent a lot of time talking about the things the tv show doesn’t talk about. The cost of real estate, the cost of home repairs, issues with mold in the house, things like parasites and other diseases you can get walking barefoot in your yard. Depending where you live there also are issues with crime, and there are tensions between native hawaians and people who have moved there from the mainland US and also from Asia (native hawaiian means people born there; which of course includes the true native people).
There is a funny story about Hawaii that isn’t really related to this thread but it is a good story. Packet radio that is the basis for wireless networking, was created by a professor at the U of Hawaii.The reason was that with Hawaii being an archipelego, running inter island leased lines was pretty much impossible, so he developed wireless packet radio to be able to do it that way (these days I suspect the Islands are connected with fiber).
He was asked why he worked there instead of someplace like Stanford, and he said the surfing and fishing wasn’t good there.
1 Like
You probably mean something like kamaʻāina (long term resident of Hawaii, not limited to those with Indigenous Hawaiian ancestry). Kamaʻāina discounts are somewhat common among businesses in Hawaii.
I think there are a lot of places with tensions between newcomers and folks who have been around long time. Many parts of our state are pretty friendly to most. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, it’s expensive and you have to get on a plane to go pretty much anywhere. It still is home and paradise to many of us.
5 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.