<p>I haven’t heard from my tennis friend that owns a construction company for several weeks. He hit with another friend last week so I may drop him an email to see if he wants to hit. We think that he’s really busy with his company work.</p>
<p>BTW, besides construction for boom areas, there’s also construction for areas hit by natural disasters and we’ve had a lot of them lately.</p>
<p>That is true…</p>
<p>new home sales in the bay area has gone on lottery system. my neighbor who sold the house cannot find a suitable replacement,</p>
<p>My H has finally decided to retire in December 2015 (unless of course things happen outside his control…). I brought in a stager for an hour to go over the house and tell us what major or minor things to think of doing over the next 2 years or so. </p>
<p>I wish we could buy a place now, before the home prices go up. Unfortunately / fortunately, we end up buying in the same market we sell in. </p>
<p>I’m not seeing any foreclosures around here anymore, homes are selling with lower DOM, and prices are slowly edging up.</p>
<p>We are trying to get our house on the market as soon as possible. We don’t need the school system once S’14 graduates, but we could sell sooner and the school would still let him graduate. A house across from ours just went in 2 weeks with a list price at 2007 levels. Trying to find out from my realtor what it actually went for.</p>
<p>If we don’t get any serious offers, we’ll wait. But there is nothing on in our price range and square footage in our town, so I am hoping we’ll get some interest.</p>
<p>DW listed a condo on Wednesday, with no showings until after the open house tomorrow.</p>
<p>So many people called her that she and the seller decided not to wait for the open house.</p>
<p>In less than 24 hours it was under agreement, an all-cash offer with no inspection contingency, for well over the listing price.</p>
<p>She got yelled at today by another agent who saw the original listing but didn’t see that it had been opened for showings and therefore her client missed out. This agent was not happy.</p>
<p>Is this a bubble? My son made an offer on a condo in the Boston area, 9% over the asking price. He wasn’t 2nd best. This is the second time he has offered and lost. I may pull his financing and tell him to rent.</p>
<p>I think there are areas where prices are rising dramatically and demand is much larger than supply.</p>
<p>My sister was looking at houses north of SF this past weekend with a realtor.</p>
<p>My sister heard comments like, “That house received 5 bids the first day of listing”. “That house has 19 bids. The seller doesn’t know which one to take”.</p>
<p>Here in northern VA, I have heard recently about 3 houses (one on my street the other 2 in adjoining neighborhoods) that have sold before a sign even went up. Apparently inventory is very low.</p>
<p>The Boston area is crazy right now as far as rentals and home sales go but this hasn’t really affected areas outside of Route 495. I had a look at a Zillow chart for our area in New Hampshire and the chart showed a long downtrend and just a short tick up from the bottom - this is what I’m seeing. Prices have stabilized and are up a tiny amount.</p>
<p>Is the Boston market a bubble? I don’t know. The last time we looked for a place locally (NH) was 1998 and I thought that was a bubble. It got much bigger and then popped in 2005. I don’t regret buying a bigger place.</p>
<p>Boston is a pain to commute to but a lot of people do it. They might live in NH or the Merrimack Valley and take commuter rail in or drive (I think that you’re nuts to drive because you have to park but there are a million people that do it every day). Our son is renting in Boston. I don’t think that he’s really thought about buying a place yet. He’s still young and may change jobs several times before he gets settled so sometimes a home can be a liability. He may be able to work remotely in the future too which means that he could buy or rent anywhere.</p>
<p>We are getting ready to put the house on the market next week. About 2 weeks ago, we found a note in our mailbox saying “If you would like to sell, please call me. My wife and I have been trying to get in the neighborhood for months and we keep getting out bid by investors looking to flip.” H will be contacting this guy today. Fingers crossed that we can sell before listing it! (We’re in city limits of Dallas, with a suburban school district)</p>
<p>megpmom, from what I’ve been reading about Dallas real estate lately, you probably won’t need much luck! But still, good luck. 
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<p>Keep us posted.</p>
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I.O.W., they don’t want to pay market price.</p>
<p>Why would you want to sell to them for a discount?</p>
<p>A friend is in the market to buy here in LA, and he says houses (and condos) have been selling like hotcakes. Everywhere he’s bid on has gone well above asking. There’s a house in my neighborhood being listed for about 15% under what the real estate agent said he expects they’ll be able to get. Friend says he jealous we bought at the end of last year, which is apparently right before things took off.</p>
<p>According to Zillow, home values in my zip code have gone up approximately 20% since we bought about six months ago. Values are still 15% below 2006 levels.</p>
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<p>While true, sometimes if you sell at a “discount” but with no realtor commission, you can come out ahead. But you have to know what you are doing, really understand the values, etc.</p>
<p>Hey, if anyone is willing to pay our asking price without us having to have a realtor - I’m happy to save the commission. We know exactly what our house is worth. The comps are all online and my mom is a former realtor.</p>
<p>^^^^Nothing against realtors, but if you can get your price without having a realtor involved, you’ve saved 6%!!!</p>
<p>Good for you!</p>
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If you are in a hot area you may miss out on a bidding war.</p>
<p>Around here the standard commission is 5%, and 4% is not uncommon.</p>
<p>I’d echo BCEagle’s observation … the housing recovery is a local phenomenon. I just checked data for our town. One sale a week, and all of those sales in the bottom quartile of listed house prices. There’s still a multi-year supply of homes on the market, and that doesn’t count the owners who gave up after a couple of years and delisted their homes.</p>
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<p>In the area of Dallas where I live, they are building spec houses!!! In the 8 blocks of my street between Preston and Hillcrest, there have been 5 completed in this year, another one is a matter of weeks from being finished and there is one lot (old house removed) that just went on the market as “will build to suit.” The house across the street from mine sold in March without going on the market.</p>