Thought of the old real estate thread today and wondered what people are seeing in their communities.
With unemployment up and economic uncertainty I’m shocked to see many homes in my area selling. We have a neighbor who put her house for sale a month ago. She had a full price offer the first week. My D has a neighbor who had a listing pending sign up and told my D she had two offers before the house hit the MLS.
What are you seeing?
Pretty busy in the law office with various closings lately!
I looked up the area of House1 which we sold in 2017. Holy guac… the recent comps on Redfin all sold very quickly for over $1M. ? This is as suburban as it gets.
A new house near our new digs just sold for $80k over listing price. Ouch.
Good for you!
But I am puzzled. Why would anyone need a lawyer to buy/sell a house? Are these all sketchy (as my kid would call them) transactions? Definitely no lawyers for 99% of RE sales here in my state.
I practiced in MA for a number of years, a number of years ago, and back then lawyers handled the loan work and often the title work, with a few purchase and sale agreements as well.
Things are crazy in my area. My friend just sold her house and had 17 (yes, 17!) offers by the date they took them which was the 7th day the house was open. Four of them were for 15% over asking. Another friend put her house on the market and received an offer the same day. I know she’s in escrow now and she and her dh are happy with the outcome but I don’t know the specifics.
Edited to add that I just googled her address and escrow closed yesterday: again 15% over asking. Crazy prices in my area.
We are looking to buy in southern California and it seems hot there too.
And attorney are not needed here in CA but my nephew just bought a condo in Chicago and told me that an attorney is required there.
Our neighborhood has had several sales in the past three months. All went within a week, all at asking price or above. This is not typical, but we’re in a “starter” SFH neighborhood and are at a price point that’s hard to find in this area (though still not cheap because it’s the DC burbs).
Older S just bought a house in San Jose under list price. This seems to be unusual.
We can’t figure out what is going on. Another bubble, the “covid” bubble we are calling it.
Lake properties are going gang busters, there are hardly any where are lake cottage is and they are going within a week at very high prices. A few years back there were a For Sale signs everywhere you looked. There’s hardly any for sale now. We were thinking of selling 3 years ago and met a RE agent and she said prices were so depressed for years since 2008 and thought they may never get back to the bubble prices. We really didn’t want to leave after all, especially taking a loss. Well, they are way above that now, almost overnight.
A friends son bought his $140k home 2 years ago. Just listed it for $180 and got 3 offers the next day, 2 of them for $190. It’s crazy.
I know three realtors. All are saying the same thing: if the house is move in ready, with a garden, in a nice neighborhood and even more so if it has a pool, they are selling like hot cakes. But McMansions, not so much. People can’t afford them. It has to be under a million. I live an hour’s drive away from a major metro area in the Northeast.
It would be nice if people would identify at least a general area when they respond.
I’m in Dallas. We listed our house in a gated community about 3 weeks ago. So far, a few showings, but no bites. But there are five properties for sale on just our block. One is pending, and we’ll be glad when it goes. One less house with a for sale sign would be nice. My next door neighbor has a similar house to ours and it has been on the market for over a year, but it’s vacant and a bit dated compared to ours. A house on another block sold in 3 days for the highest price per sq. foot ever in our neighborhood, but it was only a couple of years old and was spectacular inside.
We also owned a double lot in a desired neighborhood. Originally we had planned to build on the corner and sell the interior. We ended up buying an existing home elsewhere and were in the midst of a major remodel when COVID hit. I really kind of got wigged out. Prior to COVID the economy was doing great. Now we were sitting on four residential properties (no debt at least) and I didn’t see getting out of it with the economy tanking. Fortunately both of the lots recently sold for just under asking, and these were very pricey lots. I actually could hardly believe it. We didn’t make a huge profit on them, but we got all we had invested in them plus a tad bit more. What a relief!
If our current home doesn’t sell, we will probably feel obligated to put the newly remodeled house on the market too, and see which one sells. The new house is in a very desired neighborhood that currently has very little inventory, so we may end up going to all this trouble and not getting to move into the new place.
At the end of the day, either scenario still makes us very blessed compared to many others.
All in all the Dallas market seems to being hanging in there, especially in the starter home market.
My daughter and SIL are buying a house in central Maine. There is such a shortage of houses on the market that there were 15 (yes, 15!) other offers on the same inexpensive house, and they are paying $20K over asking. They have been looking for a year and have already lost out on several houses, plus had one that failed inspection.
People are fleeing to rural areas due to Covid. The WSJ recently had an article on the high-end version of this phenomenon.
I’m just outside of the Bay Area in CA. We put our old house on the market literally the day that the Bay Area lockdown was announced back in mid-March. We were terrified about what would happen, but we had a full-price offer within 48 hours! That said, the road ahead was rocky because our buyers ran into problems with their buyers, whose financing dropped out from under them, which was Covid-related. So our closing took an extra 3 weeks, very stressful weeks, but it did finally close! My realtor has been very busy, says the market is doing just fine!
My FIL advised us to ALWAYS get a lawyer for RE transactions, and I’m thankful we have. Some weird issue always seems to come up. Maybe Maine is just difficult? We’ve had road issues, easement issues, etc.
Apparently the market is hot here. We are hearing that people from more populated states want to get away from crowds, so they’re looking to Maine. Also, there’s lower inventory due to people delaying during COVId so it’s a seller’s market.
Northern Chicagoland area - renovated homes are selling the day they hit the market. The last three houses in my neighborhood sold on day one for full asking price. Those needing a lot of updating are also selling but only if priced accordingly.
Anyone “testing” the market with an un-renovated home (or a lipstick on a pig “update”) by asking too much, has their house sit for a while. There is a house a block up for me that hasn’t been updated since the early 80s and had a ridiculously high asking price. It’s been on the market since November. They just now dropped the price to something semi reasonable but based on what other homes have sold for, I think they’re still overpriced by $150-200K.
Northern Ohio, blue collar area. Many old established neighborhoods like mine, treed lots, homes anywhere from 50-100 years + old. I have always enjoyed watching real estate and am watching it a little more closely now. Spring/summer is typically the busiest time for real estate transactions because no one wants to sell around the holidays or winter.
Homes seem to be priced high, selling high and selling fast. Most under 30 days. Very fast turnover than is what is typical for our area. Definitely a seller’s market it seems.
These threads always depress me. Southern VA, low SES area. Home values haven’t increased much since the late 1990s/early 2000s. There are so many houses on sale. I would guess at least 10 within a 0.1 mile radius of me. Most houses don’t sell within a year, many take 5-10 years. It’s common to have them on the market, then take it off for awhile, then back on, repeat forever. Owners will either rent them or let them sit vacant for years. A good week in the real estate transfer section is to have 3-5 houses sell “for real” meaning not a foreclosure, will, or divorce. I also only look at ones over $75,000. Below that isn’t comparable to me. Those (below $50K) are usually the slum lord rentals. Those do turn over.
So you can buy a house for very cheap here! But most houses are pre-1990. There were some in the 1990s, but very few built after that. And another caveat is that you have to insure it for the replacement cost. I have to insure mine for 4-5x what I could get for it… in 3-5 years if I’m lucky.
I am in NYC. We are seeing a 20% drop in market value. Many families are moving out to the suburb because they are able to work from home and there is more space out there. D1 is in the market for a family apartment. They were originally looking at 2 bedrooms, but now with a baby coming and with a 20% drop, they are looking at 3 bedroom fully renovated apartments. I have seen NYC real estate market go up and down, but it never stays down forever, even when NYC faced bankruptcy. The interest rate is at all time low I told D1 it is a good time to buy.
Similar here. Economically distressed low SEC area and housing prices are still no where near the peak prices pre-2008 crash.
Although we enjoy a relatively low mortgage payment and relatively low property taxes, we do not have much equity in the house since the market has been stagnant since the crash.
Boo!
Iowa still uses abstracts rather than title insurance. So an abstract must be examined by an attorney with a preliminary title opinion issued and a final title opinion if there is a lender involved. And it often takes an attorney to clear any exceptions to title. Then it is typical in our area for the buyer’s or seller’s attorney to close it. But sometimes a real estate agent will close it, or in the city an escrow company.
We live in Northern VA just outside DC and it’s a seller’s market for sure. Inventory is way down and it’s normal to see houses with 10+ offers and sell for 15-20% above asking. We bought a house about 2 months ago. There was very little stock at the time and houses were only on the market 0-2 days (at least the decent houses). Luckily we had a very experienced realtor help us put together an offer to make us stand out (more than just $) and we were able to get the house we really wanted. I still watch the listings, and the market is terrible for buyers.
In this area, most folks are lucky to have jobs that can be done from home, so the housing market is still pretty strong. We probably overpaid for our house by very little (only $10-$15k), but the area we live in has steadily increased in value over the years. There are many new jobs (MS, Google, etc.) and the metro (subway) is being built nearby. Everyone in our neighborhood seems to be staying put and just doing upgrades to their homes. I hope we can stay here for at least the next 15 years.