I eavesdropped on the auction that was happening along my walking route. They did it out by the pool which I can see and hear from the fence line of the empty lot below. Bidding started at 4 million and sold for $6.2 million. From what I could see about 20 cars parked along the roadway. The last owners bought it in 2015 for 5.795 million. It is almost 6 acres with great ocean views and the lot itself is legally 2 parcels. The original house was built in the 70’s and hadn’t been updated. The new owners did a huge remodel and I can’t imagine what they spent but the finishes are top of the line. Selling for 6.2 they must have lost a huge amount of money. No one ever moved in so the assumption is they bought it for speculation. I can’t imagine having the money to even pay the property tax on such a place let alone make the house payments. From what I hear from people I know in the business is that a lot of people wanting to get out of the cities.
My H said we should sell our house in this Covid crazed market and take the money and run to somewhere less expensive so he can retire. I am happy where I live and have no desire to move!
My son and his GF rent in San Francisco. They are able to move to a bigger place in September because rents are dropping.
My other son and his wife are looking to buy in San Diego. They have put two offers in, they are pre-approved but in both cases were outbid by higher all cash offers. They are not in a huge hurry, maybe they should wait a little longer?
The house I talked about in post 67 … That sale fell through. I bet it couldn’t hit that appraisal amount. Sold for $587k in the end, which I still think is too high, but whatever.
Yup - I’m in NYC suburb where median listing price is just south of $900k. Seems like every time a “for sale” sign goes up, the “under contract” sign is there within a week.
I just contacted a realtor to potentially sell a 3/1.5 stand alone house we own here in South Central PA. It’s a nice place - long term tenants are leaving it the end of the month. It’s been super easy to rent (the ad often runs less than a day on Craigslist), but if it were to sell for a decent price quickly, H and I don’t mind transitioning retirement funds elsewhere.
According to Zillow, there’s only one other house on the market in the neighborhood and I don’t think it’s quite as nice.
I’m on the west coast of FL and our market is pretty hot. DS and FDIL are moving here so I’ve been actively watching the market for several months to help them find something. Smaller homes at the lower end of our area’s price range are selling in a day or two. I get emails every morning with the new listings and some are gone before we can even schedule a showing. Homes in the next higher price bracket are still selling briskly. The homes over a million are of course taking a little longer, but there are many spec homes under construction in the 1.5-3 million range so the developers are certainly banking on that price level moving. I’ve seen quite a few of them sell while still under construction.
DS is closing on his house this week. They had to increase their budget pretty significantly to get what they want. The house they are buying had been on the market maybe 45 days which made us wonder, but we found out that it remained on MLS during the shutdown even though the owner wasn’t allowing any showings. And they first listed at an overly inflated price and had to make an adjustment. I think they are getting it at a fair price. I previewed many houses for them and saw houses that were quite nice sell immediately and houses that I would never recommend also sell very fast. Our agent was even amazed at how fast some really challenged houses sold.
In my suburban neighborhood in Los Angeles, very few homes have been on the market this summer which normally is high season. Since the inventory is scarce and and mortgage rates are at historical lows the homes that are selling are going for asking price or close to it. Definitely a sellers market where I live.
We sold our rental home in a smaller city 3 hours away in June. It was our son’s home while in medical school and went we went to sell it in 2012, we had no buyers, or lookers for that matter. We have been renting it to medical student for 8 years and had decided to try to sell again when this last group graduated.
In January we started working on some repairs and updates that we hadn’t taken care of while renting. Due to the price of the home, our agent felt strongly that many potential buyer would not be able to afford the repairs after purchase, and would need for us to try to recoup in the sale price. I understand putting the money into a house loan, and not trying to come up with cash after buying a home, but I was afraid we would lose money. We had windows that needed replacing due to some wood rot, or broken seals, had to replace the stove/microwave and dishwasher, both of which died the week we decided to begin other repairs! Since we put in new appliances, we needed to paint the kitchen as it looked dingy. We had to shore up the deck, and a few other things, all to the tune or 17K
So house was listed the beginning of March, and you know what happened. I was panicked that we were going to have to eat that 17K and put the house back on the rental market. We had a good bit of traffic, both online and in person and went under contract less that 60 days out, for just 3K less than asking. I thought the asking price was way to much, but guess my agent knew best. She said there was no inventory in that price range, so the house would sell. As the buyers were going for an FHA loan, the appraiser did not appraise the house for the selling price, so we had to settle for another 5K less. This still gave us enough to pay off our mortgage, get back the money we put in, and had some left over. We did not want to be landlords and were happy to get rid of the house at any profit! The house is 25 years old, with much work needed in the next 5-10 years; it will be someone else’s problem now!
We rent a house in northern NJ, within commuting distance to NYC. I’ve heard that houses are selling quickly - but - our house has been for sale since June and only 3 people have come to see it. Its on 2 acres and the property can be subdivided. House is move in ready but there are definitely some things you’d want to fix if you bought it. However, you wouldn’t know that from the listing.
Since the house is for sale, we’ve been looking at other rentals. Rents have definitely dropped a bit. The apartment complexes that are easy commutes to NYC seem to have tons of promotions, in addition to reduced rents.
I think the quick sales are a result of reduced inventory and low interest rates. But, I don’t think that will last as area unemployment rates have skyrocketed and our area is high priced and has high taxes. There is a ton of uncertainty about whether people will have to return to commuting, as soon as that becomes more clear, inventory will increase as people leave to go to lower priced areas.
When youngest lad’s lease was up in Bethesda (MD), he and his wife were given multiple opportunities to choose various other apartments in his complex, often at a lower cost. A few incentives were tossed in too.
A year ago when he was looking they had to snatch what they liked quite quickly. They only had two options (different complexes).
It’s one data point, of course, but if there are other complexes like his, downtown rental places can’t be doing well. Theirs was within easy walking distance of DIL’s work. They’re working from home until at least Jan, so the kids are living with us and saving money until at least then.
Home prices continue to rise in Minneapolis-St. Paul, mostly due to limited inventory. There are more would-be buyers than sellers in the current market. That drives prices up.
I’m a real estate developer in Tennessee, been in the business for over 40 years. Our county population is over 200,000.
Inventory is at historic lows, only 468 homes on the market of which 250 are new construction, mostly unfinished. Our average inventory over the last ten years has been roughly 1,500 homes.
I can’t get lots built quickly enough and am struggling to allocate them fairly to builders. It takes 12-18 months to build a section of lots here, so the supply is fairly inelastic. Prices are soaring, as one might imagine, from raw land to finished homes.
I’m in Northern NJ, I perform CCO inspections in a wealthy community 25 miles from NY City with highly rated school district. Homes are selling on listing days with multiple offers. Average home price is 1.2 million, cheapest home is a $650k knockdown. Home sales are up over same time last year and prices are greatly up. I see the buyers info and a good 50% are coming from NYC, Brooklyn, Hoboken, Jersey City (a flight from city living for sure)
My mom lives in a retirement community outside of Knoxville. She says that they are seeing a lot of people moving there that are still working because they can do it remotely.
I find this trend so puzzling. Are all these people expecting that they will be able to work remotely permanently, even after the pandemic is over? A house is a huge, long term investment. If you’re a New Yorker who is finally taking the plunge to the suburbs that are still within commuting distance, I understand that, but buying upstate when you work in the city? I don’t understand how that pans out long term.
In the case of my mom’s community, I think people have transitioned to 100% remote work and decided to live in a cheaper more temperate area.
I golfed with a woman who was able to do her job remotely. Her husband was also able to live anywhere. This was a couple of years ago. Her whole team was remote and she traveled occasionally which she could do from anywhere. So they built a new home in their desired retirement place. Work for 5-10 years and the house and community is already there.
Another tenant from one of our other rentals called him asking if his place was for sale. Sure it is for the right price. If it sells though, we’re going to have to figure out what else we want to invest in. I’m not convinced stocks, real estate, gold/silver, or pretty much anything else is a good bet right now. Since I do our finances, I’m mulling a lot over. Any guesses from anyone?
A housing contractor he works with told him he’s told all of his clients their project is going to cost 40% more than predicted AND there’s a backlog for lumber, windows, and more that could slow things down for up to a year. (H is the Engineer doing land development, water/wastewater/environmental, etc. His business is booming.)
This means the bathroom, extra office, and extended deck I was thinking of “investing” in with our own house is not likely to happen for a bit. I don’t want to pay 40% extra for it. It’s not worth that to me. I can wait for prices to come down or stabilize.
RVs cost more right now too. Does H get his boat? I still can’t see that as a great investment TBH. Toy, yes, investment? Uh, no. A boat is a hole into which one pours money. Our barn needs painting, but I’m going to guess that will cost a lot more at this point too.
@coralbrook We are outside Nashville and are seeing many young professionals move to our community. Some are from Nashville, others from higher cost areas around the country. Housing prices are much lower here and, yes, many are working from home. We are also seeing locals moving up to larger homes that are better suited to work (and school) from home.
Inflation is becoming an issue, however. Lumber prices are up 80% since March, for example. Builders can’t recoup increases of that magnitude and many are putting down their hammers. In one townhouse development we’re building foundations and will wait for prices to subside before moving on. Unfortunately, that will create more supply issues for consumers and agents.
I left my office and moved home to work in March. I stop in once a week or so to file things or get mail, but don’t think I’ll return.
