Brooklyn - D1 put in an offer for a 3 bedroom this Monday. There were 5 other offers. Today was best and final. D1 went 10% over ask and got selected. I guess there are still a lot of buyers out there in NYC.
I think the apartment was well priced, so I think D1 still got a good buy. They will be able to have 2 kids in the apartment while the kids are young.
That’s great news, oldfort. I’m happy for her.
Our structural engineering business is still going strong. People are building new, renovating, etc. Commercial market is also hot.
The value of the houses in my parents’ neighborhood continues to go up. I hope they can put their house on the market soon, but it looks doubtful.
Boy, I better research those rising costs of materials because I’m starting a big project next month! I had no idea it is that drastic
Yep, just checked. Regular 2x4 up from $3.50 each to $4.60
From what I hear, many employers are figuring out they can operate more cheaply and efficiently with most of their employees working remotely. For one thing, rhey need less office space and equipment like phones, copiers, and the like; those costs are effectively shifted to their employees who for the most part already have those things anyway, so it’s just eliminating redundancies. Working remotely is also cheaper for the employees who have no commuting and parking costs, no (or at least fewer) lunches out, and in many cases little or no need for dress clothes, shoes, etc., which in the long run should moderate demand for wage increases. And some of the biggest savings come in corporate travel costs. Corporations were spending billions each year on airfare, taxis, hotels, and per diems to fly their employees around the country, or in some cases around the world, to attend meetings that can just as easily be handled in a cheap Zoom call. Not to mention the inefficiency of all the work time that’s lost getting there and back, and the inevitable downtime that accompanies any out-of-town travel.
Many smart people are saying work life will never be the same. Companies that don’t adapt to these new realities will place themselves at a competitive disadvantage. And many employees will simply look for other job opportunities rather than going back to the old inefficient and costly ways of doing business which disadvantage the employee as well s the employer.
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H just found out he can “attend” two township meetings on the same night with phone calls and zoom (one each). Before Covid he would have had to choose. Last night that would have been a really tough decision because he was really needed at both to represent his clients.
DIL’s company is WFH until Jan 2021 and is suggesting employees might be able to keep it up longer or actually go in to work on fewer days when they do.
My daughter’s company world wide, is WFH until January 2021, and maybe longer, TBD. Currently they have decided to keep every office, in every city/country WFH; doesn’t sound like that will change. SIL’s company, a step above a start up, they have been around I believe for 8 years, is WFH until the end of the year for now.
When talking to my daughter, I had asked how their companies were handling the pandemic; interesting that both their companies are actually doing very well and employees all still have their jobs. I worry about them as they had just purchased a home right before all this, and purchased a bit more than they had planned. If one of them lost their job, they would not be able to afford the home for long, but would have a back up plan, as they could sell their home in the UK which they are currently renting.
My neighbor is selling her townhome that she has been in for less than 3 year. There are still new homes with the same floor plan on the market, as well as in the building stage. I was surprised to see she is under contract in less than 2 weeks with her asking price just a tad higher than the new builds. Maybe it is the location of our building, which I like better than the others, or maybe she took much less than list price. I also think someone could move in at closing as her parents live in town as well as her fiancee.
I am in northern inland San Diego county and our home is in a good, strong, school district. There was one home for sale in our neighborhood this summer; it went immediately. I don’t know what it went for and I don’t know what the condition was since these homes are about 30 years old. We need our kitchen and baths and floors redone, and were waiting until the kids were done with their schools before remodeling.
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To my surprise, someone knocked on the door that week (late July) and I thought it was a new neighbor. It turns out it was a real estate agent wanting to know if I wanted to sell our home and I told her “No”. She’s said, although I really doubted it, that there was a specific buyer for my home and she said “you have a pool correct?” And I said “we’re not interested in selling.”
There are only about three pools in our neighborhood because of the terrain. We had to dynamite to dig the hole about 30 years ago. That’s expensive and very few lots are large enough to accommodate a pool. (It’s Southern California!) Now, with the pandemic, WFH, and the digit increases in weather, the pools, I guess, have become popular with staying at home. (I guess people don’t realize there’s the expense and hassle and it’s not very “green” to have a pool now, but during the fires, people would throw their China and their silverware into their pools.)
There are only about 100 homes in this section, of the neighborhood, but I know of only three pools, because we all built our pools at the same time, using the same blasting company. Those homes have relatively new owners, before the pandemic, and are right across the street.
My company is in our current lease for another year and a half. We are a small engineering firm with less than 50 people. Our president is already talking about downsizing considerably once the lease is up. HR put out a survey to our staff about WFH after the pandemic and most people said they would like to continue at least 3 days a week at home.
H’s company lease is up in less than a year and they also plan to downsize and allow people more flexibility to WFH after this is over. His company is headquartered in Europe and before Covid they spent a fortune on travel. Now they have realized that people don’t always need to jump on a plane for a meeting.
D2 has been staying with us and WFH. Her company moved into a gorgeous top of the line new office less than 2 years ago, but it is all open workspace with no cubicles or distancing. They have no idea when they will get to go back to the office or how it will be reconfigured for working in the future.
@bclintonk Thanks! That’s so interesting. It will certainly change things for those who are able to WFH permanently. I think it would be so great for young adults who are trying to start families to have the option to live outside of the expensive cities where most of the jobs are.
My son’s experience in Northern VA is similar to @Creekland ’s sons experience in Bethesda MD. When they moved in, they had to rent earlier than they planned, because of low inventory. Now there are something like 40 apartments available in their hi-rise in Arlington, VA, and the price is cheaper than they rented for in January. It’s still over 2K for a 1 BR apt.
My D is giving up her apartment in LA and moving home. She was laid off and has to start all over looking for a job so she doesn’t need the apartment since she will job search remotely. Everyone she knows have left their expensive LA apartments. She went back this last week to start clearing out and she said underground parking garage was half empty now and lots of empty apartments. So I definitely think there’s a flight from expensive urban areas, whether temporary or partially permanent. The rental market is hit hard now because those people can be more transient if even only until next year.
If I was a young renter and someone told me I could work remotely for next 6 months I’d be out the door and try living someplace fun and/or cheap for awhile
Our ds is also in the LA area. He and his roommate have been in their apartment for two years, but have been month-to-month for the last year of that (ever since their first one-year lease expired). They are putting their stuff in storage and doing an AirBnb in Palm Springs for the month of September. Not sure what is going to happen after that. It will not surprise me if they just continue with short-term rentals at least until January. We have told ds he is welcome to come here and stay as long as he likes. He’s thinking about doing that from Thanksgiving until after New Year’s.
Another friend’s daughter who graduated from college with ds lives in DC. She is doing the AirBnb thing for the month of October and then moving “home” to her family of origin until January. She anticipates being able to get a much lower rental rate in the DC area at that time.
My daughter is looking for a rental in Seattle, she’s lived there many years and never seen it where things were not snapped up the same day as listed. This year she has time to consider several, and still cannot make up her mind. One person told her it’s about a 12% vacancy there instead of the prior 1%
San Francisco is seeing a 96% rise year over year in unsold housing inventory. (See the story on SFGate). People are leaving SF.
Wonder where all the SF people r going?
From a chart in our paper over the weekend, for the school district our rentals are in (typical to commute to larger cities in MD), sold house prices in May were up 32%. Actual numbers of sales were down 53%. In some areas not known for commuting both prices and number of sales were down. With prices it was minimal. Numbers were significant.
I wonder if that held for June and July.
I’m listing a 3 bedroom condo for rent this week in coastal central/southern California. Previous tenant left right before the covid lockdown in March and it has been vacant ever since. We didn’t want to keep lowering the rent so removed it from the market for 3 months.
Our daughter had been living at home but had to move out because she works with other people and we are still trying to stay in isolation. The rental condo will fund her apartment rent because she can’t afford it on her own.
I’m sure some are leaving the state altogether, but I know someone with rental property in SF and they say, anecdotally, people are leaving for cities/counties like Marin, Santa Cruz, Napa, Carmel, etc. And I’ve heard the Lake Tahoe area has also seen a surge in buying/renting interest.
@bristlecone If you don’t mind, curious as to what a 3br rental in Southern Cal goes for? I’m in burbs outside NYC and 3BR condo rental in a good school district goes for $4k+ per month. Weaker districts go for $2800 plus.