<p>I see the more expensive areas in Marin County up 10 percent or so in the the last year.</p>
<p>I was told that areas in the cheaper areas of the bay area…homes that were priced around 100,000 are now priced around 150,000. Many of these homes were bought by institutions.</p>
<p>It is still difficult to get a loan. </p>
<p>A friend of mine with partners tried to buy a lot in Burlingame, Ca. Burlingame is a very expensive place to live. The lot was offered approximately at 895,000. They bid over the asking price… 1,050,000.
The accepted offer was for 1,200,000. Over 300,000 more than the asking price.</p>
<p>A friend of mine owns a house in Antioch Ca. That area has been very hard hit. His home value dropped from 700,000 to 250,000. Now, he thinks it may be worth 350,000.</p>
<p>I sold my house a year and a half ago in Southern Marin. I think that house is up about 10 percent in price since I sold it. Maybe a little more. Sold the bottom. The place I bought is probably up less than 10 percent, but that place never got hit like other places. The upside is less where I live now. </p>
<p>There is no inventory for sale. If something is priced close to market. It is gone.</p>
<p>Prices are up where we live. I just looked at a list of home sales in our neighborhood over the last year. First of all, very few people have put their homes up for sale. Low supply but high demand due to our schools being a huge draw. Some homes sold in just a few days. Quite a few sold for above asking price. Our area did not see the huge price drops that other parts of the country experienced. My estimate is that prices dropped about 20% here and are on their way back up again. The average price of home in our neighborhood is about $650K, but one home sold for nearly $1M.</p>
<p>They are going up, but still aren’t quite at the levels (which I thought were crazy) that they were in 2007 when our house might have sold for 2.5 to 2.8 times what we’d paid for it in late 1999. I think we might get 2x now, probably not quite yet. The two nearby houses are smaller, but have bigger lots, so hard to know exactly how they’d compare.</p>
<p>Here in coastal SoCal, prices are up as well. I looked on Zillow, and it seems they are up maybe 7 or 8% in my area from last year. We also have very little inventory. Anything that is in decent shape gets snapped up, it seems.</p>
<p>I have been fascinated with real estate for over 25 years. Guess I should have gone into real estate. One of my favorite shows is House Hunters. I love to see what homes look like in different parts of the country and how much they cost. Recently, I watched an episode where a 27-year-old middle school teacher bought a 4,000 sf home in the suburbs of Atlanta for $140K. It was his first home. I could not believe it!! A home of that size would probably cost 6 times as much in our neighborhood.</p>
<p>In our affluent suburb prices stabilized over the last year at about 75% of the peak values from 2007 and recently seem to be ticking up about 5% or so. Again - it seems to be a matter of slim inventory and the repos having been wring out of (or being held off of) the market. There’s definitely a premium for a conventional - i.e., not short or bank owned - sale. Two houses in my neighborhood - same model - sold within the past three months, and the short sale was $50K lower than the conventional one.</p>
<p>Prices have stopped falling and there are sellers if you want to sell your place. I don’t see evidence of a bounce locally. I do expect that to improve over time as we have companies moving into the area. I think that defense cutbacks and threats of defense cutbacks have had a negative effect in our area. I’d say that there has been strong retail growth (don’t people ever tire of shopping?) but those jobs are lower-quality compared to defense jobs.</p>
<p>Prices have been slowly going up the last year where I am in upstate NY. Last spring and into summer (our selling season) homes weren’t staying on the market in my town more than a few weeks at most. I expect more of the same this spring and summer. I live in a pretty stable market so we don’t soar or crash like the more bubbly areas of the country.</p>
<p>Came here straight from browsing a real estate website. I am surprised how many homes are listed for <$100k in Charlotte, although they are tiny, old, and probably in so so neighborhoods. I saw many listed as “under contract.” In my neighborhood homes are selling and prices are going up. I was really surprised at the asking price of a house recently listed on my street - it seemed high - but it sold quickly! I still don’t think our house would sell for what we paid for it in 2008, but we aren’t moving. </p>
<p>The economics in this area scream out for the investor. The rental market is strong, low vacancies and rents rising, while prices are very low. Brokers tell prospective buyers that it is cheaper to buy than to rent, which also means it is a good deal for investors to buy and rent. </p>
<p>We looked at some in-town condos last week, just thinking about buying as an investment and renting. There still seem to be some great values out there but things are moving fast, compared to a year or 2 ago when you couldn’t sell anything.</p>
<p>Zillow is inaccurate.
In the two blocks surrounding our house, prices range from $300,000 to $1.5 million. Most are $400,000 to $700,000
I dont think so.
Then again inventory is low, and apparently everyone wants to move to Seattle.
If a two bedroom condo is going for the same price as a small house in the same neighborhood - no wonder the condos aren’t moving.</p>
<p>Zillow was used as a reference upthread- otherwise, i wouldnt have mentioned it.
What I see is no inventory. People are buying liveble homes and tearing them down for the land. Which twenty years ago, you would mainly see that only in premium view locations - like on the bluff minutes from downtown.
Now you see it in blue collar& lt industrial, neighborhoods.</p>
<p>I see that I’m going to be waiting a loooong time to be able to afford anything bigger than a 2 BR/2BA condo or a house in the DC area. Rental prices are higher than some mortgages, but location is everything</p>
<p>Just outside of Philadelphia, houses are moving much more quickly than a couple of years ago, <em>if</em> they’re priced right. Homes in the $500K - $1 million range are selling pretty well, but there’s still a lot of inventory out there. On the other hand, it’s not uncommon to see a house that was priced at $3 million finally sell, after sitting for 2+ years, for $2 million or less. Some owners have taken a while to realize that it’s not 2005 any more; prices are going up slightly, but are nowhere near pre-recession levels.</p>
<p>Crazy bidding wars are back on the westside of LA. Friends who recently moved here just heard from their realtor - their home has appreciated 14% since they bought it in July (and they purchased over asking price then, competing with 8 other offers).</p>