<p>Real estate in the nicer neighborhoods in Portland seem to be on the upswing, but housing in nearby rural areas such as ours is flat. The same houses have been on the MLS for several years now. Some come and go and are back on again, with little movement in the price.</p>
<p>Aquamarine: I too love House Hunters and am fascinated at how far the dollar goes in Atlanta and some midwestern cities. I’m also horrified at how little it buys you in places such as D.C. I use HH International as my travelogue.</p>
<p>We moved to the Charlotte area a few months ago. We looked at two houses before buying the one we did. Both houses had 2 or 3 buyers we were competing with. We actually offered over asking price because we knew someone else wanted the house. Our offer was accepted; however, when the appraisal came back it did not appraise high enough so we ended up negotiating with the seller and we able to get it for what we would have offered if we had not been competing with other buyers…we really love the house and area…we are about 20 min North of downtown Charlotte…Prices are going up. There are still just a few lots in our neighborhood…the builder has been raising the prices, and they are selling.</p>
<p>Yes. Had an invite from the store which put on the fashion show. It was a lot of fun but, tbh, i didn’t recognize any of the “celebs” who were there. We did get our pictures taken by the NYTimes but laughed that after they googled our names to see if we were anybody we would end up on the cutting room floor (or whatever the equivalent is in newspaperspeak.)</p>
<p>The property was amazing even though it was unfurnished and the views spectacular. They had another clocktower epi where it was furnished and even more amazing. </p>
<p>Real estate prices in NYC make my head spin.</p>
<p>Just read an article in our local paper. Real estate prices in our region are up over the past year. Some areas have seen 15-20% price increases. Due to pent up demand and very low inventory, it has now become a seller’s market. Inventory is almost at a 10-year low.</p>
<p>One of the few smart things I’ve done-- and it was probably dumb luck–was to buy a house in the Yale neighborhood. Universities are somewhat recession resistant, and the profs looking to buy a house were not all laid off as in other industries, or had their income cut drastically. In my neighborhood, it was hard to tell there was a housing recession. I wonder if this is a general rule about college towns/neighborhoods. </p>
<p>And I agree with those whom point to the failings of Zillows. It had my house listed as having .5 bathrooms. And the price was way off compared to the actual market.</p>
<p>Housing sales statistics can be deceiving. Florida small cities Tallahassee and Gainesville each have large numbers of state employees at large state universities, and too, Tallahassee is the state capital. The two towns weathered Florida’s real estate downturn much better than most of Florida the last seven years because of the stable employment with so many state workers. If looking at sales percentage increases statewide from a year ago, Tallahassee and Gainesville seem to lag behind residential sales increases the past year in other Florida areas, but actually the two towns are about where they always were and other Florida cities showing big percentage gains in sales are really just improving from horrible to a little better!</p>
<p>I haven’t seen the show, Aquamarine. What night does it air?</p>
<p>Emilybee, that’s amazing you were at the party. What did you think?</p>
<p>Watched a very uninspiring episode of HH Renovation the other day while I was on the treadmill. I hated what the couple did to their house. They spent 20K on decorating and doing minor repairs. I guess I like the big reveals.</p>
<p>99, the party was a typical cocktail party and I hardly saw the cast of SNY except for a brief glimpse of one of the realtors, who seemed to be in a tizzy over something when we were getting into the apartment’s glass elevator (which was very cool.) The apartment is three stories plus a roof top terrace. The space was amazing - with 360% degree views through these 4 huge clock windows and it overlooks the East River and the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Was stunning - especially at night. </p>
<p>We didn’t stay until the end and instead went to eat dinner at the restaurant in the building.</p>
<p>On the news this morning, they said the DC metro area housing market has gone up 6.5% in the past year…and that’s after not tanking much when the bubble burst</p>
<p>In the nicer neighborhoods in Honolulu, prices never really dropped much. There have been bidding wars even during the mortgage crisis. People stopped listing their homes when the market wasn’t so hot, and prices are starting to climb again. The house we bought over 20 years ago has not yet doubled in value, maybe increased only about 50% or more (we bought at the peak).</p>
<p>My sibblings bought in nicer neighborhoods and have all seen their homes more than double in value during the same time period, but they have also spent money building/rebuilding. We just put in a new roof, hardwood floors and photovoltaic.</p>
<p>The number of forclosures is decreasing, especially in the nicer neighborhoods.</p>
<p>“Prices vary from city to city, but CT is a physically small state and the price trends are pretty much the same throughout the state. I own 2 houses in CT and one in RI, all three are losing value - some faster than others however.”</p>
<p>I don’t know where these houses are located but our experience has been that Greenwich, Westport, Darien, etc. are quite distinct from Bridgeport or New Haven or Newtown or Hartford or Storrs. CT may be a small state but I don’t think it’s right to portray it as monolithic. Fairfield County is affected by New York in a way that the rest of the state is not. New Haven is a mix with Yale affecting some areas of the city and low income areas abounding in others. Hartford is entirely different from either area. Even so, when I looked at market statistics, it appeared to me that sale prices were up from Westport to West Hartford and that Fairfield had experienced a 21% jump in sales prices from January 2012 to January 2013.</p>
<p>I read an article a couple of weeks ago that said real estate prices in the Bay Area are back up to their (high) levels of 2008. Which means people are spending a million dollars on tear-downs again.</p>
<p>Just heard someone call into a radio talk show this afternoon. They live in the SF bay area. They said the real estate market has become a frenzy. The few houses that go up for sale are being snatched up by investors paying cash. Bidding wars are common with houses sometimes selling for $100-150K over the asking price. She is extremely frustrated because they keep getting outbid. They don’t want to get caught up in the bidding war frenzy. I can certainly sympathize with her.</p>
<p>And yes, I see a frenzy here in the South Bay. The house around the corner from us sold 2 weeks ago for around $150K over asking, with multiple offers coming in as soon as it hit the MLS. </p>
<p>The problem is low inventory. There are exactly three single family homes on the market in my zip code. People who would otherwise be thinking of downsizing are afraid to sell because they don’t think they’ll find anything available to buy.</p>