This insane housing market.

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The house across the street that is under construction right now (not even framed yet just foundation poured and garage area prepped) finally has a starting price (which could change once finishings are fully complete or if someone purchases it before the house is fully complete) is listed as $716K

Y'all that was like what the upper level homes (actually a tad more) were in our neighborhood was when we moved in in 2014, we're just in the lowest part of the neighborhood. It's about 100 sq feet more than ours but 1 less bedroom and bathroom but a half bath added (so new home is 4 bedrooms 3.5 bath) 2 story home (like ours).

Just nuts. And I thought $600Ks was crazy for our street. Typically reverse 1 1/2 homes are pricier to begin with because they are larger in footprint but oh no this 2 story is crazy high. I think part of the increase in price is the sharp drop off in the back, I think they had to put a retaining wall in and we saw them driving pilings for the back. The ground is quite rocking in this neighborhood that sits on top of a hill.

This house is like $340K more than ours not quite double the costs but getting up there.

 

[LilyWDW]

I took a couple weeks off due to other stuff happening in my life (like a car accident) and needing a mental break. Today was my first day back out on the market. Put an offer in this afternoon but didn't go too far over asking because of comps in the area. Could this mean I don't get the house? Yep, but I am not willing to make a bad financial decision. While I do plan to pretty much live in this house until I can no longer live alone, life likes to throw things at you with no notice.

 

[Miffy]

I took a couple weeks off due to other stuff happening in my life (like a car accident) and needing a mental break. Today was my first day back out on the market. Put an offer in this afternoon but didn't go too far over asking because of comps in the area. Could this mean I don't get the house? Yep, but I am not willing to make a bad financial decision. While I do plan to pretty much live in this house until I can no longer live alone, life likes to throw things at you with no notice.

Good luck to you! Let us know the outcome.

 

[RamblingMad]

Home prices by me are up $250k since 2019. The market is nuts.

 

[Immadismom]

Two weeks ago we made an offer of $16k over asking on a house we really loved. We got outbid. Don’t know by how much yet, but it doesn’t really matter. We are also in the boat of not wanting to significantly overpay, knowing it’ll take years & years to recoup our investment By buying at the top of the market.

We were supposed to see another house today that looked very promising. Listed on Friday. Under contract by last night.

We have about 8 weeks to find a house. Our landlord is willing to work with us for a little extra time if needed to close, but we need to get under contract.

We have a showing scheduled for tomorrow for a house coming on the market tomorrow.

 

[barkley]

My house is worth one million and property taxes are $3500. Thank you California and prop 13. Somehow than never gets mention in the California bashing articles

the crazy thing for us-our former home in ca for property tax purposes when we owned it in '06 was valued at less than 50% of what our current home for property tax purposes is currently valued at (they reevaluate here every year) YET we pay 15% LESS than we were paying back in '06. prop 13 certainly helps allot with property taxes in california but i can't imagine how much we would be paying there now.

 

[tvguy]

Housing prices are nuts. Even more nuts, the number of people at least here, paying cash for those houses.

 

[NotUrsula]

Housing prices are nuts. Even more nuts, the number of people at least here, paying cash for those houses.

Right now very few people are paying "real" cash, as in money they actually had waiting in an account somewhere. The folks who had it in their pockets made their purchases a year ago, and now the sellers have gotten spoiled, so there are now mortgage brokerages that do a pre-approval for you, and then when you find a house you like, they bid to buy it, and then sell it to you for what they paid, carrying back the actual mortgage. Story on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/06/1061...-a-house-with-cash-with-this-new-type-of-loan

 

[Skippy918]

I just looked at my neighborhood on Zillow and homes are valued in the upper 6 figures to low 7 figures. When we built here almost 20 years ago, prices were from the mid 200k to low 400k.

 

[Disneylover99]

The average price in the area is 1.4 million. Most homes in the area are 20-35 years old with small backyards and very little space between houses. I would never have believed these prices were even possible a few years ago.

A home down the road from me was listed at 1.3 million and just sold for over 2 million. Crazy.

 

[NotUrsula]

Wildest one I've seen recently: a house in what was once the segregated section of St. Petersburg, FL (and which is still a fairly high-crime, economically depressed neighborhood). In 2013 it sold for just under $9K. The flipper who bought it put it up for sale at $24K and could not sell it, so it went to rental stock. They last put it up for sale 14 months ago for $84/sq.ft. Now they want $284/sq.ft. (It has been renovated inside, and it looks nice enough, but it's still a 1200 sq ft former rental house with one bathroom in a relatively rough neighborhood, and has just about zero curb appeal.)

The avg. annual household income in that zip code is $50K. Almost no one who already lives there can realistically afford $315K, so it is likely to become a rental home owned by an out of town investment firm.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

So our property valuations came out for the county and the news article said 95% of our county had an increase in valuation amount (usually it's high percentage that increases but dang it's like all of them). That's a county that with the last census documents had almost 610K residents. State law is valuations are based off of fair market value as of Jan 1st of each year.

The average increase was 11%. Ours was 8% or 39K. I think last year it was 3%.

 

[leebee]

Our tax rate is $30.34 per thousand. House just reassessed in the spring 2021 at $245K (we paid $193000, which is what is assessed at three years ago). You do the math... almost $7500 in taxes for a 2000 sq.ft., 115 year old house on 0.25acres in Orono, ME. THANKFULLY we have a homestead exemption which brings that down slightly...

 

[mrodgers]

I, too, wonder how people can afford the big prices. I saw an article a couple of days ago that estimated how much house one could afford. The article said something along the lines of if your household income is $75K (before taxes) you could afford a $350K house. Really? Is this because you'd never eat or buy another pair of pants again? Or because your kids make so much money mowing lawns and being social media influencers that they buy the groceries?

I'm not liking paying $200k for a house. Even that would be a whole paycheck on a $75k salary.

Luckily I am looking to get back out of near town, back to the country where I can do the things I do to live. Prices never skyrocketed, but places have been going fast out out in the sticks as well.