Would love to hear other people’s experiences. My wife and I started looking for houses around Denver 6 months ago and the outlook is unbelievably grim. Very little inventory (probably because people are afraid to move due to how difficult it is to buy a house). Every house on the market appears to be a flip, meaning it probably has a lot of underlying issues. Every 3 bedroom house in good condition pushes 700k. When a house comes in at a good price, the potential buyers push the price 20 percent higher than the listing price. And sellers expect you waive inspections and take on the appraisal gap, which could be another 10-75k at closing! my wife and I make good money and I’m just bewildered at how anyone is buying their first house with a major city address. Things seem absolutely unsustainable, but what the fuck do I know.
That’s about where we are at. Our apartment is in a great part of Denver, but obviously we want a house/yard etc. but with the rates going way up, lack of inventory, and prices, it just seems like the absolute worst time to buy
Yeah i had a house basically gifted to me (not actually but a friend wanted out of chicago and they sold me the house with like 60k of immediate equity) or i would have never bought a house can’t wait to flip it and use that equity to move to cali in a few years
But while I want to pause our house search for a while, given that clearly there won’t be any government examination of the issue, it could just get worse and worse
Thx There's no win because rent prices will go up to match how shitty and expensive it is to buy a house. Fucking boomers need to go fuck off to retirement homes.
I've been trying to help an OOS friend find a home in LA since January - basically every offer they place get's significantly outbid by all cash offers going way over list even if it's a fixer-upper.
Honestly great thread idea. The area I want to live in was absurd before covid and I am kicking myself for waiting but you can’t predict this crap so I’m just continuing to bank money until I can just do whatever I want. Single so not in a rush although I’d like to just stop paying rent to someone else. It’s tough to afford a decent place where I’m comfortable living at this point in my life on a single income and I’m definitely not poor. Looking forward to hearing others experiences. Thinking about possibly getting a condo since I’m gone a lot.
i saw one of the shittiest houses known to man basically falling apart completely sell for 700k last week and it was 1br 1bath 900 sq ft lmao
That’s certainly on the table. But obviously tough to swallow. We got really close to buying a house for 650k that needed a complete roof replacement, 10k for furnace / A/C, and much more. Had to slap myself out of my desperation to buy.
Yep, my realtor has said she has seen an ungodly amount of cash offers swoop in and still houses from her clients. Just crushing. Are these just coming from LLC’s or are super rich moving into these areas?
We had friends who bought out here sight unseen about 1.5 years ago (they were in Nashville but Looking for a home out here) in a neighborhood we are looking at. 2 BR, 2 bath, nice home, 450k. Since then, the value has gone well into 550k area. Just had a kid. Want to upgrade but literally can’t sell their house for enough money to buy one somewhere else in Denver.
My sister just sold her first house and is moving into a different one on a different side of the suburbs. The buyer of the house they're selling dropped the inspection requirement in order to get it. Insane
My wife inherited part of a dilapidated house in Burbank (LA suburb) - and we are the only ones in the family that live out here so we had to deal with the sale. Was initially listed for 800k and it sold for $1.6 cash - the buyer is going to demo the entire house and build a new one. Bonkers.
a lot of brokerages popped up that give people the cash to make cash offers on houses recently and they just charge a fee of the total price of the house
got lucky and got a great deal on a condo exactly what we wanted right at the bottom of rates and the covid drought of buyers locally condo markets dont seem to be half as crazy as detached single family homes
In laws recently sold and said that 75% of the bids were from funds that were looking to turn the house into a rental. Would bid 30k+ over asking and try to use the inspection to drive the price back down.
Been looking for 2 years. Upped our budget about 30% over that time and are seeing the same quality houses, and now w higher interest rates. Missed out on a house 6 weeks ago going 75k over asking we weren’t even close. it’s extremely depressing.
nah we had no interest in a house, we love our neighborhood we were renting in and had been casually looking for about a year. legit had stopped looking and was content renting another year before we found it. we love condo life, just fits what we want.
Yes got lucky and got the first offer we put in got unlucky and had like $18k in bathroom repairs from a terrible contractor and the seller only agreed to cover like $8k
Yeah i mean a majority of buyers looking to bnb a house in a major city best bet right now if you don’t want to deal with that shit is settle for something 30 mins- an hour from where you actually want to be blows
It seems like a combo but - but several of the people that have swooped my friend's offers are definitely large companies.
What’s even more fucked up than the housing market is the renters market in places like LA and NYC People legit bidding on shitty apartments Fucking landlords
Not familiar with the Denver market, but what do you building options look like? My wife and I had been looking at a new house for a while and just said fuck it and built. Happy with the result thus far.
Good thread. Just moved into a rental and watching the listing price of houses right now, after buying one ~6 years ago, is absolutely bonkers.
Good for those companies that this is something that is politically unattractive and will get ignored forever. GOP will just say that’s what happens when you try to live near some liberal metropolis. And democrats are too old and beholden to big donor interests to care.
Just don’t wave inspections which seems to be a thing people are frequently doing to get their bid accepted, that’s just crazy to me
luckily locally the yimby's got some juice so hoping that pays off over the next few years for folks. auto upzoned all lots to allow duplexes, etc. do think it'll be hyper local fixes because the federal politics of it are impenetrable, or cities will be like SF and just hollow out the affordability and they'll be playgrounds for the rich exclusively
Jacksonville isn’t the most desirable relocation area but a 1400sqft 3/1.5 directly across the culdesac from my rental just hit the market. It backs up to a major highway so your back door looks at one of those giant brown walls that do little to keep sound out. It’s poorly flipped, I’m sure and is listed at 320k. That was a 180k house 3 years ago.
you can add nyc and LA to that list already chicago and Denver will get there eventually maybe seattle
yeah I wouldn’t buy right now if you don’t need to. I bought about a year and a half ago and paid too much I’m sure but my interest rate is 2.6%. we thought about selling and capitalizing on the market but there’s nowhere better to go
dang, not liking your time in Chicago? And my rent is up 40% over the last three years, I'd really like to not do that anymore but threads like this are why I'm barely considering that avenue
I’d love for some big news organization to cover the large group of homeowners who are reluctant to sell and what that means for the market. I know a few people in your situation. truly impossible to know how long this will go on
hard to compare the benefit of lower mortgage rates in six to twelve months against the potential price increases over the same time period wrt holding off or buying
The house next door to me just sold for like 6.4 million cash (the house with the parking ticket/towing happy daughter) I don't even think about looking for something to purchase in this area.
before I closed on this one I placed offers on 6 others. when I sold my first house a few months before then, I had 50 showings in 2.5 days and 22 offers. this shit is nuts and couldn’t imagine trying now. so many people are going to be house poor
It’s not really that. I love chicago but i definitely preferred living in downtown Dallas like i used to. It basically lines up with the ideology of this thread I’d stay in chicago but the south side is full of some pretty terrible racists. My neighborhood anyways. I know i wont be able to buy on the north side anytime soon, so the idea of buying in some random town somewhat close to a major city in California looks like the most appealing option to me. I’ll work remote no matter where i live anyways
I mean you can always refinance but it seems like there’s going to be a shortage for a while. if the bubble bursts people aren’t going to sell and there will still be a shortage