The Housing Market

[holmes435]

We're in the market to buy a house next spring / summer.

I noticed a number of the houses in the area here have gone unsold for the past few months, and just saw a realtor friend in California comment on lots of expired listings in his area.

CNBC reporting NYC is moving into a buyer's market - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/30/nyc-rea ... -sell.html

Interest rates are hitting 5% for mortgages.

Anyone here close to the real estate market? Any clue as to what may be in our future?

[ardilla secreta]

You don’t say where you’re looking. As to any decreases in NYC or CA, even a 25% decrease still puts one in a high priced market. My friend and his wife rent a condo in Old Town Pasadena owned by a Chinese national who’s never seen it. Not uncommon. They will retire when their lease is up in August. It’s highly unlikely they’ll stay in CA as they’d rather spend money on travel than expenses RE.

Not sure if rising mortgage rates will have a big effect since there are a lot of cash buyers and no sign of rates going down. Was reading an article recently that made mention of rates in 1982 of 18%.

I live in a hot market in the Rust Belt. At some point I’d like to downsize to an Atomic ranch. I could sell my house in a week with multiple offers, but inventory is down 30% from last year. That’s good for selling, but challenging for buying. We’ll see.

[HooDat]

so far, the baby boomers have propped up the market by up-sizing rather than downsizing. Can the millennials bail the market out? I am not so sure. If not, when the boomer's go to sell, the Gen-X'ers will watch their retirement (home equity) go down the drain.

Any real estate guru's have a different view? because I am certainly not a guru.....

[SCLaxAttack]

We're in the market to buy a house next spring / summer.

I noticed a number of the houses in the area here have gone unsold for the past few months, and just saw a realtor friend in California comment on lots of expired listings in his area.

CNBC reporting NYC is moving into a buyer's market - https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/30/nyc-rea ... -sell.html

Interest rates are hitting 5% for mortgages.

Anyone here close to the real estate market? Any clue as to what may be in our future?

I sold residential real estate in MA for fifteen years until retiring and moving to NC last year.

- To paraphrase Tip O’Neill, all residential real estate performance is local. If you want to know what your market is doing now, and what your property is worth now, seek out a local real estate salesperson.

- If you ask that salesperson what they think your property will be worth next year, and they say anything other than “I don’t know”, find yourself another salesperson. Whenever I was asked that question I said “if I knew I wouldn’t be helping you buy or sell, I’d be doing it for myself.” There’s a reason financial prospectuses have caveats, and the same should go for real estate. You can’t time the financial markets, and you can’t time the residential real estate market.

- There’s only one reason why listings expire - they’re overpriced. The key to residential real estate isn’t “location, location, location”, it’s “price, price, price.”

- If you’re only speaking about your primary or vacation residence, stop looking at it in purely financial terms. You also got enjoyment and social value from it. I also always told buyers that if you are only wondering about what a house will be worth next year or the year after, buy a stock.

- Interest rates - even at 5% - are at near record lows. Yes, in the early 80s rates were in the high teens. I bought my first house in 1982 through special NY state financing offered to first time home buyers at the incredibly low rate of 13 5/8%! In the county I bought in, the maximum purchase price of a house purchased under that program was $42,930.