OT - COVID and residential real estate

GrateEggspectations

Just curious.....

What kinds of trends is your city seeing since the start of the pandemic?

Dondgc

If you mean how is the residential real estate market, it’s on fire in New Orleans. As it is almost everywhere else in the country. 

Gulfcoastguy

I imagine everyone who has a job is trying to lock down a 30 year mortgage at the current interest rates and house prices. My nephew was looking at houses and it seemed to be that way.

GrateEggspectations

@Dondgc: Can you give a sense of average percentage increase?

JohnInCarolina

GrateEggspectations said:

Just curious.....

What kinds of trends is your city seeing since the start of the pandemic?

Homes aren't on the market for much more than a day or two around here.  Multiple offers above asking is the norm.  

kl8ton

Pandemic hasn't changed our trends. 

For the past 4-6 years it has been crazy.  House lists and sells within a few days.  When I bought a house in 2014 - it hit the market on a Thursday, I looked at it Friday (one of 20 showings that weekend) and put in an offer.  My wife was out of town.  The sellers asked for best and final offers by the following Tuesday night and I was able to take her through before informing them that I had already submitted my best.  I got the house.  Today, I am "subscribed" to the listing service for our area and by the time I browse the homes for sale (maybe a day after I get the email) most are under contract.

I think there was some type of study/report done for our area indicating our house prices are way higher than the household income should be able to support, however, houses keep selling quick and many times, thousands and thousands over asking.  

Many buyers are "skipping inspections" in their offers as a way to entice sellers to pick their offer.

REB17

My son closed on a house last week and the lender told him that out of 22 loans closed last month, 17 were six figures over asking price. 

kl8ton

GrateEggspectations said:

@Dondgc: Can you give a sense of average percentage increase?



The last house I sold (End of 2018) could sell in a day if listed for 20% more.  

Dondgc

this this link might be useful. Not sure if it is limited to subscribers:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-housing-market-is-crazier-than-its-been-since-2006-11617422403

Don

SGH

I read this sort of thing and it really makes me wonder. Supposedly the virus has totally destroyed the economy. Everyone is so broke that they need stimulus checks from the government just to survive. Yet they have a few million to spare and buy houses. 

On the flip side of that I am told that I made way to much to qualify for a stimulus check. I certainly don’t have the money to go house shopping. What am I doing wrong? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. 

hoosier_egger

If you aren’t offering 10% over asking price you aren’t playing in Bloomington, IN
Nuts! Glad I bought last year. 

GrateEggspectations

SGH said:

I read this sort of thing and it really makes me wonder. Supposedly the virus has totally destroyed the economy. Everyone is so broke that they need stimulus checks from the government just to survive. Yet they have a few million to spare and buy houses. 

On the flip side of that I am told that I made way to much to qualify for a stimulus check. I certainly don’t have the money to go house shopping. What am I doing wrong? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. 

Maybe you’re just spending too much on your Round Houses (no pun intended).

Canugghead

For my neck of the woods median price for detached homes went up 22.6% in one year.

GrateEggspectations

ColtsFan said:

If you aren’t offering 10% over asking price you aren’t playing in Bloomington, IN
Nuts! Glad I bought last year. 

Good timing. Looks like you’re on a nice, big property. I also bought last year, at the very outset of the pandemic. 

I find that the more important indicator is sale price. In my city, a lot of places will come  up exceptionally under market price, just to drive the largest segment of buyers into the pool. 

SGH

GrateEggspectations said:

Maybe you’re just spending too much on your Round Houses (no pun intended).

Not possible. I watch their website and I buy “seconds”. At most I spend 1,000 a year. That would be the maximum and not often. 

stlcharcoal

Booming in St Louis.....inventory is maybe 30 days.  I'm a part time Realtor, and anything in the nicer suburbs goes for asking or more within 48 hrs.  Everybody is scrambling to lock in the low rates, and get bigger houses for home offices and big backyards.  This boom for lofts and condos in the city might have died, as now everyone has proven they don't need to go into the office any more to make sales, have conferences, and do business.  And with commerce shipping to online, rural is going to grow even faster since you can now just get about everything you ever wanted even though you're hours from a city.

Over New Years in Key West, I met a marketing director for Ford that lives in a small RV......drives somewhere new every week.  Does the exact same job, makes the same money, and not stuck in Detroit 12 months a year.  Times are a changin.

MGStheWolf

I sold 4 houses in less than one week. minimum of 9 offers for each, lowest one went for 110K over asking.  My houses were in Northern Virginia, (1) Scottsdale, Arizona (2), and Solana Beach, California, (1)  To answer your question, Market is on fire  my recommendation is if you can sell, do it now, the crash is coming  

nolaegghead

It is also expensive to build right now.  Steel is over 2x nominal historic prices, wood is up, labor up, supply chain issues still rippling. etc.

SGH

nolaegghead said:

It is also expensive to build right now.  Steel is over 2x nominal historic prices

This will definitely get much worse when we are using batteries and windmills instead of gas to make steel. I have it on good authority that windmill powered blast furnaces are not very efficient or productive. 

dmchicago

nolaegghead said:

It is also expensive to build right now.  Steel is over 2x nominal historic prices, wood is up, labor up, supply chain issues still rippling. etc.

he said “wood is up”. 

ryantt

In my area (Northeast Oh) houses sell in what seems like a week.   Rates are low and prices are inflated... 

nolaegghead

SGH said:

nolaegghead said:

It is also expensive to build right now.  Steel is over 2x nominal historic prices

This will definitely get much worse when we are using batteries and windmills instead of gas to make steel. I have it on good authority that windmill powered blast furnaces are not very efficient or productive. 

Yeah, you're right.  We need be the industrialized Amish and stick with 19th century technology.  If we want to see the 21st century, we can always travel to another country.

lousubcap

We've seen this movie before.  Selling high is great but then if you have to buy the great cost is there as well.  There was a housing bubble crash almost two decades ago.
Not trying to rain on the parade but unless you cash out and move to a much lower buy area...

rcone

My small neighborhood in Milwaukee has been capped for a few years. Property taxes are so insane compared to the surrounding areas that prices seem to have stagnated. 

Ike

SGH said:

I read this sort of thing and it really makes me wonder. Supposedly the virus has totally destroyed the economy. Everyone is so broke that they need stimulus checks from the government just to survive. Yet they have a few million to spare and buy houses. 

On the flip side of that I am told that I made way to much to qualify for a stimulus check. I certainly don’t have the money to go house shopping. What am I doing wrong? Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. 

I figured out way too late in life that I was approaching things the wrong way.  I was trying to make money, yet everyone that I worked for complained daily about how much money they they were losing, yet living an exponentially better life than I was.

nolaegghead

On the up side, municipalities will be increasing revenue.  On the downside, this gentrification will hurt living costs for grandma (people on fixed incomes) and the poor.

caliking

I don’t get the notion of paying above asking price for a house, let alone paying $110K over asking. There’s no such thing as a house I MUST have. A couple of times a realtor has suggested we offer above asking price to be competitive, etc. or that they heard that the sellers have MANY offers, yada yada. 

There are plenty of houses out there. SWMBO sees it the same way, whenever we have been looking for a house to buy.

Having said that, the market seems to be good in these parts. At least 3 friends have bought and sold homes within weeks of listing, which was not the case a few years ago. 

SGH

caliking said:

I don’t get the notion of paying above asking price for a house, let alone paying $110K over asking. There’s no such thing as a house I MUST have. 

Me agreeing with a liberal is more rare than a snowball in Dixie. But I agree with the above 1000%. 

dmourati

caliking said:

I don’t get the notion of paying above asking price for a house, let alone paying $110K over asking. There’s no such thing as a house I MUST have. A couple of times a realtor has suggested we offer above asking price to be competitive, etc. or that they heard that the sellers have MANY offers, yada yada. 

There are plenty of houses out there. SWMBO sees it the same way, whenever we have been looking for a house to buy.

Having said that, the market seems to be good in these parts. At least 3 friends have bought and sold homes within weeks of listing, which was not the case a few years ago. 

In my neck of the woods the realtors intentionally list properties substantially *below* their value to attract more buyers. We offered above asking and still had to come up to get the place. That was no fun.

Canugghead

...and create bidding war.

CornfedMA

We sold a house this fall. 3 days on market, $55k over asking in a tiny town over an hour from the city. Moved into our beach house full time. We’ll stay here for a couple years while the market cools off. I can’t stomach the idea of massively overpaying for something right now.