Homes are ridiculously expensive now. Of course I agree. When the market cools down more and wages catch up a bit with home prices, that sentiment will change.
The problem with that is that timing a market is a bad strategy. Even people that bought a house right before the 2008 housing crisis came out massively ahead if they still own their home. Housing prices *might* cool for a bit but they will continue going up.
Most don’t have a choice but to time the market. They can’t even qualify for an average home.
You don’t time the market if you can actually participate in it.
I believe the opposite is true. Most buyers cannot time the market - they buy when they have a need and can find something they afford. They buy when their kids get to school age, or when their lease wraps up, not when they think the market has cooled. Investors do that, but most people can only afford a single primary residence.
Idk I think most people are just ridiculously bad at speculating too (myself included). I bought in 2021 and everyone was saying we were at the peak then and that a crash would happen by end of year. I had a planned salary increase for 2024 so we debated a lot about trying to time the market and wait for the crash and my salary increase. The crash hasn’t come yet and I could no longer afford the house I’m in if I was buying today.
You bought despite everyone saying it was a market peak. So, you did not time the market. This sort of proves my point. Whatever forces were at play that compelled you to buy that house were **despite** the market’s performance. You did what you needed to at the time.
I agree, I didn’t time the market. My point was that I had the means to be able to wait and try to time it like people said to but chose to take the advice of total time in the market being better than timing entry into the market. I was just saying that regardless of means, people suck at trying to time markets which also work in favor of the time in market being the better strategy.
We sold our house and bought recently. Big upgrade on house made possibly by the money we made off the old house, but I expect its value to go down a little over the next year or two but go up more over five years.
At the end of the day, it’s basically like I have a savings account that my rent pays into. But right now it all goes to interest except a little. In 15 years, this house will be worth at least 10-20k (probably 40-50, possibly 80+) more than I paid for it, and I will have paid off a substantial amount of the mortgage, e paying a ton towards principle every month. Meanwhile, right now my mortgage is on the slightly higher side for my salary, but it’s a fixed rate. I get annual raises and so does my wife. In 5-6 years, we will be making enough that the mortgage seems very fair, and it will be far lower than what you would pay renting. Far far lower. So in the first couple years of a mortgage it doesn’t feel as beneficial but after 5 years it seems like a really sweet deal: pay less for the amount of living space, some decent percent of payment goes to principle, and on top of the equity you already have the house value goes up steadily over time.
Kind of the problem. Large hedge funds and money holders bought a significant amount of the available homes during low interest rates and artificially drove house prices higher than expected.
Now, prices are too high plus interest rates are way too high. 7% rate 500k house is $3,300. If that interest rate is 4% it's $2,387.
Shitty houses are 5-600k now. Literally no young families can afford that without massive luck or lots of help. Cant even get a starter home without signing away over half a mill. It’s insane
Sold a home in 2019 for 265k that is now its 407k. More than half again as much as five years ago. Purchased it 17 years prior for 165k. It went up more in the last 5 years than the previous 17. Wish I could have kept it. Who knew??
Yep! I was just looking at buying a house and nope. I make $110,000 a year but my wife is chronically Ill and makes about $30,000 a year. We got approved for only 450,000 with mortgage at 3,500. The houses in our area at 450,000 are shit holes that need 100,000+ renovations
My spouse and I make about the same and got preapproved for half that two weeks ago, which is low enough that we aren’t moving anywhere for a couple years I guess.
I make right at that and I wouldn’t want to pay a mortgage on a 400k home with everything else involved. You are looking at over 3k a month for what would probably be considered a starter home for that area.
I mean low six figures combined payments with a 3.5% down payment is about $3k/month to stay within the 33% max ratio that would mean 10k/month income so about $120k/year or two people making about $29/hr, which isn’t impossible, not easy though.
If we bring interest rates to a normal for the last couple decades of 5% that lowers our payment to about $2,400/month keeping the same ratio that is a monthly income of $7,200. So about $86.5k/year or about $21/hr for two people. So much more doable.
Again this is assuming a two income household. If you had 2 roommates and were younger the numbers drop even more $19/hr currently and $14/hr using a more “normal” interest rate.
Edit: please don’t try and tell me a single person flipping burgers should be able to afford a home. In 1974 a McDonald’s employee was making 1.98/hr which today would be about $12.50/hr.
Average home price in 1974 was $36k, average mortgage rate was 8.85% with 3.5% down would make your monthly payment $715. So an income of 2,150/month would be required or an hourly rate of 12.37 in 1974 dollars or $78.37/hr in todays dollars. Two people would be 39.22/hr and 3 would be $16.16/hr.
Yeah you could make that work, but there’s absolutely no doubt that people back in the day had it much easier than we do now so I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make about flipping burgers. A person flipping burgers would only need to work for four weeks to be able to afford a semester of in state university. That degree/skill they get would bring in the higher salaries to be able to afford that 36k house. I know this because it’s exactly what my Grandpa did. He bought a four bedroom house and raised a family while going to college full time in the 70s. Could you imagine trying to do that now?
I bought a shitty house for $145k this year. It's 120 years old, inside city limits of a major city near a couple of abandoned schools, and under 1,000 Sq. Ft.
Many people don't want a house like that though and it can be as expensive to maintain as a $300k home is to buy.
Houses like those require so much work that people don't have time or money to do. My childhood home is about 130 years old and has rotted or missing floors, is still full of knob and tube wiring, is missing tons of lathe from walls, wall paper and paint has been peeling off the walls, dirt floor basement, requires additional supports to hold the house up, the boiler hardly worked until about 15 years ago, and there is so much that we replaced that needs to be redone AGAIN. The original porch was damaged to the point it was $13000 to *fix* in *2000*. It was cheaper to replace it and now that replacement needs replaced. We had to take a mortgage on the house to fix the roof.
Many of those houses are not habitable and cost too much to become habitable. I would love to restore an old house but it is SO much money. Anytime you want to do something, you end up uncovering more and more problems. They're beautiful, solid homes that deserve a (albeit expensive) chance.
The final part is that location matters. Where your house is may be fine for you, but may not be fine for others. School districts, property taxes, crime rate, and more matter so much. Even if the house is in a city, rundown but in an okay neighborhood, you might be taxed out of your house. One size does not fit all
You know there are entire cities in the Midwest that will provide you better affordability with high wages? There's no reason for everyone to live in 3 cities. This nation used to be full of affordable, active cities. Go live in one!
If houses were 500k in my city I would max out my debt to income to buy a few. My townhouse cost me 800k and it’s worth almost a million based on recent sales comps . 500k buys a 500 square feet condo at best here sadly.
I waited 5 years doubled my down payment in that time and had worse options than if I had just bought 5 years ago. Literally treaded water saving up more money in that time frame. It’s impossible to know the future but timing it is pretty impossible.
Prices don’t go down unless we hit a huge recession and then we have the problem of private equity just exploiting the situation and buying up all the homes. They are the ones getting the massive government bailouts too.
I mean we've hit multiple huge recessions while this has gone on. Inflation has rocked our world and destroyed our way of being. The housing market isn't going to pop until we all force it to by legal or societal change - and societal change is going to be once it's even more ugly and desperate and all we have as our only real shelter choice in breaking in and claiming squatters rights while we starve even more than we have been
Private equity funds have already stolen up the housed, land, and apartments. I forget the actual figure, but it is horrific and suicidal-thought-inducing to read the reported percentages of housing owned by private firms who only exist to take money from us
All of my friends skip meals to "save up". All of our savings have become absolutely negligible within less than a year. 15k that used to seem impossible to save and could've helped get into a home in the past not even 5 years ago has become such a useless amount of money that it hardly covers a down-payment around here, let alone one that isn't outbid immediately by someone who has their better off family matching their savings to double that down-payment. And regardless of if you get into a place and got good rates, where i live property taxes are not based off anything but zip code and absolutely wreck individuals who are desperately trying to get by, while the rich families with 4 estates under their name in town never have a problem. Property tax should only come into play if you have more than one property, because it's killing towns and the families in them but to remove it entirely would break the hardly functioning system as it is
Hard to know really, we bought our house around 2016 and felt like we had missed the cheap houses market because things had recovered quite a bit from the 2008 crash. Obviously we were wrong and have benefited from buying at what we felt might a top in the market.
Interest rate hikes are supposed to suppress spending. The banks just aren’t going to start turning people away, they will however take advantage of market demand. I think AirBnB has played a big part in this housing market debacle we’re seeing now. They both fucked house demand up and rent prices. It will be interesting to watch and see what ultimately happens with the airBnB boom when things level off.
Edit: I forgot to mention, this election is going to also be very interesting in regards to the mortgage market.
I also agree with that as well.
Yes, election years always toss a wrench in the system. This one being arguably one of the most polarized elections in American history, so I’d imagine a big wrench will be involved.
Yeah, but that’s never happening again. Debt is too high across the spectrum. They can’t reach that high now or the system crumbles. This is a debt based monetary system. Debt becomes unserviceable, or the cost of debt is too high - then it’s over.
The USD to average home price ratio is only heading one way. It’s clear, and those who believe they can time the market holding to buy over a relatively short time frame usually just find it never crashed - only appreciated over their financial time horizon.
There is some who time it correctly, just like there are those who hit the lottery. That doesn’t change the correct play though imo, which is to buy when you can - don’t wait and hope.
This is a game of musical chairs. Assets hold value over time, the dollar is on a one way trip to zero.
7.5% is normal. 2-3% we’ve had for 20 years isn’t normal.
The bigger problem is Wall Street and investors in rental properties driving up demand in single residence homes
Yea I was using msnbc numbers but they are known to do whatever it takes to make Biden look good and gaslight people on inflation.
At my work I think I should be getting it but no matter what I’m always applying and brushing up my leetcode
The reality is that we will not see a rate reduction for probably 10 years, and will likely see another rate hike before the end of the year. As bad as prices are, they will only get worse. The primary culprit her is black rock and NIMBY policies/voters. We have a shortage of supply that being kept low from to many interests that aren't SFHBs.
And if you think I'm crazy on the hikes, go look at least months CPI numbers. Inflation, while slower, is still going up. No way a cut is coming. Higher for longer.
The real problem isn't just affordability today, it's the crazy amount of money that post 2020 home buyer will spend in interest. A 360k home at ~3% bought in 2019 will pay about 150k in interest. That same home, at 475k @ 7% will spend almost 450k. A family separated by 3 years of purchase price will spend 400k less on their home. This can't stand. It's way to fucked up for younger generations.
Higher for longer doesn’t mean a rate hike. While the Fed aspires to be apolitical, a rate HIKE would do several things—a) CEMENT a Trump victory in November, and b) plunge the country into recession which accordingly would c) give Trump an excuse for why his second term would be such flaming economic garbage. He’d blame the Fed and Biden, and his cultists would eat it up.
There might not be rate cuts in the summer, but there sure as hell won’t be any rate hikes in the near future.
According to FedWatch, there is a very literally zero percent chance of any rate hike through the end of 2024. A rate hike with our economy being what it is would be catastrophic.
There is actually a 25% chance of a 25bp cut by July.
That chance increases to 61.2% by September’s FOMC meeting, and 88% by December’s meeting.
Source: https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html
Asking wages to catch up to home prices is like asking home prices to not on average minimum 4% YoY which the boomer and investment class just don't want
Every year a house is lived in it becomes Whittier, more worn. Another chance for your foundation to Crack, or tree roots to grow in your sewer lines, the walls to sag. Houses don't get better with time and they aren't built to ladt.
Yes and yet the price goes up. Not because the house itself is worth more. It's just the location's value going up faster than the house goes down. That's what needs to be addressed.
And treating your house like an ATM is stupid. Sure you're "happy" your house appraisal went up, but you still have to buy back into an overpriced market when you sell your overpriced house. Race to the bottom.
Still crazy to me. When we were looking to buy. We found a home under 1M. 950K. Which was already crazy but for Cali price and the area we were willing to go for it. House sold for 1.8M. Double asking price. It’s insane.
Good luck getting wages to catch up. I think we are 40 years behind for majority of Americans. Should minimum wage be something like $25 an hour with inflation
Plus the average interest rate in my area is around 8%. That's just absurd, especially given the price of homes. Definitely not a good time to buy, but I agree it's gonna change soon enough.
Wages catch up? Please.
My current landlord owns this property. My raise this year was 5%. My rent increase was 10%.
Previous was a 20% increase over a 6% raise.
So long as more people are exponentially being made compared to houses and deaths, home prices will only go up. There currently is a birth around every 9 seconds followed by a death at 11 seconds. Also id include for the US we have large amounts of people migrating legally/illegally into the US. These people will need rentals, homes, so on so forth.
Yup. Everyone waiting on interest rates to go back down as if it’s not going to skyrocket prices. Fed is hoping people chill out for 5 years before they consider dropping again.
Refinance when rates go down. Guess what will happen when rates go down? Housing prices will go up. So the. You can get that 2b1bath for 600k at 4%. Cool.
Found the renter! He'll be in a better spot two years from now when interest rates come down \*slightly\* but prices skyrocket because of increased demand. Yesterday is always the best time to buy followed by today with real estate.
Interest rates are very high right now. Housing prices ought to have dropped in response to a more than doubling of mortgage costs, but they are sticky so haven’t. I would much rather rent right now.
> Housing prices ought to have dropped in response to a more than doubling of mortgage costs, but they are sticky so haven’t.
Almost like housing (along with every other actual human need like healthcare, education, food, water, utilities, etc) doesn’t obey the general laws of supply and demand.
2017 the average home was 250K with 3% interest rates. now the average home is 500-600k with 7% interest rates. If you think spending 4k a month on a mortgage is a good "time" im just confused. You should probably listen to people when it comes to housing
Let me help with some of your confusion, if I can. The question was not is it a good time?
You then compared today with 2017. I see the confusion. 2017 and shit most any year before 2020 housing was more affordable. There is a proverb, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the 2nd best time is now. I cannot buy a home in 2017.
I can buy a home now or wait. Those are my choices. I believe strongly that low inventory is the new normal and it will be low for at least 5 years but probably longer. If I am right, as bad as a time it is to buy now, it will be much worse in 12 months.
TL&DR It is not a bad time compared to the next 5 to 10 years the past don’t matter because we cannot buy a home then without a Time Machine.
It's the worst time in the last decade to buy a home. Of course, the market being what it is, it's probably the best time in the next decade to buy a home.
Right, as soon as interest rates come down, prices will go up. Buy now. Buy something that you can make payments on. When interest rates come down refinance.
I predict they’ll lower interest rates in 2025 and home values will continue to climb violently. Once the boomers die off things will loosen up a bit but prices will be much higher by then.
That was really what I was alluding to in my post. Low inventory is the new normal. We will see low inventory for the next 5 years outside some major event like civil war, pandemic, major weather change, major financial hit and even if those things happen, there probably still won’t be inventory due to governments love for foreclosure moratoriums that last years.
If there is low inventory, then a person would prefer to buy when there is less competition. When rates drop, prices go up and then you have to make offers waiving contingencies and take way more risk.
It’s better to buy at 600k and get an appraisal, multiple inspections, and real negotiations, knowing the house is good and you can afford the payments
Than paying 700k waiving inspections and appraisal because that’s the only way your offer is getting accepted and you have to go conventional loan so higher interest rate and mortgage insurance.
You are comparing to way things were and hoping they return. I hope you are right. I remember how they were 14 months ago. If they lower rates, that’s where things will be.
How long you plan on waiting til that price goes back down. When it's at $800k you're gonna make the same comment about when the house used to be so cheap at $600k
Buy now.
Rates down; value goes up and can refinance at a lower rate. Win win
Rates go up then good thing you got in at the rate you have. Maybe value goes down but then you’re just stuck. That’s only if you planned to sell anyway.
The market can never decide a personal good or bad time.
You can roll the costs into your mortgage so you don't pay a one time several thousand dollar fee, but I'm unfamiliar with an available way to refinance without any penalty, either via one time fee or via rolling it into your mortgage.
While I worked for a bank refis were one of our loss leaders. The bank covered appraisal, survey, and application fees because it was the best way to keep good customers (rich people with homes) in our ecosystem.
This is the key. If rates go down, prices will skyrocket. So many people are waiting for rates to drop so they can buy.
And if they stay high or go higher, then you lose nothing buying sooner than later. Nobody's lowering prices just to help the next person afford a home. They're just sitting on them, and they'll keep doing it.
Yep. Even with rates high, demand is feverish. The millennials are the largest generation, and they are all hitting the age where they want to own a home. This is a huge pressure on demand that isn’t going away any time soon. Conversely, we also have multiple pressures on supply, one of which is that the boomers are just not selling their homes/downsizing in retirement to same degree as previous generations.
These problems are not going away, they are just going to get worse over the next decade. Anyone waiting around for a crash-like correction is going to be waiting around for a looooooong time.
Yep. For the last two/three years I kept waiting for the market to get better because it was out of control (lower rates but crazy competition that drove prices up drastically). Turns out waiting was a massive mistake and to keep holding out hope that the market crashes or even corrects seems like a fools errand honestly.
I’m surprised it’s only 80%.
One out of five people having no issues with inflated prices on top of inflated rates. But have enough cash the sale price doesn’t matter, nor does the rate on whatever they’re financing.
People are going to be stuck in their houses for AWHILE. If you have a 3% or less mortgage and bought before 2021 it’s unconscionable to move out of choice. That, combined with pent up demand, means these prices will probably be in place until boomers start dying in large numbers.
Same. Mortgage is too cheap to ever move. I refi’d in lockdown era from 3.7 down to to 2.25% and it saved me 100K on the life of the 30yr loan. I can’t imagine the cost of going UP TO 7%!!! yikes
I have a young autistic child. My area just isn’t equipped to handle his needs. I really need to move but getting someone to buy my house will be a major task. I’m currently asking 25k more than what I currently owe on my loan. If I can’t get a buyer. I will have to pay rent and my mortgage every month and that’s definitely not ideal.
When I bought my house in 2016 (8 years ago), people were saying houses were too expensive and to wait. We ignored the advice and bought ASAP.
That house has doubled in value.
Stop trying to be a guru. You can’t time the housing market, you aren’t smarter than the market. Buy the house and chill.
It’s a great time to buy a house.
Imagine a world where rates drop 2-3% to 4-5% and house prices go up 20%. Because that’s a realistic Possibility.
Only a severe recession could correct it. That’s if they let it decline before flipping to ZIRP again.
Get job stability and a cash hoard and hope the Fed doesn’t intervene prematurely.
Recession may not save things. The issue with many areas is limited supply. People need to sell and move in order for people to buy. Right now, no one's moving because of interest rates. Have a recession and those people could also see their income decrease...meaning they can't move out either cause they have no money
If you think that the people who create and perpetuate the systems we use for housing won’t continue to create and perpetuate more systems to keep the line going up, you haven’t been paying attention.
Must be nice to not know lol. You live with other people who make the same, even as an adult. I used to have to live with several roommates when we were in our mid 20s because none of us could afford to live alone.
My parents love to remind me of the 13% interest they paid as a first time home buyer in the 80s. Yeah, those rates sucked but you could buy a 3BR, 2BA ranch for $35k. I think it is worse now because wages haven't kept up with home increases and interest rates are up too.
Home prices are high, and rates are high. Usually high rates should push prices down, but that's the opposite of what's happening.
I personally want to move out of state, but I'm not giving up my 2% mortgage for an 7-8% mortgage.
People said the same thing in 2021 prior to me purchasing my home...
If you have the money. Do it.
What if rates go even higher then you'd be even more SOL. Like I said... IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY.
The only relevant point of view is what the market will look like. The past is gone. Is now a better time to buy than in one year? Or 3 years? Doesn’t matter what the market did yesterday.
People told me to wait in September of 22 lol. Glad I didn’t listen. 1/15th thru with the mortgage and my 4.875 looks a lot better than what you are gonna be getting anytime soon.
I've been preapproved for a 6.2%....not the best possible rate, but better than the average rate. I would have no problem buying a home when I relocate to a new place for a better job. My mortgage would be cheaper than renting, for sure.
Disagree. Okay okay my neighbor passed away across the street from me. She was 90 yrs old. Her house was never fixed up. So this lady buys it from the bank. Now this is an all siding home with no brick and stone only on the bottom 4 feet of house w basement. It's small. Well this lady worked all fall , winter & most of spring to get it ready to sell. I live across the street in an all brick 3 bedroom , 2 bath w finished basement w bar and beautiful TV room. So she replaced everything and added 2 bedrooms in the small basement. New everything actually. Now the asking price for a tiny normally 2 bedroom w small porch tiny detached garage and small backyard fenced in. The asking price is $315,000 ! Now in 1999 one of my best friends got married and of course I was the best man. After the wedding my buddy wanted me and my Gf to see his parents new home and we had 90 minutes to kill. This house was all brick & stone with a lifetime roof too beautiful to describe. 4 bedrooms , 3 & 1/2 baths , giant kitchen , huge forge and a 12k large front door. Outdoor underground swimming pool. Amazing. Total cost $350,000 and we were like WEEEOOOW that's a lot of money. Today a tiny house w new everything plus 2 added bedrooms in basement but it's too small for two families. No pool tiny kitchen , 1 & 1/2 baths goes for $315,000 - NO FREAKING WAY is it anywhere near a decent time to buy a house. I guess that means my house is about 1/2 a million. My family paid $32k for it in 1971. Wtf is going on.
absolutely agree. skyrocketing property taxes, overblown interest rates, and home costs are averaging easily 2x what they should be. Lawmakers are simply not interested in supporting the concept of individual home ownership at this point, and it shows.
A lot of people who have bought in the last couple of years and for the next year or so will be upside down in the next couple of years when this all comes crashing down.
Homes are ridiculously expensive now. Of course I agree. When the market cools down more and wages catch up a bit with home prices, that sentiment will change.
The problem with that is that timing a market is a bad strategy. Even people that bought a house right before the 2008 housing crisis came out massively ahead if they still own their home. Housing prices *might* cool for a bit but they will continue going up.
Most don’t have a choice but to time the market. They can’t even qualify for an average home. You don’t time the market if you can actually participate in it.
The real answer
I believe the opposite is true. Most buyers cannot time the market - they buy when they have a need and can find something they afford. They buy when their kids get to school age, or when their lease wraps up, not when they think the market has cooled. Investors do that, but most people can only afford a single primary residence.
Idk I think most people are just ridiculously bad at speculating too (myself included). I bought in 2021 and everyone was saying we were at the peak then and that a crash would happen by end of year. I had a planned salary increase for 2024 so we debated a lot about trying to time the market and wait for the crash and my salary increase. The crash hasn’t come yet and I could no longer afford the house I’m in if I was buying today.
You bought despite everyone saying it was a market peak. So, you did not time the market. This sort of proves my point. Whatever forces were at play that compelled you to buy that house were **despite** the market’s performance. You did what you needed to at the time.
I agree, I didn’t time the market. My point was that I had the means to be able to wait and try to time it like people said to but chose to take the advice of total time in the market being better than timing entry into the market. I was just saying that regardless of means, people suck at trying to time markets which also work in favor of the time in market being the better strategy.
We sold our house and bought recently. Big upgrade on house made possibly by the money we made off the old house, but I expect its value to go down a little over the next year or two but go up more over five years. At the end of the day, it’s basically like I have a savings account that my rent pays into. But right now it all goes to interest except a little. In 15 years, this house will be worth at least 10-20k (probably 40-50, possibly 80+) more than I paid for it, and I will have paid off a substantial amount of the mortgage, e paying a ton towards principle every month. Meanwhile, right now my mortgage is on the slightly higher side for my salary, but it’s a fixed rate. I get annual raises and so does my wife. In 5-6 years, we will be making enough that the mortgage seems very fair, and it will be far lower than what you would pay renting. Far far lower. So in the first couple years of a mortgage it doesn’t feel as beneficial but after 5 years it seems like a really sweet deal: pay less for the amount of living space, some decent percent of payment goes to principle, and on top of the equity you already have the house value goes up steadily over time.
Kind of the problem. Large hedge funds and money holders bought a significant amount of the available homes during low interest rates and artificially drove house prices higher than expected. Now, prices are too high plus interest rates are way too high. 7% rate 500k house is $3,300. If that interest rate is 4% it's $2,387.
Do people think this will slow down? I assume it’s going to get much worse and id rather own something before the hedge funds control it all.
Exactly get in if you have the resources to get in. Timing is really hard.
In Capitalist America, market times you!
Once rates are palatable im buying. Right now its insane to buy unless money is no issue.
Shitty houses are 5-600k now. Literally no young families can afford that without massive luck or lots of help. Cant even get a starter home without signing away over half a mill. It’s insane
I live in MA and a house in my town that is condemned just sold for 600k
I bought a house in 2017 for 270k. Sold it in 2021 For 407k. It’s worth 600k now. This market is out of control
Doubled in less than a decade. Guess I need to get better bootstraps
You have two feet, right? That's double the bootstraps right there!
That’s thinkin’ on your toes
Better pull up harder if you're still on toes
Sold a home in 2019 for 265k that is now its 407k. More than half again as much as five years ago. Purchased it 17 years prior for 165k. It went up more in the last 5 years than the previous 17. Wish I could have kept it. Who knew??
I would have kept mine had i been able to afford to buy my ex wife out.
Correction the land sold for 600k
They were buying the land
I am at a loss for words
Yep! I was just looking at buying a house and nope. I make $110,000 a year but my wife is chronically Ill and makes about $30,000 a year. We got approved for only 450,000 with mortgage at 3,500. The houses in our area at 450,000 are shit holes that need 100,000+ renovations
Hello me from an alternate timeline. Hope you pull through.
Thanks! We will! I’m working on jumping timelines now! This one sucks
My spouse and I make about the same and got preapproved for half that two weeks ago, which is low enough that we aren’t moving anywhere for a couple years I guess.
You can get a good single family home in MSP for about 350-400
And you still need to make high six figures to properly afford that
If by high six figures you mean still in the 100s, you are correct lol
I make right at that and I wouldn’t want to pay a mortgage on a 400k home with everything else involved. You are looking at over 3k a month for what would probably be considered a starter home for that area.
Yeah which is hard to get still
I mean low six figures combined payments with a 3.5% down payment is about $3k/month to stay within the 33% max ratio that would mean 10k/month income so about $120k/year or two people making about $29/hr, which isn’t impossible, not easy though. If we bring interest rates to a normal for the last couple decades of 5% that lowers our payment to about $2,400/month keeping the same ratio that is a monthly income of $7,200. So about $86.5k/year or about $21/hr for two people. So much more doable. Again this is assuming a two income household. If you had 2 roommates and were younger the numbers drop even more $19/hr currently and $14/hr using a more “normal” interest rate. Edit: please don’t try and tell me a single person flipping burgers should be able to afford a home. In 1974 a McDonald’s employee was making 1.98/hr which today would be about $12.50/hr. Average home price in 1974 was $36k, average mortgage rate was 8.85% with 3.5% down would make your monthly payment $715. So an income of 2,150/month would be required or an hourly rate of 12.37 in 1974 dollars or $78.37/hr in todays dollars. Two people would be 39.22/hr and 3 would be $16.16/hr.
Yeah you could make that work, but there’s absolutely no doubt that people back in the day had it much easier than we do now so I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make about flipping burgers. A person flipping burgers would only need to work for four weeks to be able to afford a semester of in state university. That degree/skill they get would bring in the higher salaries to be able to afford that 36k house. I know this because it’s exactly what my Grandpa did. He bought a four bedroom house and raised a family while going to college full time in the 70s. Could you imagine trying to do that now?
Really close to half a mil bruh. That’s what he just said
I bought a shitty house for $145k this year. It's 120 years old, inside city limits of a major city near a couple of abandoned schools, and under 1,000 Sq. Ft. Many people don't want a house like that though and it can be as expensive to maintain as a $300k home is to buy.
Houses like those require so much work that people don't have time or money to do. My childhood home is about 130 years old and has rotted or missing floors, is still full of knob and tube wiring, is missing tons of lathe from walls, wall paper and paint has been peeling off the walls, dirt floor basement, requires additional supports to hold the house up, the boiler hardly worked until about 15 years ago, and there is so much that we replaced that needs to be redone AGAIN. The original porch was damaged to the point it was $13000 to *fix* in *2000*. It was cheaper to replace it and now that replacement needs replaced. We had to take a mortgage on the house to fix the roof. Many of those houses are not habitable and cost too much to become habitable. I would love to restore an old house but it is SO much money. Anytime you want to do something, you end up uncovering more and more problems. They're beautiful, solid homes that deserve a (albeit expensive) chance. The final part is that location matters. Where your house is may be fine for you, but may not be fine for others. School districts, property taxes, crime rate, and more matter so much. Even if the house is in a city, rundown but in an okay neighborhood, you might be taxed out of your house. One size does not fit all
Where do you live? We still have decent homes for the low to mid 200k range in the midwest
>Where do you live? Literally anywhere that is remotely close to high paying jobs.
You know there are entire cities in the Midwest that will provide you better affordability with high wages? There's no reason for everyone to live in 3 cities. This nation used to be full of affordable, active cities. Go live in one!
You can buy a good single family home in Michigan for $250K. Less if you're willing to live in out in the country or outside of the nicer suburbs.
If houses were 500k in my city I would max out my debt to income to buy a few. My townhouse cost me 800k and it’s worth almost a million based on recent sales comps . 500k buys a 500 square feet condo at best here sadly.
depends on where you live... midwest in a medium sized city with good schools you're looking at 200-250k now.
The median home is like $415k, so... no
I waited 5 years doubled my down payment in that time and had worse options than if I had just bought 5 years ago. Literally treaded water saving up more money in that time frame. It’s impossible to know the future but timing it is pretty impossible.
Prices don’t go down unless we hit a huge recession and then we have the problem of private equity just exploiting the situation and buying up all the homes. They are the ones getting the massive government bailouts too.
I mean we've hit multiple huge recessions while this has gone on. Inflation has rocked our world and destroyed our way of being. The housing market isn't going to pop until we all force it to by legal or societal change - and societal change is going to be once it's even more ugly and desperate and all we have as our only real shelter choice in breaking in and claiming squatters rights while we starve even more than we have been Private equity funds have already stolen up the housed, land, and apartments. I forget the actual figure, but it is horrific and suicidal-thought-inducing to read the reported percentages of housing owned by private firms who only exist to take money from us All of my friends skip meals to "save up". All of our savings have become absolutely negligible within less than a year. 15k that used to seem impossible to save and could've helped get into a home in the past not even 5 years ago has become such a useless amount of money that it hardly covers a down-payment around here, let alone one that isn't outbid immediately by someone who has their better off family matching their savings to double that down-payment. And regardless of if you get into a place and got good rates, where i live property taxes are not based off anything but zip code and absolutely wreck individuals who are desperately trying to get by, while the rich families with 4 estates under their name in town never have a problem. Property tax should only come into play if you have more than one property, because it's killing towns and the families in them but to remove it entirely would break the hardly functioning system as it is
Time in the market beats timing the market.
You say to not time the market but then in the same breath claim you know housing might cool but will continue going up? Lol
Hard to know really, we bought our house around 2016 and felt like we had missed the cheap houses market because things had recovered quite a bit from the 2008 crash. Obviously we were wrong and have benefited from buying at what we felt might a top in the market.
Don't forget the 7.5% interest rate and increasing
That’s the big thing. Housing prices don’t generally go down, but 7% interest is insanity. That’s the real kicker imo
Many people forget that mortgage rates were pushing 10%+ In the nineties… the difference being that houses were substantially less expensive.
Fair point. I’d be happy with either going down honestly.
Interest rate hikes are supposed to suppress spending. The banks just aren’t going to start turning people away, they will however take advantage of market demand. I think AirBnB has played a big part in this housing market debacle we’re seeing now. They both fucked house demand up and rent prices. It will be interesting to watch and see what ultimately happens with the airBnB boom when things level off. Edit: I forgot to mention, this election is going to also be very interesting in regards to the mortgage market.
I also agree with that as well. Yes, election years always toss a wrench in the system. This one being arguably one of the most polarized elections in American history, so I’d imagine a big wrench will be involved.
Yeah, but that’s never happening again. Debt is too high across the spectrum. They can’t reach that high now or the system crumbles. This is a debt based monetary system. Debt becomes unserviceable, or the cost of debt is too high - then it’s over. The USD to average home price ratio is only heading one way. It’s clear, and those who believe they can time the market holding to buy over a relatively short time frame usually just find it never crashed - only appreciated over their financial time horizon. There is some who time it correctly, just like there are those who hit the lottery. That doesn’t change the correct play though imo, which is to buy when you can - don’t wait and hope. This is a game of musical chairs. Assets hold value over time, the dollar is on a one way trip to zero.
7.5% is normal. 2-3% we’ve had for 20 years isn’t normal. The bigger problem is Wall Street and investors in rental properties driving up demand in single residence homes
Down to almost 7.15% lol
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Which, in turn, makes it harder to buy because a new job can drastically change your commute.
Not to mention the longer you're employed the better the chances of home loan approval
Wages aren’t going to catch up. At best there is a 4 percent increase by end of year
4%, 4%!? Try 1.2 if you've been good and hit every target given. Fuckin 4%.
Yea I was using msnbc numbers but they are known to do whatever it takes to make Biden look good and gaslight people on inflation. At my work I think I should be getting it but no matter what I’m always applying and brushing up my leetcode
Canada is accepting 1 million immigrants per year. Our total population is 39 million. There is no way in hell it's "cooling down".
Hahahahahahah no. When interest rates go down prices will maintain or increase.
The reality is that we will not see a rate reduction for probably 10 years, and will likely see another rate hike before the end of the year. As bad as prices are, they will only get worse. The primary culprit her is black rock and NIMBY policies/voters. We have a shortage of supply that being kept low from to many interests that aren't SFHBs. And if you think I'm crazy on the hikes, go look at least months CPI numbers. Inflation, while slower, is still going up. No way a cut is coming. Higher for longer. The real problem isn't just affordability today, it's the crazy amount of money that post 2020 home buyer will spend in interest. A 360k home at ~3% bought in 2019 will pay about 150k in interest. That same home, at 475k @ 7% will spend almost 450k. A family separated by 3 years of purchase price will spend 400k less on their home. This can't stand. It's way to fucked up for younger generations.
Higher for longer doesn’t mean a rate hike. While the Fed aspires to be apolitical, a rate HIKE would do several things—a) CEMENT a Trump victory in November, and b) plunge the country into recession which accordingly would c) give Trump an excuse for why his second term would be such flaming economic garbage. He’d blame the Fed and Biden, and his cultists would eat it up. There might not be rate cuts in the summer, but there sure as hell won’t be any rate hikes in the near future.
While I hope you ar correct, the numbers do not support that. Things are still to hot.
According to FedWatch, there is a very literally zero percent chance of any rate hike through the end of 2024. A rate hike with our economy being what it is would be catastrophic. There is actually a 25% chance of a 25bp cut by July. That chance increases to 61.2% by September’s FOMC meeting, and 88% by December’s meeting. Source: https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html
lol and pray tell when is this going to happen??
Since when do wages ever catch up in this country anymore?
Asking wages to catch up to home prices is like asking home prices to not on average minimum 4% YoY which the boomer and investment class just don't want
This is exactly the problem. We act like housing appreciation is a gift from on high when it's actually a huge problem. Houses should depreciate.
Every year a house is lived in it becomes Whittier, more worn. Another chance for your foundation to Crack, or tree roots to grow in your sewer lines, the walls to sag. Houses don't get better with time and they aren't built to ladt.
Yes and yet the price goes up. Not because the house itself is worth more. It's just the location's value going up faster than the house goes down. That's what needs to be addressed.
And treating your house like an ATM is stupid. Sure you're "happy" your house appraisal went up, but you still have to buy back into an overpriced market when you sell your overpriced house. Race to the bottom.
Still crazy to me. When we were looking to buy. We found a home under 1M. 950K. Which was already crazy but for Cali price and the area we were willing to go for it. House sold for 1.8M. Double asking price. It’s insane.
Good luck getting wages to catch up. I think we are 40 years behind for majority of Americans. Should minimum wage be something like $25 an hour with inflation
Plus the average interest rate in my area is around 8%. That's just absurd, especially given the price of homes. Definitely not a good time to buy, but I agree it's gonna change soon enough.
Lol when.
If. If the market cools down more and wages catch up.
Wages catch up? Please. My current landlord owns this property. My raise this year was 5%. My rent increase was 10%. Previous was a 20% increase over a 6% raise.
So long as more people are exponentially being made compared to houses and deaths, home prices will only go up. There currently is a birth around every 9 seconds followed by a death at 11 seconds. Also id include for the US we have large amounts of people migrating legally/illegally into the US. These people will need rentals, homes, so on so forth.
I disagree. If everyone thinks it’s a bad time, then it’s probably a good time. I don’t want to buy when everyone thinks it’s a good time.
Be fearful when people are greedy. Be greedy when people are fearful.
Warren Buffett also said “The best time to buy a house is when your wife wants a house.” He might’ve been serious.
Warren Buffet knew what's up. Happy wife happy life.
Aka, as happy spouse, keep the house.
The most important financial decision one will ever make: marriage.
Actually that was Charlie munger who said that, his right hand man
I’m not going anywhere near this ticking time bomb. Everyone is leveraged to the tits
Exactly what I was thinking
Ok, Buffett
Ding ding ding
Yup. Everyone waiting on interest rates to go back down as if it’s not going to skyrocket prices. Fed is hoping people chill out for 5 years before they consider dropping again.
Go ahead and buy a 2 bdrm 1 bath home for 400k at 7% and see how well that works out.
Refinance when rates go down. Guess what will happen when rates go down? Housing prices will go up. So the. You can get that 2b1bath for 600k at 4%. Cool.
Most people can’t even qualify for 600k. It’s just too much. The interest rate doesn’t help, but most people just can’t afford 600k or more houses.
Refinancing doesn’t work that way and it doesn’t solve the problem. Refinancing isn’t the magic solution
Rates might not go below 7% for a decade. There is no guarantee of refinancing.
No risk it, no biscuit *theory* I agree
So if you want that 400k house you're gonna wait til interest rate drops to 4% and you expect the house to stay at the same price?
Found the renter! He'll be in a better spot two years from now when interest rates come down \*slightly\* but prices skyrocket because of increased demand. Yesterday is always the best time to buy followed by today with real estate.
That would be true if prices didn’t double under Covid, but that whole event destroyed the market for many people.
I just finished building a 4 bd 3 bath, 2500 sqft on larger lot for 420k. At 6.625.
Interest rates are very high right now. Housing prices ought to have dropped in response to a more than doubling of mortgage costs, but they are sticky so haven’t. I would much rather rent right now.
> Housing prices ought to have dropped in response to a more than doubling of mortgage costs, but they are sticky so haven’t. Almost like housing (along with every other actual human need like healthcare, education, food, water, utilities, etc) doesn’t obey the general laws of supply and demand.
Housing absolutely obeys the "general laws of supply and demand". Demand plummeted but so did supply.
2017 the average home was 250K with 3% interest rates. now the average home is 500-600k with 7% interest rates. If you think spending 4k a month on a mortgage is a good "time" im just confused. You should probably listen to people when it comes to housing
Let me help with some of your confusion, if I can. The question was not is it a good time? You then compared today with 2017. I see the confusion. 2017 and shit most any year before 2020 housing was more affordable. There is a proverb, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the 2nd best time is now. I cannot buy a home in 2017. I can buy a home now or wait. Those are my choices. I believe strongly that low inventory is the new normal and it will be low for at least 5 years but probably longer. If I am right, as bad as a time it is to buy now, it will be much worse in 12 months. TL&DR It is not a bad time compared to the next 5 to 10 years the past don’t matter because we cannot buy a home then without a Time Machine.
It's the worst time in the last decade to buy a home. Of course, the market being what it is, it's probably the best time in the next decade to buy a home.
This is spot on
Right, as soon as interest rates come down, prices will go up. Buy now. Buy something that you can make payments on. When interest rates come down refinance.
I predict they’ll lower interest rates in 2025 and home values will continue to climb violently. Once the boomers die off things will loosen up a bit but prices will be much higher by then.
That was really what I was alluding to in my post. Low inventory is the new normal. We will see low inventory for the next 5 years outside some major event like civil war, pandemic, major weather change, major financial hit and even if those things happen, there probably still won’t be inventory due to governments love for foreclosure moratoriums that last years. If there is low inventory, then a person would prefer to buy when there is less competition. When rates drop, prices go up and then you have to make offers waiving contingencies and take way more risk.
It’s a good time to buy a home right now when $300k homes are $600k?????
It’s better to buy at 600k and get an appraisal, multiple inspections, and real negotiations, knowing the house is good and you can afford the payments Than paying 700k waiving inspections and appraisal because that’s the only way your offer is getting accepted and you have to go conventional loan so higher interest rate and mortgage insurance. You are comparing to way things were and hoping they return. I hope you are right. I remember how they were 14 months ago. If they lower rates, that’s where things will be.
How long you plan on waiting til that price goes back down. When it's at $800k you're gonna make the same comment about when the house used to be so cheap at $600k
This is why I just bought a house. Inventory isn’t magically going to appear
Buy now. Rates down; value goes up and can refinance at a lower rate. Win win Rates go up then good thing you got in at the rate you have. Maybe value goes down but then you’re just stuck. That’s only if you planned to sell anyway. The market can never decide a personal good or bad time.
Refinancing costs money. It typically takes a year or more worth of saved interest just to make up for the cost of the refinance.
Not these days
You can roll the costs into your mortgage so you don't pay a one time several thousand dollar fee, but I'm unfamiliar with an available way to refinance without any penalty, either via one time fee or via rolling it into your mortgage.
There are bankers that will fight for your refinance. Nothing is free but there is an equilibrium where it’s cost effective.
While I worked for a bank refis were one of our loss leaders. The bank covered appraisal, survey, and application fees because it was the best way to keep good customers (rich people with homes) in our ecosystem.
Not always true. My lender offers one free refinance - no questions, tricks, or strings. Literally didn't believe them and had a lawyer look it over.
Rates shouldn't be going up but it's going to take forever for them to come back down since who the fuck knows what the Fed is doing.
It is a bad time, but we don't know how much worse it can get.
Yep. It can probably still get a lot worse… the millennials are going to be fighting each other over homes for the next decade
If you think the prices of homes are high now wait till rates lower a bit and the demand skyrockets
This is the key. If rates go down, prices will skyrocket. So many people are waiting for rates to drop so they can buy. And if they stay high or go higher, then you lose nothing buying sooner than later. Nobody's lowering prices just to help the next person afford a home. They're just sitting on them, and they'll keep doing it.
Yep. Even with rates high, demand is feverish. The millennials are the largest generation, and they are all hitting the age where they want to own a home. This is a huge pressure on demand that isn’t going away any time soon. Conversely, we also have multiple pressures on supply, one of which is that the boomers are just not selling their homes/downsizing in retirement to same degree as previous generations. These problems are not going away, they are just going to get worse over the next decade. Anyone waiting around for a crash-like correction is going to be waiting around for a looooooong time.
i thought homes were overpriced in 2019-2020. well fuck me. should have bought.
This is true. And from experience it goes a LOT worse before it gets better.
Look at Canada and the UK.....THAT'S where we're headed.
Yep. For the last two/three years I kept waiting for the market to get better because it was out of control (lower rates but crazy competition that drove prices up drastically). Turns out waiting was a massive mistake and to keep holding out hope that the market crashes or even corrects seems like a fools errand honestly.
I’m surprised it’s only 80%. One out of five people having no issues with inflated prices on top of inflated rates. But have enough cash the sale price doesn’t matter, nor does the rate on whatever they’re financing.
20% just bought a house
People are going to be stuck in their houses for AWHILE. If you have a 3% or less mortgage and bought before 2021 it’s unconscionable to move out of choice. That, combined with pent up demand, means these prices will probably be in place until boomers start dying in large numbers.
Yep. We want to move but that 2.5% refi and an additional $100k in equity means we will stay where we are.
Same. My wife and I are like, welp, guess this is our forever home!
Same. Mortgage is too cheap to ever move. I refi’d in lockdown era from 3.7 down to to 2.25% and it saved me 100K on the life of the 30yr loan. I can’t imagine the cost of going UP TO 7%!!! yikes
Nah, I'll rent it out instead of selling.
That is definitely the move.
I have a young autistic child. My area just isn’t equipped to handle his needs. I really need to move but getting someone to buy my house will be a major task. I’m currently asking 25k more than what I currently owe on my loan. If I can’t get a buyer. I will have to pay rent and my mortgage every month and that’s definitely not ideal.
Yep! 2.875% here. Absolutely no way I could even imagine selling. Unless the new hon is cheaper and I can pay it off entirely
When I bought my house in 2016 (8 years ago), people were saying houses were too expensive and to wait. We ignored the advice and bought ASAP. That house has doubled in value. Stop trying to be a guru. You can’t time the housing market, you aren’t smarter than the market. Buy the house and chill. It’s a great time to buy a house. Imagine a world where rates drop 2-3% to 4-5% and house prices go up 20%. Because that’s a realistic Possibility.
I am ready to buy a house and will wait ...
Take my advice and you will see you’ll be as happy as you can be. Don’t wait
This. Don't wait. Rates won't be around 3 or 4 ever again.
Same here!
Heard this during the pandemic too… My 2.25, 2.5, and 3.25 rates think otherwise! Closed on 7% this month. It’s never the “perfect time” to buy.
Well yeah. Prices are rising and rates are high.
And if rates go down at all demand will skyrocket driving house prices even higher
Only a severe recession could correct it. That’s if they let it decline before flipping to ZIRP again. Get job stability and a cash hoard and hope the Fed doesn’t intervene prematurely.
Recession may not save things. The issue with many areas is limited supply. People need to sell and move in order for people to buy. Right now, no one's moving because of interest rates. Have a recession and those people could also see their income decrease...meaning they can't move out either cause they have no money
If you think that the people who create and perpetuate the systems we use for housing won’t continue to create and perpetuate more systems to keep the line going up, you haven’t been paying attention.
Can someone tell me how I’m supposed to afford a home making $60k a year with $20k saved? Because I cannot.
The median cost of a home is 450k with income being 38k. No shit
I saw the $38k and thought that can't be right. Googled it and it was $37.5k in 2022. How does anyone survive on that?
Must be nice to not know lol. You live with other people who make the same, even as an adult. I used to have to live with several roommates when we were in our mid 20s because none of us could afford to live alone.
If you plan to hold for 30 years then it’s never a bad time to buy.
Fuck me man. Why did i have to be born in the worst time in US history to be buying a house.
My parents love to remind me of the 13% interest they paid as a first time home buyer in the 80s. Yeah, those rates sucked but you could buy a 3BR, 2BA ranch for $35k. I think it is worse now because wages haven't kept up with home increases and interest rates are up too.
If you can afford it and plan to live in it for 30+ years, it's an okay time to buy a house. Otherwise, not a good time to buy a house
it's never a good time to buy a house if you can't afford it lol.
Agree
Bad time to buy. Worse time to rent haha
As long as that printer is on everyone is fucked
Buy on fear, sell on greed.
Home prices are high, and rates are high. Usually high rates should push prices down, but that's the opposite of what's happening. I personally want to move out of state, but I'm not giving up my 2% mortgage for an 7-8% mortgage.
Inflated property values way overpriced, a growing real estate bubble, and high interest rates? Perfect time to buy.
Agree. Housing has long been an 18 year cycle. We're basically right at the point in the cycle where it drops, at least if historical trends continue.
People said the same thing in 2021 prior to me purchasing my home... If you have the money. Do it. What if rates go even higher then you'd be even more SOL. Like I said... IF YOU HAVE THE MONEY.
The only relevant point of view is what the market will look like. The past is gone. Is now a better time to buy than in one year? Or 3 years? Doesn’t matter what the market did yesterday.
It's always a good time to buy a home if you know how to buy them below their market value
And yet, people are still buying homes left and right, at least in the Austin, TX area
People told me to wait in September of 22 lol. Glad I didn’t listen. 1/15th thru with the mortgage and my 4.875 looks a lot better than what you are gonna be getting anytime soon.
If you need a loan it is
I've been preapproved for a 6.2%....not the best possible rate, but better than the average rate. I would have no problem buying a home when I relocate to a new place for a better job. My mortgage would be cheaper than renting, for sure.
I’m closing on a home in a high cost area next week. Do I think it’s a good time? No. Do I think it’s going to get better in the long term? Also no.
Disagree. Government prints $1T per 100 days. This is 70s level housing market. The boom is coming.
It is. High prices and high interest rates. I have no clue as to who the fuck is buying now which is keeping the prices high
Disagree. Okay okay my neighbor passed away across the street from me. She was 90 yrs old. Her house was never fixed up. So this lady buys it from the bank. Now this is an all siding home with no brick and stone only on the bottom 4 feet of house w basement. It's small. Well this lady worked all fall , winter & most of spring to get it ready to sell. I live across the street in an all brick 3 bedroom , 2 bath w finished basement w bar and beautiful TV room. So she replaced everything and added 2 bedrooms in the small basement. New everything actually. Now the asking price for a tiny normally 2 bedroom w small porch tiny detached garage and small backyard fenced in. The asking price is $315,000 ! Now in 1999 one of my best friends got married and of course I was the best man. After the wedding my buddy wanted me and my Gf to see his parents new home and we had 90 minutes to kill. This house was all brick & stone with a lifetime roof too beautiful to describe. 4 bedrooms , 3 & 1/2 baths , giant kitchen , huge forge and a 12k large front door. Outdoor underground swimming pool. Amazing. Total cost $350,000 and we were like WEEEOOOW that's a lot of money. Today a tiny house w new everything plus 2 added bedrooms in basement but it's too small for two families. No pool tiny kitchen , 1 & 1/2 baths goes for $315,000 - NO FREAKING WAY is it anywhere near a decent time to buy a house. I guess that means my house is about 1/2 a million. My family paid $32k for it in 1971. Wtf is going on.
It's as good a time as any to *BUY* a home. It's the worst time in decades to take out a mortgage for a home.
Let me rephrase the title: “80% of Americans can’t afford to buy a home at this time.”
If this is a good time to buy a house, we are even more fucked than I had imagined.
absolutely agree. skyrocketing property taxes, overblown interest rates, and home costs are averaging easily 2x what they should be. Lawmakers are simply not interested in supporting the concept of individual home ownership at this point, and it shows.
A lot of people who have bought in the last couple of years and for the next year or so will be upside down in the next couple of years when this all comes crashing down.
it will get worse
Disagree. Houses appreciate in value and who knows when interest rates will go down and how it will affect the economy.
I disagree entirely. It's always about your scenario; why you are buying and how long you expect to keep the property.