NFR How's the housing market where you live?

Non-fishing related
The market is insane.
I had a rental that was built in 1986. 3bd, 2 bath, 1 car garage on 1/3 acre on south hill puyallup. Not a single fancy item in the house. Still running the original furnace. On the market on Friday, off the market Saturday afternoon. It sold for over 400k.
It really should have sold for 315k max.
 
My daughters were up here last month from California. Talking real estate prices is like speaking different languages. They're talking about doing a $600,000 remodel on the Oakland duplex, and I'm thinking they could buy my whole house and property for less than that. My youngest tried to give me some perspective about how and why Bay Area buyers go to Seattle or Bozeman and bid up house prices in $100,000 increments. A house, just a regular ole house, priced at less than 2 million dollars is considered a bargain, maybe even a steal, in the context of their real estate world. Oy!
 
Salmo_g said:
My daughters were up here last month from California. Talking real estate prices is like speaking different languages. They're talking about doing a $600,000 remodel on the Oakland duplex, and I'm thinking they could buy my whole house and property for less than that. My youngest tried to give me some perspective about how and why Bay Area buyers go to Seattle or Bozeman and bid up house prices in $100,000 increments. A house, just a regular ole house, priced at less than 2 million dollars is considered a bargain, maybe even a steal, in the context of their real estate world. Oy!
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Despite all the complaining (including my own), housing affordability (relative to median income) is still relatively good in WA.

One of my friends just got a promotion. On his salary alone, they are easily in the 1%. Despite this, they are convinced they can't afford a home and continue to rent a one bedroom apartment. 😂

Places like San Fran, Sydney, Shanghai and London are where folks really have something to complain about.
 
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Our current home, which we got a great deal on via a cash offer just before the market blew up, has gone up by 100% in two years. Aside from recession sags, or a cataclysmic event, we're in the new norm for housing prices. Demand is intense, and jobs never paid better. Inventory will be an ongoing problem as folks dig in and hold on.

What appeared to be a game changer, the mobility of the techie work from home movement, may be less so than projected, as many of the tech companies are starting to return workers to the office, and telling those who moved to less expensive areas their pay will be adjusted accordingly, creating quite the backlash among the techies that thought they could have it both ways...make bay area wages while living out of state rural.
Biggest sign of the number of techies that have moved to our neck of the woods in the past two years? The number of pristine Sprinter 4x4 vans tooling about, the must have "I'm an outdoorsman" icon for the skinny jeans/neckbeard crew..
 
A home on a large lot near me sold for $1.5 mil recently. Apparently a developer bought it and plans to add five new houses to the lot.
I’m sure those will be extremely affordable…. ;)
SF
 
I live in a nice small neighborhood outside of bellingham above Lake Whatcom. Neighbors moved in just under 2 years ago and paid $650. Couple of months ago they listed for $850, ended up going for $1.1.... absolutely stupid. Get ready for a foreclosure market. Cash will be king.
 
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Construction has started for the next 72 townhomes on a block near our house.
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Vandelay Industries said:
Construction has started for the next 72 townhomes on a block near our house.
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talk about traffic impact, ugh...friend of mine in Olympia, a fish biologist, has lived for decades with a narrow wildlife corridor right behind his house. Somehow a developer managed to get it re-zoned to M3, and 7 upscale townhomes are now under construction, one hard up against his back fence...sad.
 
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SurfnFish said:
talk about traffic impact, ugh...friend of mine in Olympia, a fish biologist, has lived for decades with a narrow wildlife corridor right behind his house. Somehow a developer managed to get it re-zoned to M3, and 7 upscale townhomes are now under construction, one hard up against his back fence...sad.
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WTF... That makes me sick. Rezoning is such a big deal for any neighborhood. Nothing will be the same.
 
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Scottybs said:
I live in a nice small neighborhood outside of bellingham above Lake Whatcom. Neighbors moved in just under 2 years ago and paid $650. Couple of months ago they listed for $850, ended up going for $1.1.... absolutely stupid. Get ready for a foreclosure market. Cash will be king.
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I have had a 9-5 job since I was 19 years old for the last 20 years and $1.1 million is basically all my income in that time combined. I feel like I am doing better than most who grew up around Bellingham. If only because I bought my million dollar home for $350K.
 
Stuff is getting re-zoned now that in the past would have never happened.
The counties love it because they are creating more tax parcels…..
Some acquaintances of mine tried sub dividing their lot after a large tree fell on their home. They were working with a developer to tear down their damaged home down. The developer would build them a new home on one of the lots and the build another home on the other lot. Their re-zone got turned down because the lot was deemed to small to sub-divide. If I recall correctly, not by much. They ended up selling the property which sat for a number years. There are now two multiple million dollar homes on the lot.
This was quite awhile ago and obviously zoning can change, but no surprise to me what is now on the property now……
SF
 
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Idaho and Montana have inflated the most. Too much fiat currency chasing too few properties. Good luck!
 
HauntedByWaters said:
I have had a 9-5 job since I was 19 years old for the last 20 years and $1.1 million is basically all my income in that time combined. I feel like I am doing better than most who grew up around Bellingham. If only because I bought my million dollar home for $350K.
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It’ll pop... I’m fortunate that I have a fairly lucrative career that allows me to live pretty much anywhere I want, and my wife also has a pretty good job. That being said... I think people are getting stretched real thin and one little hiccup in income and the house of cards of “payments” will come crashing down. I look around and wonder... how people afford it all.
 
Scottybs said:
It’ll pop... I’m fortunate that I have a fairly lucrative career that allows me to live pretty much anywhere I want, and my wife also has a pretty good job. That being said... I think people are getting stretched real thin and one little hiccup in income and the house of cards of “payments” will come crashing down. I look around and wonder... how people afford it all.
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Yeah, I don't understand the math either. I have an engineering background and am always "running the numbers" mentally, and there is a definite disconnect between income demographics (even for who lives in the greater Seattle area and the overall better job opportunities) and housing prices. Even knowing that long term family wealth, double incomes, etc come into play, I also think a bunch of parties are swimming pretty close to naked and basing everything off expected increases in home values to bail them out.

That, or a few wealthy people or conglomerates like real estate REITs are what's really driving incremental prices way higher. Rising asset prices look like a great business plan right up until prices stop going up.
 
If you are looking for affordable housing, go ahead and remove Ranchos Palos Verde from the list. Wow.

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Tallguy said:
Yeah, I don't understand the math either. I have an engineering background and am always "running the numbers" mentally, and there is a definite disconnect between income demographics (even for who lives in the greater Seattle area and the overall better job opportunities) and housing prices. Even knowing that long term family wealth, double incomes, etc come into play, I also think a bunch of parties are swimming pretty close to naked and basing everything off expected increases in home values to bail them out.

That, or a few wealthy people or conglomerates like real estate REITs are what's really driving incremental prices way higher. Rising asset prices look like a great business plan right up until prices stop going up.
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One of the greatest issues I have and not trying to get hyper political is the county/school/city/etc continuing to push more and more levies and such into property taxes... blows my mind. It will really bite into most folks discretionary income. Maybe well intended but I think the unintended consequences are going to bite back. Hell my truck has a 36 gallon and tank and I drive just outside of town to a Lummi owned 76 and they have the best deal on gas, but when I fill her up with premium, ouch, I scratch my head and empathize with the average Joe and Josephine.
 
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Home demand in Bend is so high the city changed the new minimum for lot development to 4000 sq', so developers are infilling every postagte stamp they can scoop up. City also pushed the Urban Growth Boundry further east with plans for another 10,000 houses, and recently rezoned a previously large acreage 'protected' in city parcel for 5,000 small lot homes. Bend is turning into what the folks who moved here decades ago were purposefully fleeing.
8 billion folks on a shrinking rock. Best to just find a place that meets the needs, make a stand, focus on the good....the only thing we can control in this life is how we react to it.
 
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