NFR How's the housing market where you live?

Non-fishing related
swimmy said:
That's a lot of questions.
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No, not really. A single question…do you think the market will solve this issue on it’s own?

The other sentences with question marks were follow ups on the same question. If we were chatting in person, that’s how the conversation might flow. Unfortunately, we’re chatting via a forum and not in person though.
 
It may have been mentioned already, but it is scary how the suburban mentality hits rural areas. It is painful enough seeing prices within a 30-40 mile radius of Seattle skyrocket, but seeing homes in places like Three Forks going up but 500% is upsetting. My folks, an hour's drive from Bozeman, are seeing more and more commuters / telecommuters, and prices reflect that.

I am glad I was able to buy a home in Tacoma in the 90's as there is no way I could afford one now. I both kick myself and am thankful for not having rental property; while it would be nice to see extra dollars roll in, it is hard to imagine "adjusting" rent to compete with the market as I have seen around here.
 
Zak said:
I moved to coastal Washington, North of Seattle, from Vermont in 2019. We owned our home in Montpelier (Vermont's quaint capital). It was a 3bdrm 2bath on half an acre. Nice house, nice landscaping with established blueberry patch, apple trees and perennials. Nice view. We sold it for $275K and were happy with that price. We'll use that to buy a house in Washington, we said. Little did we know that our total selling price would barely be a down payment here. We'll be renting forever, I think.
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Just replying to myself because of the "sad" likes to my post. We are completely happy with the move, and I don't really miss being a homeowner. Western Washington is much better suited to us than Vermont, and both my wife and I got jobs we really like that have room for growth. Yes, it sucks to be paying rent instead of building equity. But I am not a handy guy so anytime the house needed work, we had to hire someone to do it. I'm fine with my landlord being responsible for all that, now!
 
Sturubu said:
It may have been mentioned already, but it is scary how the suburban mentality hits rural areas. It is painful enough seeing prices within a 30-40 mile radius of Seattle skyrocket, but seeing homes in places like Three Forks going up but 500% is upsetting. My folks, an hour's drive from Bozeman, are seeing more and more commuters / telecommuters, and prices reflect that.

I am glad I was able to buy a home in Tacoma in the 90's as there is no way I could afford one now. I both kick myself and am thankful for not having rental property; while it would be nice to see extra dollars roll in, it is hard to imagine "adjusting" rent to compete with the market as I have seen around here.
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While I can certainly understand kicking yourself for not picking up a rental or two back when prices were a bit more rational, I would not want to own a rental anywhere near the Seattle area right now. Yes, you'd make a great profit of appreciation, but the current landlord/tenant laws heavily favor the tenant and many landlords in the area have not seen a dime of rent during Covid. Many landlords are so desperate to have their non paying tenants leave that the concept of "cash for keys" is a common strategy. I (landlord) offer you (tenant) cash to move out so I can either find a new tenant or sell. Of course there are still plenty of responsible, paying tenants but investors are looking at short term rental potential (Airbnb) versus long term tenants these days.
 
majpreal said:
While I can certainly understand kicking yourself for not picking up a rental or two back when prices were a bit more rational, I would not want to own a rental anywhere near the Seattle area right now. Yes, you'd make a great profit of appreciation, but the current landlord/tenant laws heavily favor the tenant and many landlords in the area have not seen a dime of rent during Covid. Many landlords are so desperate to have their non paying tenants leave that the concept of "cash for keys" is a common strategy. I (landlord) offer you (tenant) cash to move out so I can either find a new tenant or sell. Of course there are still plenty of responsible, paying tenants but investors are looking at short term rental potential (Airbnb) versus long term tenants these days.
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Another very good point! Stepping off my moral high horse, dealing with local regs cutting so much slack would be much more of a headache.
 
With regards to the Seattle area housing market, this type of announcement from one of the region's largest employers could also have a halo affect on the housing market. Amazon has typically been on the slightly lower end of the tech worker salary spectrum but have made up for that by offering Restricted Stock (RSU's) as a supplemental source of total compensation. It has certainly paid off for employees who stick around for the RSUs to vest. A lot of lenders don't like using any type of stock option for mortgage qualification because they'd be using "income" that hasn't been realized yet. In other words gain on paper only. But if Amazon starts beefing up salaries (W2 income) to attract more talent, those higher wages will lead banks to approve higher mortgages and increase their purchasing power. Oh and if the Seattle market seems nuts, it doesn't hold a torch to Bellevue where Amazon has signaled a lot of future growth since the City of Seattle has created a hostile environment for one of the region's largest employers.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ising-base-salary-cap-to-350-000-from-160-000
 
DimeBrite said:
Are home values really going up? Or is the value of the US Dollar continuing its long decline, which started in 2001. View attachment 4328
View attachment 4329

When priced in gold, US home prices have not increased all that much since hitting bottom in 2011-2012. The great housing bubble of 2000-2006 was much much worse. Our problem is the degradation of the US Dollar via incredibly poor fiscal and monetary policy. We are living in an "everything/everywhere" asset bubble. Supposedly the FED is going to raise interest rates multiple times in 2022-2023. Now is a good time to review your financial portfolio, these situations
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DimeBrite said:
Our problem is the degradation of the US Dollar via incredibly poor fiscal and monetary policy. We are living in an "everything/everywhere" asset bubble. Supposedly the FED is going to raise interest rates multiple times in 2022-2023. Now is a good time to review your financial portfolio, these situations never end well.
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It's like trying to navigate your way through a mine field. If one thought that going to cash/savings a year ago was a safe move, well a -7% real return really sucks. Get ready for a game of Frogger going forward. 🤕
 
I live in Kirkland and house prices in our neighborhood have gone crazy like they have everywhere. We are looking at retiring in a few years and were considering cashing in and moving to Northern Idaho where one of our kids live. Unfortunately for us house prices there have risen by a larger percentage then they have here. Suddenly its no longer the good deal it was just a couple years ago. The property taxes are way better in ID though. We may still do it eventually but staying put for now.
 
Sam D aka Mayfly Aviator said:
It's crazy in SE Idaho right now. We sold our last house for a 110% increase since original purchase in 2014. Less than a year later, the buyers sold it again for an additional 15%. We luckily found our current home prior to it hitting the market. The appraisal came back 25% higher that the purchase price. Lots of east coasters moving in to the neighborhood along with the usual suspects - CA, TX, etc.
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Funny you point to Texas as a culprit. For decades, there had been laws in place to keep affordability and availability reasonable. That way, people could buy if they wanted and could afford it. Apparently that's not true anymore?
 
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