This insane housing market.

[TipsyTraveler]

Do you have any crazy stories to share about the current housing market in your area?

Thankfully, I am not in the market for a new home and am just watching this insanity from the sidelines, but I feel badly for anyone who’s trying to buy right now. Inventory is so tight, competition is so tough, and the houses in my neighborhood are selling upwards of 50% more than we paid for our house just under two years ago.

This past Saturday I noticed an unusually high number of cars kept driving past my house. I made a comment to my husband about the “heavy traffic” which is funny because we live on a cul de sac street and there really shouldn’t be any traffic at all. Turns out, a house on the street went up for sale and mobs of people were coming to see it. It was not an open house, yet there was a line of cars parked on the street and people lining up on the sidewalk to see it all day Saturday and Sunday. This house had the highest asking price ever for my neighborhood and they stopped taking offers after 48 hours, so I’m pretty sure they got what they were asking for if not more.

Reading through a Nextdoor thread this week I saw the following:

• A man who said he’d successfully bought a home a few months ago against 20 other offers by offering 10% more than asking without ever seeing the house in person. A realtor responded to him saying he was lucky, that 10% above asking won’t get you into a house anymore.
• A woman who sold her house in a nearby gated country club ($$$$) a year ago, has submitted “all way above asking” offers on 13 homes since then and has been rejected every time. (I was surprised to see things are so competitive for the high-end inventory like it is for the rest of us unwashed masses.)
• The realtor who said she just took her client to see a house that had more than 100 offers on it.
• The woman who just listed her home and said most of the “well-above asking” offers she’s received are from buyers who haven’t even seen the house.
• The realtor who said asking prices are more or less moot at this point, the only thing that matters is how high the buyer is willing to go.

I mentioned on another thread a few weeks ago that I’d seen a realtor say the only people who were getting into houses were cash buyers and that she’d been advising her clients, if they couldn’t make a cash offer themselves, to have a (wealthier) family member buy the house for them in cash and then turn around and sell it directly to the client with a mortgage.

What a crazy time. I’m in the North Atlanta area. How are things in your area?

 

[ForceofWill]

It's crazy here in VA too. We're refinancing for a lower rate and a little cash out. The appraisal came back and I couldn't even afford to buy my own house if I was in the market lol.

 

[GreatLakes]

A friend in FL is a realtor and sells some high priced homes. He had a listing for $15 million and an offer came from out of state, having never seen the house, for $20 million because they really wanted it and were bidding against someone else. When asked if they want to come see it they said no. Turns out they are going to tear it down and build something new, they just wanted the land the house was on.

 

[Moliphino]

A house on my street recently sold immediately for $100k above asking. It's only about 300 sq ft larger than my house and a little more updated, but went for about $220k more than I paid for mine two years ago.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

It's crazy here in VA too. We're refinancing for a lower rate and a little cash out. The appraisal came back and I couldn't even afford to buy my own house if I was in the market lol.

Oh, I thank my lucky stars every single day that we got into our house when we did. I really wanted to live in this neighborhood and we absolutely wouldn’t be able to afford to now.

 

[WAstateDVCDaddy]

In the Seattle area here. We’re actually a suburb of Seattle (Amazon), Redmond (Microsoft), and Bellevue (Expedia, Amazon, others). So we kind of sit in a sweet spot - close enough for commuting (if that ever becomes a thing again), and also away from the in city issues.

we bought our house at the start of the last financial crisis, so caught most of the 2008 drop in prices. Since then, we’ve watched the Redfin estimates show our house value go up by 8-9% each year. The last estimate they sent us? A 30% increase from 6 months ago.

the average number of days on market in our area is now under 5 days - for homes that are all 20-30% higher than a year ago.

If we didn’t have a 5 year old to think about, I would sell my house, and retire to Bali! (Seriously)

my nephews have both recently bought homes (house, and condo) in CA and HI - I have no idea how they can afford the prices they paid. I hope for their sakes, that the values never drop, but I don’t see how it’s sustainable.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I'm in MD, 'burbs between DC and Baltimore. Very close in, near the I-roads, etc. It's nuts. I live in a neighborhood of 60's brick ranchers and split levels.

My next door neighbor retired and sold his house (identical to mine) for $200,000 more than what we paid for our house in 2013. More recently, about a block away, another house sold for twice what we paid for our house.

All of the recent sales in my area are well above $500,000. Half a million for a 60's ranch house or split level - around 2,000 sq. ft. What? I'm in the Twilight Zone. Or is it Tales From the Darkside.....

 

[Southernmiss]

Our son bought a house above asking price in December 2020 from a video that his realtor sent him before the home went on the market.

He and DIL had looked at over 20 homes that were all snatched up soon after listing before DS and DIL could get an offer in.

The realtor got wind that the home might go on the market. Visited the home, took videos and sent those to DS and DIL who lived an hour and a half away. Based on the videos and word of their realtor alone, they put an offer on the house that night and included a letter of why they wanted the house.

The offer was accepted.

They are pleased with their home-location and size they wanted. It would probably sell for more than they paid for it today.

 

[Redart59]

We just bought a piece of land in the villages in Florida to do a new build because we don’t want to play the bidding game.
Out design meeting is at the end of March but we are scared to death the the interest rates are going to soar before we get our currant house sold and lock into the new mortgage.
im hoping the market holds till at least June when we put ours on the market.

 

[punkin]

Down the street the same model house I have but with different updates (we got rid of a bedroom to make a master suite and have a brand new deck. They finished the basement and have a fireplace in the family room) just sold in 24 hours. They were asking $875. I'm shocked!

 

[Immadismom]

We’re in the market for a house right now. We have to be out of our rental by end of May. Prices are insane. But, looking at prior sales in the areas we’re looking, they are selling over asking, but not as much as I’m seeing here. I’m seeing $1,000 - $10,000 over asking, depending on house, neighborhood, lot size. We’ve seen 3 houses we were interested in so far, but not enough to make offers. All 3 sold by the next day.

 

[tvguy]

Our son and DIL signed a listing agreement on Thursday, they had 4 people request a tour THAT DAY. It didn't even hit MLS until the next day. They listed on Thursday, and opened offers the following Tuesday. 10 offers all over asking price on an entry level starter house.
Neighbor's Daughter and SIL were looking for a house. Her husband refused to make an offer until he had a couple of weeks to "think about it". He is an immigrant from Ireland and that how homes are bought there. Needless to say, all their offers ended up being backup offers on houses that already were pending. 9 months later she finally convinced him that the next house they like they would put an offer on immediately. The finally got a house.

 

[TippyThomas]

I bought just before the craziness happened.

 

[LilyWDW]

Yep.

I am 0 of 4 on offers so far. The last one I offered 10k over asking plus a flexible closing that the sellers needed. Didn't get it. That one really messed with me mentally too. Had about 2 days of full blown depression (I have a lot going on atm and it was that last straw). The market sucks, especially in my price range.

 

[butterscotchcollins]

We bought our house a year ago and paid more than it’s worth/over asking for sure. There were 2 others we’d put offers on and were rejected - one because another offer came in higher, and one because the listing agent was shady and only wanted to sell to her own buyers. Oh well, at least we got a sick interest rate on our mortgage XD And mortgage payment isn’t much more than our rent, but this old home is ours and we love it.

 

[WAstateDVCDaddy]

one because the listing agent was shady and only wanted to sell to her own buyers. Oh well, at least we got a sick interest rate on our mortgage XD And mortgage payment isn’t much more than our rent, but this old home is ours and we love it.

We had this exact issue when we were buying years ago. Made an offer close to asking. Next day we were informed another offer came in and sellers accepted that one. When sale information came out, the other offer was $1k over ours (on a $500K+ home). We were never asked to increase our offer or anything. Selling agent and listing agent turned out to be the same. Great for the buyer, but very shady and bad for us… and the seller. We would easily have gone up another $10k (we needed to buy something quickly).

 

[Skippy918]

I have a friend who was looking and she said all the houses needed an additional 30-60k cash on hand over asking price.
My neighborhood has gone up a lot. I couldn’t afford my house if I bought it today.

 

[georgina]

Sold our house in the Pittsburgh suburbs last April. Within 2 days of the listing we had 8 offers all over asking price, took the one that waived all inspections. There was nothing major wrong with the house but inspections turn up stupid small stuff so we were glad to skip it. We had put quite a bit of money into it before listing (2 new air conditioning units, new roof, work in the basement to fix some cracks in the walls) The people who bought it had missed out on a lot of houses previously. The area has always been a moderately priced area but home prices have definitely shot up. (We were asking 330,000, all offers were between 340,000 and 360,000.) A year before when we first started thinking of selling I would have been happy with 300,000. Looking at the area now it seems sales have slowed down a bit.

When we bought our house in Virginia we included an escalation clause in case there were multiple offers. Fortunately not needed.

 

[barkley]

it's nuts just like it was back in '05 and '06. i suspect there will be a market adjustment when rates go up, hopefully for recent buyers it won't be as devastating as the housing bubble burst though b/c that was and to some extent is still impacting people to this day-

the neighborhood i sold mine in 2006 at over triple what i paid for it in 1999? those houses have only JUST recovered back up to the purchase prices people paid in '05 and early '06. unless they put massive down payments on their homes they would have little equity.

 

[MillauFr]

One developer paid $7.8m for a 0.09 acres lot ($80m an acre) to buy a triplex near our house. The triplex itself wasn't worth anything. They just wanted the lot so they could build a 24 story apartment building. People in the Puget Sound have to move far away from Seattle if they want an affordable house. The closer you get to downtown the more expensive the houses get.