Got a Real Estate reality check yesterday
 

House across the street listed yesterday. There was a non stop stream of people from 8am to 7pm. Some realtors came alone giving phone video tours. 1500sq ft on city lot. 1925 house. Nice, but what I used to call blue collar (yes I live in one). It was a circus and a frenzy all day. Sold as of listing this morning. 340K list. I am hearing 50K over list is common now, up to even 100 I heard in one instance. It is literally an auction. In my life never seen anything like it. In a way I was sad seeing young mothers with babies in arms. There were a few. This is Kalispell MT btw.

I was up in Whitefish a couple weeks ago. I was amazed at all the builing going on in the area.... and blown away by the prices. What is driving the boom there??? I remember going up there when I was a kid.. late 1970's..early 1980's. Was really disappointed the area has been yuppyized with all the artsy fartsy crap and all the new construction. Reminded of California.. :(

Florida is same. Zillow has my house at 4X what I paid and don't think it knows about the garages.

The taxable value on my house went up $45K from last year. A couple houses on my block sold this spring, they were only on the market for a couple days and got multiple bids over asking price.

Our son and wife bought a home in central Florida a month ago. They missed about ten houses as they were selling faster than one could get an offer in. The one they got to buy had lookers scheduled every half hour all day, seller got to choose who would be the buyers. He was wearing a Gators cap and the owner and he chatted a bit and they were "chosen".

It’s really crazy out here. What bought you 3,000 sf in a really nice area 10 years ago now gets you 1,200 sf 3 bedroom in an “ok” area.

Yes real estate is crazy right now and $50,000-$100,000 over list. Homes selling in hours not days buyers waiving Apprasial of the home and building supplies going through the roof! My daughter and son-in-law just got a home in Orange County Ca! First time home buyers 1300sqft 3 bed 2 bath built in 1956 over $650,000. My first home $93,000 how do kids get a start with prices like that!! And if you’re selling…… where are you moving to, buying full price paying cash driving that state/ county prices up.
Craziness

Same up here in Canada, house close to me are selling at 100-150G over listed price. Just crazy.
was thinking about selling but, where do you go?? People are listing for stupid prices and getting it. 400-500G over tax assessments.

Exactly, just an interesting blip since have no desire to sell. Then family wanted sidewalks and good schools. I just wanted room to work. Now have empty nest but 2,000 sq ft of house (room for cats to stampede) and 2,000 sq ft of garage space. Plus pads. HOA approved. Close to attractions but still in county (low taxes). Be near impossible to replace.

Same in the Silicon Valley, not much under 1 million right now. Seems there is no end in site . Lots of house flipping going on. I have a new neighbor next door, paid 1.87m for a complete rebuild. Some guy paid 900k , gutted it left 1 or 2 walls. Probably made 500k profit on the venture.

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Houses in our neighborhood are now going for $200+/sq ft. We bought ours 5 years ago new for $110 sq ft. Almost makes me want to sell and find a plot out in the country and build a big garage.

The way lumber prices are right now I would be scared to build anything. Over double in just lumber costs.

Lumber pricing is down 40% since May.

https://www.ajc.com/news/lumber-pric...COIQM2ST2RSU4/

We're meeting with a builder next week for 2022 construction of our retirement home.

I wish someone would tell Home Depot lumber prices are down. I don't think they got the word.

My reality check came Tuesday afternoon at 6PM.

I'm months away from retirement, and have been looking for a nice home with a big workshop in the NC, VA, or TN mountains. My wife would prefer to stay closer to where we now live. I search Zillow daily, and a home popped up showing an estimated price of $220K that was being auctioned. The home was a 1000 sq ft single wide mobile home that had been bricked up and had a steel roof put on. It was on ten acres, but it was 45 minutes from my house, and about one hour fifteen minutes in light traffic from Raleigh. It was in small town called Goldston NC, with a population of about 400 people. No fast food, no chain restaurants, no grocery stores, a couple of locally owned restaurants, a garage, and a convenience store. The house has no cable TV, internet is through satellite, and cell phone coverage was horrible. The tract was ten acres, but it had about a 2000 sq foot pole barn that was nicely done. It was very peaceful , the lot was long and narrow and the home/garage was well off the road.

I was the opening bid at $100K, and I remained the high bidder until 1 minute before the auction closed with the price at $184K. The bidding was online, and if a bid came in just before the close, bidding extended three minutes every time a new bid came in. So at 5:59, the price bumped up $1K. I had already decided to bid up to $201K (there was a 10% buyer's premium tacked onto the sale price), and I hung in there until bidding reached $202K. After all, it was a mobile home in the middle of nowhere.

The price continued to rise, it finally closed at $253K, which cost the buyer close to $280K. Before the auction, I talked to a real estate in a nearby town, and he estimated $200 - 220K for the property.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5...50625888_zpid/

Two days later (Thursday), a nice 2000 sq ft brick house with a full unfinished basement showed up in Zillow. The house was in Hildebran, in the NC foothills. It had a 36 x 50 metal building and was on a 2 acre lot. The Zillow listing price was $350K. I sent an email to the listing broker asking if the unfinished basement was wide open (it had a single garage door entrance). The next day, he returned my email. He said he already had 13 offers over list price, and there were scheduled showings going on the rest of the day (Friday and through noon on Saturday). There were no more showings scheduled after noon on Saturday as they planned to present the offers to the owner, and all the scheduled showings had been filled. If I had any interest, I would have to make an offer without seeing the property.

It's gotten crazy, it has to be home speculators hoping to flip the home for a profit. It kind of reminds me of 2007, and we know how that ended. The Fed is even threatening rate hikes in 2023.

I'm going to keep looking, but I'm not buying into the hype.

Mike

The new Vail type thing. The ruining of the previously undiscovered. We have become the escape from everywhere USA to move (remote working) , and the discovered place to buy a second home for the wealthy. Big California and Texas money people (say billionaires) have moved in and are investing / building. I have 10 acres half hour south of here in the Salish range and now 10 more in SW New Mexico. My escape from this will be small cabins on both. I'm done with the nutso town stuff. It'll take a year or two to pull off.

As an aside, I would not sell a house I lived in before buying at least the land for the new one. You could get priced out even with cash in hand and wind up in a tiny dump.

The house on the corner sold a month ago. A woman with no furniture from Maryland is there in this big 1910 house and tall grass now. It is a weird world.

History tends to repeat particularly here. See the first Florida land boom. Bubble burst in 1925.

I just checked mine on zillow...$600,000+ It's a 2 bed, 1 bath on an acre. Crazy.

This is smelling like 2008 all over again but instead of sub prime mortgages, it's a propped up economy and stock market through tens of trillions in debt. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out this go-'round when SHTF. Pay off all debt, your home if possible, and stash a nest egg for hard times ahead. It's not a matter of "if" but "when."

Paid $385,000 Dec '19.. It's now worth $525,000-$550,000.. 1400 sqft on 1/2 acre California central valley.. Glad we bought when we did...