Has your housing bubble burst?

[Granny_Weatherwax]

DH and I have been thinking about selling and moving closer to DD and her family (about 70 mins away). It would just be an all around better place for us at this time in our lives.

We have been looking at homes (speaking with realtors and looking at realtor.com) in our current town as comps for selling our current home and at possible new homes in DD's area.

Around Oct 1st, prices plummeted. Between 10-20%. It's been awful. Our friend had listed her home for $149K, sold it for $130 and was happy to have that offer. A home we looked at was listed for $180K in Sept and is now down to $150K. When I look at Realtor.com, almost every home in both markets is showing a price decline.

A young couple we know is under contract for a home and the value dropped over 15% which puts them underwater on the home before they even close next week. Their market in a large city was so robust when they put in the offer, they went $50,000 over asking just to be considered. Now they're upside down and they don't even have the keys yet. I am not privy to all of the details but I do wonder if the mortgage company will allow them to purchase or if they will have to reenter negotiations. 

We needed a certain price out of our current home in order to move and that won't happen now so we're not going to list for a bit and continue working on the house.

I realize markets differ depending on location but we were surprised at the dramatic drop in 6 weeks. I hope all of the Boardies currently under contract are doing well and haven't experienced the drop.

 

[Katy]

Not here.  I expect it to do so around the time DH gets a job transfer because that’s always the way it works.

[PinkTulip]

Not yet, which has been a huge blessing to me. We listed our house on Wednesday afternoon, had several offers by Thursday night, accepted an all cash offer Friday morning for well over listing price, and close in 12 days. It’s insane to me what we were able to get for our home, but it’s going to help me in so many ways. 

[JustEm]

Not here yet. My parents are currently waiting for the closing date on the house they're selling. So, here's hoping it doesn't happen before mid november

[elegantlion]

I don't think ours has burst, but it has slowed down and I do see more price decreases than earlier this year. Prices, however, are still considerably higher than they were a year ago. 

Part of it is the makeup of our town - about 75k people. We have a lot of older homes built in the early 20th c or even late 19th, a wave of homes in the 60s & 70s, then modern construction. The older homes (both large & small) in move in condition sold well and quickly over the last year. It seems more of the older homes on the market now are somewhere between total gut & remodel or cosmetic fixer upper. They are sitting on the market longer. The 60s & 70s homes are selling well but not as quickly as over the summer. Those cosmetic fixer uppers are selling more quickly if they're priced lower. Newer construction moves a lot more slowly as they are the higher end of our market here and this is not a super transient region. 

 

*I look at houses for sale at least 3-4 times a week. Besides liking to look at photos of older homes, SO and I are hoping to buy a house in the next 18 months. 

[prairiewindmomma]

45 minutes ago, Granny_Weatherwax said:

DH and I have been thinking about selling and moving closer to DD and her family (about 70 mins away). It would just be an all around better place for us at this time in our lives.

We have been looking at homes (speaking with realtors and looking at realtor.com) in our current town as comps for selling our current home and at possible new homes in DD's area.

Around Oct 1st, prices plummeted. Between 10-20%. It's been awful. Our friend had listed her home for $149K, sold it for $130 and was happy to have that offer. A home we looked at was listed for $180K in Sept and is now down to $150K. When I look at Realtor.com, almost every home in both markets is showing a price decline.

A young couple we know is under contract for a home and the value dropped over 15% which puts them underwater on the home before they even close next week. Their market in a large city was so robust when they put in the offer, they went $50,000 over asking just to be considered. Now they're upside down and they don't even have the keys yet. I am not privy to all of the details but I do wonder if the mortgage company will allow them to purchase or if they will have to reenter negotiations. 

We needed a certain price out of our current home in order to move and that won't happen now so we're not going to list for a bit and continue working on the house.

I realize markets differ depending on location but we were surprised at the dramatic drop in 6 weeks. I hope all of the Boardies currently under contract are doing well and haven't experienced the drop.

 

The young couple could choose not to close on the house. They would just lose their earnest money.

The housing market here is still strong, the fundamental thing driving the housing prices up is the constraint of supply—particularly for single family homes—and that is still there. We don’t have lots for single family homes within the growth boundary, so existing homes are in scarcity compared to the demand. According to the real estate websites my house is worth $9k more than it was last month, and that seems to hold true with what I am reading in the monthly realtor reports. 
 

There’s always seasonal demand for the market. Here, traditionally, April was the month for the highest closing price. That doesn’t seem to be true now, but demand still slows a bit over winter.

 

[JustEm]

1 minute ago, prairiewindmomma said:

The young couple could choose not to close on the house. They would just lose their earnest money.

The housing market here is still strong, the fundamental thing driving the housing prices up is the constraint of supply—particularly for single family homes—and that is still there. We don’t have lots for single family homes within the growth boundary, so existing homes are in scarcity compared to the demand. According to the real estate websites my house is worth $9k more than it was last month, and that seems to hold true with what I am reading in the monthly realtor reports. 
 

There’s always seasonal demand for the market. Here, traditionally, April was the month for the highest closing price. That doesn’t seem to be true now, but demand still slows a bit over winter.

 

After being underwater on my house for 10 years after the collapse in 2007 and 2008, this is what I would advice most people do if they'll start out underwater.  The biggest difference right now is that interest rates are significantly lower than they were so in theory it is easier to handle being underwater.  But if someone isn't planning on being in their house for a decade at least I would encourage them not to buy a house they will be underwater on.  

[Carrie12345]

No. At least, not noticeably compared to pre-Covid.

Inventory is still kind of down here, sales of listings are still pretty fast, and all sites continue to raise my estimated value (though not in wild leaps anymore.) Sale prices appear to be averaging at list price, with some 5-10% over and some 5-10% under.

My builder is currently listing my model in a different town for about 1/3 more than I’m paying. I can’t see their chosen finishes yet, but it doesn’t appear to have a basement, raised ceilings, oak staircase, or some of the other upgrades we made.

[Selkie]

No, demand is still through the roof here. Lots of people are wanting to escape the big city a few hours away.

[Ali in OR]

No, supply is too constrained on the west coast and demand greatly exceeds supply.

[HomeAgain]

Just now, Selkie said:

No, demand is still through the roof here. Lots of people are wanting to escape the big city a few hours away.

Yep. Same.

It's affecting commerce and business at this point, because many can't afford to live here and work here now, so the further you get in to the area, the more issues there are with staffing.

A shack down the street from me sold for over $400,000 last month.  I'm talking SHACK: 2 bedrooms, "rustic" interior with plywood walls, and needing to be overhauled to make it livable. It was put on the market as the "perfect place to live off grid in a well established community" with a "backyard perfect for a large garden" (read: overgrown and full of brush).  Housing is so scarce that people are taking anything.

[Pawz4me]

I get the sense that things may have cooled off ever so slightly here. Like instead of a 103 fever it's down to 102. So . . . still plenty hot, just not quite as hot.

[prairiewindmomma]

2 hours ago, Katy said:

Not here.  I expect it to do so around the time DH gets a job transfer because that’s always the way it works.

I feel this.  Sorry.

[1234]

Not here. We listed ours three weeks ago, accepted an offer 8 hours later (above asking price), and close tomorrow. A neighbor listed theirs last week and they also accepted an offer within 24 hours. Things are still pretty hot here. 

[1234]

1 hour ago, Selkie said:

No, demand is still through the roof here. Lots of people are wanting to escape the big city a few hours away.

This is working in our favor since we are leaving the suburbs for the big city. 

[Bootsie]

I am not seeing a bubble burst locally.  Perhaps there has been a slow-down of the 14-15% price increases, but I haven't seen falling prices.  This tends to be a slower time of year in the housing market, so that isn't surprising.  

[fairfarmhand]

Not yet

[QueenCat]

Nope... we just bought a house that sold to us for 20ish% more than it would have last year. 

[Annie G]

2 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

I get the sense that things may have cooled off ever so slightly here. Like instead of a 103 fever it's down to 102. So . . . still plenty hot, just not quite as hot.

Same here. Three months ago houses sold over asking within a few hours of being listed, at prices 20% or more higher than last year.  Today there are houses that have been lowering prices the past month or two and are still not selling. They’re still priced higher than last year, but not as crazy high as they were this spring and summer.  

[Arcadia]

Houses are sitting on the market here longer but prices hasn’t drop. During the Great Recession, there weren’t many foreclosures or short sales, and many people just delisted instead of selling “low”.

[catz]

Wow, not at all.  We just had a house across the street from us sell in a few days at a listing price of 585K after watching a huge flow of traffic during the one open house.  4 bed/2 1/2 bath 2200 sq ft 1920's model in a desirable urban neighborhood, not super updated or anything.    

[Loowit]

Not here that I have seen.  Things have leveled off a bit the last couple months, which is a good thing.  But houses in my neighborhood are selling within days for the most part, and prices are staying pretty high.  I am shocked at what some houses are selling for.  Our house value has gone up a lot since we bought it three years ago, and when I checked on it (zillow) this month it had gone down a touch, not surprising for the time of year, but when I checked it today it was up a bit again.  I expect things will cool off a bit this winter, but not a huge drop.

[HS Mom in NC]

No, and it's not likely to anytime soon.  Dozens of tech companies have announced that they're moving or expanding to Raleigh and houses are dirt cheap compared to other tech cities.  People who can work remotely (mostly people in the tech industry) are selling their houses in extremely high cost of living areas and moving here. Plenty of tech companies are already in the area, and many are hiring.

Housing prices have been going up at a rate of $30,000 a month since spring.  They're getting double asking price and cash offers, sight unseen the day they go on the market.   They're getting $20,000-$80,000 in earnest money depending on how close to downtown Raleigh you are. We bought a second house in spring and the realtor said it's families buying and moving in, not investors.  Our adult kids live in it as they go back to school.

[Amethyst]

Yes. Cooling off a bit. Houses were selling in a day in the spring and summer. Now I’m seeing For Sale signs up for much much longer. I assume some of that has to do with the fact that school is back in session. Spring and summer are always more popular times for families to be looking to move. Perhaps you could wait until the spring before putting your house for sale - prices should go up a little just cuz it’s spring. 

[TechWife]

Not at all. Houses are still selling over the asking price. Most houses are sold within 48 hours of being listed. The ones that aren’t typically have serious issues or are listing over $1 million. Those are still selling, it just takes a bit longer. 

[SeaConquest]

Bwahahaha. I wish. The NYT just wrote a huge story about the housing crisis in California and used San Diego as the poster child for the story. People who cannot buy are renting (us -- no one would take my 750k VA home loan entitlement -- they only wanted all cash buyers, closing in 15 days! -- so we were forced to rent), driving rental prices through the roof (we pay over $4300 for a 3 bedroom apartment, and that took us several months of searching to finally get). UCSD students were told to look for housing in hotels because there wasn't enough housing available in the community for students. Both my hair stylist and a home health nurse, who did life insurance physical, have both expressed to me in the past month that they were seriously worried about being homeless for the first time in their lives (after their landlords booted them to sell their properties to investors, and they are both having difficulty finding new apartments that they can afford). It is a nightmare here. Lack of affordable housing is the primary reason people are moving out of state. 

Edited October 18, 2021 by SeaConquest

[rebcoola]

Cooling off but not a burst.  Our friends house has been sitting for a month but they are at a very high for the area price point which is always tricky.  Middle class homes are going quikly.

 

[Clarita]

17 minutes ago, SeaConquest said:

It is a nightmare here. Lack of affordable housing is the primary reason people are moving out of state. 

I think California will be one of the last hold outs. The housing prices are still going bonkers. 

[madteaparty]

I think it’s cooling, yes.  People that wanted to leave NYC were buying places sight unseen but now that everyone needs to be back in the office, the super commute is less fun. 

[Shoeless]

Housing market is still up here, but maybe not as out of control as it was a year ago.  I live in the corridor between San Antonio and Austin. I expect demand will stay strong for awhile. 

[klmama]

It's cooled a bit here. Houses were getting multiple offers well over asking price in 1-3 days, and now it's taking a week or more for most.  Quirky houses were selling quickly a year ago, but now they just stay on the market indefinitely.  Prices are reduced slightly from the highest point, although they are still 30-50,000 over pre-Covid prices.

[Eos]

6 hours ago, SeaConquest said:

Bwahahaha. I wish. The NYT just wrote a huge story about the housing crisis in California and used San Diego as the poster child for the story. People who cannot buy are renting (us -- no one would take my 750k VA home loan entitlement -- they only wanted all cash buyers, closing in 15 days! -- so we were forced to rent), driving rental prices through the roof (we pay over $4300 for a 3 bedroom apartment, and that took us several months of searching to finally get). UCSD students were told to look for housing in hotels because there wasn't enough housing available in the community for students. Both my hair stylist and a home health nurse, who did life insurance physical, have both expressed to me in the past month that they were seriously worried about being homeless for the first time in their lives (after their landlords booted them to sell their properties to investors, and they are both having difficulty finding new apartments that they can afford). It is a nightmare here. Lack of affordable housing is the primary reason people are moving out of state. 

This should probably be a spin-off but in my area the "investors" are entities and individuals who are buying homes for airbnb-type vacation rentals, not flippers.  We've cooled from same-day-cash-purchases-over-asking-price-sight-unseen to maybe a week on the market for most houses.  

Edited October 18, 2021 by Harpymom

[TravelingChris]

12 hours ago, Homeschool Mom in AZ said:

No, and it's not likely to anytime soon.  Dozens of tech companies have announced that they're moving or expanding to Raleigh and houses are dirt cheap compared to other tech cities.  People who can work remotely (mostly people in the tech industry) are selling their houses in extremely high cost of living areas and moving here. Plenty of tech companies are already in the area, and many are hiring.

Housing prices have been going up at a rate of $30,000 a month since spring.  They're getting double asking price and cash offers, sight unseen the day they go on the market.   They're getting $20,000-$80,000 in earnest money depending on how close to downtown Raleigh you are. We bought a second house in spring and the realtor said it's families buying and moving in, not investors.  Our adult kids live in it as they go back to school.

We are a mostly tech city too, and we keep getting really big divisions of huge companies move here too.  Plus we are having a new Mazda-Toyota plant opening up in the area I think next year  and with that, many more companies are either expanding or starting up to service that.  We have lots of space stuff expanding.  We have Bio stuff expanding. Just about every week, we are getting notified by our mayor or  group of local mayors and county council heads, that some new company or division is moving here with at least 150 people normally and often 500 or more,  and since our unemployment is something like 2.3% here, we have lots of people moving in to meet the demand and not enough housing. 

When I just looked on Zillow for my city, almost all the houses were listed as being on a few days.  And looking at two that lowered prices, I think those were flip homes and having been through this process with both dd1 and recently dd2-- flip homes are often either very shoddily done or way too high an asking price or both.  With dd1, the flip homes had things like floors that weren't flat, obviously very cheap materials, strange layouts, etc.  With dd2,  she only looked at 2 houses since she was buying a home in this crazy market.  The first home she looked at she found on Zillow and made an appointment to go see it and we went with her.  It turned out that the realtor who came wasn't the listing agent- and boy, was she happy with that, and the house was extremely overpriced, the listing contained all sorts of lies about the place (like the appliances were top of the line, when they were actually the bottom of the line, that the counters were stone or granite, and when I brushed against it the peel off fake granite plastic top came apart from the wood counter, the layout was extremely strange, etc, etc).  The real estate agent was also horrified at the place-it had been bought for 75,000 in Jan 2021 and with very minimal expenditures (since I found the photos from the listing back then), was being resold for 215,000.  The house she just closed on Friday was smaller than they wanted (by a lot) but in very good condition, all on one floor-which should help dd who has autoimmune issues she needs to get sorted out, and in very good neighborhood not near to a crime area as the other house was. 

[TravelingChris]

7 hours ago, SeaConquest said:

Bwahahaha. I wish. The NYT just wrote a huge story about the housing crisis in California and used San Diego as the poster child for the story. People who cannot buy are renting (us -- no one would take my 750k VA home loan entitlement -- they only wanted all cash buyers, closing in 15 days! -- so we were forced to rent), driving rental prices through the roof (we pay over $4300 for a 3 bedroom apartment, and that took us several months of searching to finally get). UCSD students were told to look for housing in hotels because there wasn't enough housing available in the community for students. Both my hair stylist and a home health nurse, who did life insurance physical, have both expressed to me in the past month that they were seriously worried about being homeless for the first time in their lives (after their landlords booted them to sell their properties to investors, and they are both having difficulty finding new apartments that they can afford). It is a nightmare here. Lack of affordable housing is the primary reason people are moving out of state. 

We do not have the same prices but within the last month and a half, we have had several stories in our local news or in my newspaper about people who have moved here and can't find housing. Those people are begging on social media for housing solutions, staying in regular motels if they didn't preplan long ago enough, staying in campgrounds, buying trailers, RVs, etc, staying with friends, acquaintances, or moving far away.  My cleaners moved from MS recently and ended up in a city that is 40 miles away from my house and even further away from many of their other clients who are mostly in my city.  House prices and rental prices have risen tremendously and it is starting to become a big issue- though many, many  houses and apartments are being constructed and also in my area of town, which was built in the later 60s, there are still a number of original owners, or later owners who are just old and as they die or move to alternative housing like retirement homes, that opens up more housing.  Though, I think the demand for group living has probably greatly diminished.  And it doesn't help that one new so-called luxury independent living, assisted care and memory care place built on the other side of the mountain I live on, got a large fine from HUD for not having an ADA compliant living space.  They neglected to make wheelchair, rollator, walker, crutches, etc accessible sidewalks and also had a number of places with stairs and no elevator, no ramp, nothing at all.

  Last week, I believe,  there was a story about how the city dd2 and dsil has people with Section 8 housing vouchers but no houses or apartments that will accept them. And the cause was that no one needed to accept the Section 8 housing when the demand of people who don't need any government bureaucracy involved, is so very high.  (I know that in low demand or normal demand, often times people are willing to trade the govt hassles for the fact that they are guaranteed to get most of their payment since it comes from the govt but in times when there is such a demand for housing, the landlords can be very picky).  

And last month we also had stories about the increase in homelessness too- not necessarily the usual mentally ill or substance abuse users homeless- just people who can't find housing that they can afford or they have bad history so landlords don't want them and don't need to want them since they have so many applicants for each place.  Both dd2 and her dsil buying in a nearby city and ds and ddil renting in my city were the first people to look at their respective houses and had strong applications.  Ds and ddil had to have a guarantor for their house rental and we were the guarantors and that let them have the house -because they will be using 35% of their current income on this rental.  As it is, we have helped with paying their rents (they still have 3 apartments and house they are renting- because of slow moving, getting out of lease issues, and because they couldn't get married until last Friday and as it was, she didn't want to marry on Friday because it is her ex\s bday.

 

[Sneezyone]

Nope. Don’t expect a crash here either due to location and school ratings. Slowdowns in sales may come but not a crash.

[kristin0713]

Definitely not here in NJ or in PA.  

We have a friend with a rental property that just experienced a bidding war for his rental house and ended up renting it to a woman  who paid two full years of rent in advance!  

[TexasProud]

5 minutes ago, kristin0713 said:

Definitely not here in NJ or in PA.  

We have a friend with a rental property that just experienced a bidding war for his rental house and ended up renting it to a woman  who paid two full years of rent in advance!  

See that worries me. What about all of the people who barely make it month to month.  They deserve a safe place to live.

[Sneezyone]

I finally asked, last week, to be removed from the call list for an entity trying to buy our rental. It’s not even in the ‘right’ part of town but they were still asking if we wanted an all cash offer. Maybe the mid range homes are still pinched, or maybe we’re totally under-pricing the rent? We should probably do a market eval on the rent rate. It rents for $100 more than when it became a rental in 2012/13

Edited October 18, 2021 by Sneezyone

[KungFuPanda]

I don’t think I’ve had an unsolicited call from someone offering to buy my (not listed) house for a few weeks. Maybe that indicates a slow down? I also haven’t checked the mail in a while, so there’s probably a few postcards out there. 😕

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I wonder if our turn down is because of our state/regional economics. We never experienced the extreme pricing like other areas, just a nice uptick in value that brought most properties back up to what they were before the last recession. With the recent drop, our house is about equal to what we bought it for 14 years ago. I would love to know what my house is worth in other markets. Or maybe I don't;it would just depress me.

I checked Realtor.com again for data in our area. There are 112 homes for sale. 3 homes over $300,000. 14 between $180k and $300. 40 between $90 and $179k. 55 under $90K. Some of the under $90k homes are cute, just small. Many of those, however, are fixer-uppers.

From what you all are saying, if someone had a good paying job that allowed them to telecommute/work from home, this is the place to buy. Taxes are outrageous due to state economics but the price per square foot can't be beat.

I can only imagine what it must be like to live in an area with such pressure on the housing market. I feel for those who struggle to find safe, adequate housing.

[klmama]

3 minutes ago, Granny_Weatherwax said:

I checked Realtor.com again for data in our area. There are 112 homes for sale. 3 homes over $300,000. 14 between $180k and $300. 40 between $90 and $179k. 55 under $90K. Some of the under $90k homes are cute, just small. Many of those, however, are fixer-uppers.

Wow.  I can't even imagine prices that low in our area!  There are only two houses here for sale under $180; both are tiny (around 800 sq ft) and major fixer-uppers.  The average price here is 340K, but it ranges up to a couple of million.  New construction is running around 575K for an 1800 sq ft 3 bedroom 2 bath ranch with unfinished basement.  

[Pam in CT]

Every location I've ever sold a house in has a regular season -- in good-school suburbs, there's a lot of turnover during the summer as families time the moves so as to coincide with the end- and start- of the school year; in places near coasts or lakes or other summer activities, there's a lot of turnover in spring (folks wanting the beach house for the season) and a smaller blip at end-season (bc owners who can afford to hang on for one last wistful season do); and very little movement over Nov-Jan (because who wants to keep their house clean, over the holidays, to show it).

So in my current area, which is very much a come-for-the-schools area, this is an ordinarily slow season.  And we're past the initial surge of New Yorkers flocking out because the city was eerily COVID weird.

But it's still pretty strong -- a fever of 103 vs 102 is a good way to put it -- because a lot of New York employers have learned that a lot of their workforce can actually accomplish a lot of their work remotely, either full time or 2-4 days a week; so the tradeoffs of living out here (even if still going in a couple days a week) is very different.

 

[Sneezyone]

1 hour ago, Granny_Weatherwax said:

I wonder if our turn down is because of our state/regional economics. We never experienced the extreme pricing like other areas, just a nice uptick in value that brought most properties back up to what they were before the last recession. With the recent drop, our house is about equal to what we bought it for 14 years ago. I would love to know what my house is worth in other markets. Or maybe I don't;it would just depress me.

I checked Realtor.com again for data in our area. There are 112 homes for sale. 3 homes over $300,000. 14 between $180k and $300. 40 between $90 and $179k. 55 under $90K. Some of the under $90k homes are cute, just small. Many of those, however, are fixer-uppers.

From what you all are saying, if someone had a good paying job that allowed them to telecommute/work from home, this is the place to buy. Taxes are outrageous due to state economics but the price per square foot can't be beat.

I can only imagine what it must be like to live in an area with such pressure on the housing market. I feel for those who struggle to find safe, adequate housing.

That sounds a bit like the area my family/our house is in. Still, the area around our home is gentrifying and the rental pressure is high because there are lots of people who don’t want to buy or can’t buy. I hadn’t checked the rental rates in over a year because our tenants signed a two year lease and the sales price had only just recovered to the price we paid in 2007. Rental prices are significantly higher than sale prices. Our house would easily rent for $400-$500 more than we’re currently getting based on neighborhood comps.

[Roadrunner]

Very funny. 😞 

My under 1k sf shack that is falling apart one pipe at a time is apparently a million. 
 

Here real estate is no longer local. Between Bay Area tech types, foreign buyers, and corporations, there is enough cash to throw us all out of our homes. I really wish they would tax the crap out of second and third homes and double tax foreign buyers as Canada does. There is no other way anybody locally could ever see their kids afford to stay here. Outright anger here among local population. 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Roadrunner

[Pam in CT]

23 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

Very funny. 😞 

My under 1k sf shack that is falling apart one pipe at a time is apparently a million. 
 

Here real estate is no longer local. Between Bay Area tech types, foreign buyers, and corporations, there is enough cash to throw us all out of our homes. I really wish they would tax the crap out of second and third homes and double tax foreign buyers as Canada does. There is no other way anybody locally could ever see their kids afford to stay here. Outright anger here among local population. 

Either of these provisions would go a yuge way, over the long term, toward shifting the market -- actually, multiple markets, construction of new housing and rental markets as well as resale of existing stock - towards more normal-sized housing, toward families who own just-one house, and towards American residents rather than international buyers looking to park assets in multimillion gold-plated apartments and McMansions.

But there'd be as many losers as winners; and among the biggest losers in the short term would be the biggest real estate interests; and so it's extremely unlikely to happen.

 

 

Citizens United, folks.

[Roadrunner]

8 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

Either of these provisions would go a yuge way, over the long term, toward shifting the market -- actually, multiple markets, construction of new housing and rental markets as well as resale of existing stock - towards more normal-sized housing, toward families who own just-one house, and towards American residents rather than international buyers looking to park assets in multimillion gold-plated apartments and McMansions.

But there'd be as many losers as winners; and among the biggest losers in the short term would be the biggest real estate interests; and so it's extremely unlikely to happen.

 

 

Citizens United, folks.

It’s unlikely to happen because politicians make huge dollar from developers and others who benefit from this mess of turning primary housing into a gambling machine and have no reason for them to advocate for a common men. 

Edited October 18, 2021 by Roadrunner

[Sneezyone]

Developers aren’t the only property owners. Most landlords are small businesses with 1-3 rentals.

[Roadrunner]

2 minutes ago, Sneezyone said:

Developers aren’t the only property owners. Most landlords are small businesses with 1-3 rentals.

In hot markets though where shacks are going for millions, new buyers for rent are almost always either massive millionaires or corporations. 
We have a neighbor who owns 15 properties for short term rentals. All her money coming from overseas. We get cash offers in mail asking us to sell on behalf of foreign buyers. And I know corporations are outbidding everybody with cash. 
I think smart taxation can really cool this madness and keep single family homes for families and out of the daily rental market, and there is a way to prioritize people who live locally, but there is no political will for it. Politicians are there to get rich sadly. 

[Sneezyone]

2 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

In hot markets though where shacks are going for millions, new buyers for rent are almost always either massive millionaires or corporations. 
We have a neighbor who owns 15 properties for short term rentals. All her money coming from overseas. We get cash offers in mail asking us to sell on behalf of foreign buyers. And I know corporations are outbidding everybody with cash. 
I think smart taxation can really cool this madness and keep single family homes for families and out of the daily rental market, and there is a way to prioritize people who live locally, but there is no political will for it. Politicians are there to get rich sadly. 

I don’t disagree with that. IJS I wouldn’t set the bar at a single home. You’d dry up the rental market for SFHs. There will always be people who both want and need to rent.

Edited October 18, 2021 by Sneezyone

[Pam in CT]

re targeted taxation to cool down the very-high-end, internationally-inflated end of the housing market

2 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

...Here real estate is no longer local. Between Bay Area tech types, foreign buyers, and corporations, there is enough cash to throw us all out of our homes. I really wish they would tax the crap out of second and third homes and double tax foreign buyers as Canada does. There is no other way anybody locally could ever see their kids afford to stay here. Outright anger here among local population. 

 

2 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

Either of these provisions would go a yuge way, over the long term, toward shifting the market -- actually, multiple markets, construction of new housing and rental markets as well as resale of existing stock - towards more normal-sized housing, toward families who own just-one house, and towards American residents rather than international buyers looking to park assets in multimillion gold-plated apartments and McMansions.

But there'd be as many losers as winners...

 

2 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

Developers aren’t the only property owners. Most landlords are small businesses with 1-3 rentals.

Agreed.  The foreign-money-fueled, and glittery-multimillion-pricetag distortion of markets that I've seen that seems to be most desperately squeezing out normal-sized and normally-equipped housing is concentrated in and around a small handful of urban areas (NYC, Miami, LA, San Francisco etc), with the properties either standing mostly-vacant (there are entire very-luxe buildings in Miami that are eerily empty, serving essentially as gold bullion under a tax-advantaged mattress for Russian & Latin American gazillionaires), or under medium-term rental contracts to untraceable LLC owners.

There are ways to target the latter without unduly affecting the former, if the will were there. 

2 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

In hot markets though where shacks are going for millions, new buyers for rent are almost always either massive millionaires or corporations. 
We have a neighbor who owns 15 properties for short term rentals. All her money coming from overseas. We get cash offers in mail asking us to sell on behalf of foreign buyers. And I know corporations are outbidding everybody with cash. 
I think smart taxation can really cool this madness and keep single family homes for families and out of the daily rental market, and there is a way to prioritize people who live locally, but there is no political will for it. Politicians are there to get rich sadly. 

 

2 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

I don’t disagree with that. IJS I wouldn’t set the bar at a single home. You’d dry up the rental market for SFHs. There will always be people who both want and need to rent.

I believe (?) Canada's double-tax foreign purchasers is limited to particular cities (Toronto, Vancouver) that have experienced overheating / crowding out normal residential housing, rather than across the board.  Dunno re differences for 1st vs 2nd/3rd homes or square footage or other public policy parameters.