sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

I bought a home for my son and one for my daughter this year. It was very frustrating for it took several months before we could grab ones that had not been sold within days of listing and they had been going for at or above the asking prices.

Our realtor told me that his business has never been so good for there has been a rush of people wanting to leave the inner city life due to the concerns of unrest, rising crime and drugs and for social distancing. He added that he had several clients coming in from other states where taxes and schools were driving them to come here.

Fortunately I was able to get the two homes that I had hoped for and the one for my daughter I bought as the first person to view it. I offered to pay half on each and my son and daughter would make payments over time to me for the remainder.....yeah, right...I should live so long.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

There is an assumption by many people that growth yields prosperity. Building more houses creates new tax revenue for towns. At the same time, people do not want to live next to industrial or commercial areas.

The American Farmland Trust did a study probably 40 years ago on the cost of community services. Residential development does bring in more taxes but it also costs the town due to increased demand for services. More roads to maintain, more emergency facilities, more school facilities, increased load on regulatory offices in the town.

There have been many studies since the first one done by different groups and they all come up with similar conclusions. For every dollar the town gets from residential taxes, it has to spend anywhere from $1.10 to $1.50 in services (this is why there is an increase in fees for some town services). For commercial and industrial land, the cost to the town is in the $0.40-$0.75 range. For open space and farm land, the cost is in the $0.10-0.30 range. Clearly open space and farm land is a good deal for towns.

Of course residential land is important. People have to have a place to live. But a mix of land uses is a good idea for all towns. Commercial and industrial uses are important because the people who live in the town need a place to shop and a place to work. Open space gives people a place for recreation.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

👍👍

fetzler Loc: North West PA

Real Estate prices depend on location, location and location. Real Estate prices in New York City, Portland and Seattle are declining as the rats escape these sink ships. Other places will benefit. I am sure that you can still get a real low price in Detroit - the problem is that you will have to live there. I sold my father's beautiful home in Detroit a bit more than 20 years ago. It is still fine as I chose the folks carefully. The poor bastards will never recover their money, however.

hj Loc: Florida

I don't understand some folks logic. Here in Florida, many 40 year old houses are selling for only about $30K less than a comparable NEW home. I'll take the new home anytime for no more increase than that. Consider the price of putting a new roof or new heat/AC unit or new appliances in just a few years.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

But it also leads to higher prices and "boutique" stores catering to those with lots of money. There are whole towns like that in this area.

Triple G

Tourist country?

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Yes, older houses can require some expenditures if not kept up to date, but the structure and quality of materials may be better as well as more attractive moldings, taller ceilings and bigger windows. When I look at the PEX plumbed houses with extensive use of thin steel gussets and hangers on joints and nailed with a framing nailer, composite beams, 2” baseboards, etc., I wonder if they will outlast the mortgage.

The house I’m lucky enough to own was built by an architect using finish carpenters 60 years ago with all tile baths set in concrete and wire mesh, 2x lumber that is really 2” wide, hardwoods over two layers of 3/4” plywood, copper water lines, brass drains, soldered electrical connections, copper gutters and solid six panel doors. I’ve updated the HVAC and other infrastructure items, added granite countertops, etc, and it is as solid, straight and level as the day it was built, and I have no doubt it will last another 60 years. My last house was 100 years old. I loved the tall ceilings, plaster walls, 10” baseboards and glass door knobs. And the new owners paid more than an equivalent house in the burbs to get the style, location and old growth trees. To each his own.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I used to buy rough cut lumber straight from the sawmill. The 2x4s were 2" x 4". But they were not kiln dried nor were they planed smooth. Rough cut implies that. They came straight from the saw. They were stick stacked outside so there was about as much drying as you would expect from a pile of firewood.

My first home was built in the early 1900s and was constructed from rough cut lumber. The materials were good and I had no problems with the structure. My second home was built by a local guy who had a good reputation. He also used good materials although in 1951 they were 1.5x3.5. But there was some horsehair plaster.

The only thing we really did was sand down a hardwood floor that had been there for 60 years. We also took down a wall between a small kitchen and a just large enough dining room to make one large area that was much more useful.

DRam11 Loc: Polson, MT

People are flooding into Montana and housing prices have skyrocketed. The agent who handled the purchase of our home 16 months ago said it would bring $80,000 or more than what we paid. People have been buying homes site unseen, just sending money to hold it until they get here. Other homes have been listed and ended up in almost an auction as multiple buyers make higher offers. During the summer homes were on the market only 1 to 2 days before being sold. Talking to my children and friends around Montana it’s been the same everywhere in the state. People just can’t wait to get away from the West Coast or other high population areas.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

Remember that the people fleeing the homeless/riot hellholes may have sold the 500 square foot closet they lived in for $1 million (would have been $2 million a year ago but the neighborhod went to hell.) When they show up in normal country where a 2500 square foot home on a half acre comes on the market for $400K with lots of interested buyers, they can offer $500K to be sure they get it and still feel like they got a great deal. They may still have money in the bank, so loan interest rates aren't really a factor to them.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

With all these millions of people fleeing/moving to other States what are they doing about jobs ? I accept that if enough move there will be extra jobs catering to the freshly moved but with the amount of it going on and few new jobs being created all you are doing are shifting the jobless.
And you think the US has got it bad ? Come to NZ and double/triple the prices (even allowing for the exchange rate). Central banks really have something to answer for.

wrangler5 Loc: Missouri

Supposedly there's a lot of work from home work that can be done FAR away from where people lived. It remains to be seen whether that will last if we ever get over counting "cases" (and ruling that somebody who fell off a 10 foot ladder and died but tested positive for the Chinese Flu postmortem died "from COVID-19") and go back to living with the flu every year the way we used to. I've been retired for a long time, but I suspect ongoing businesses will find that there are real losses from not having people work in the same place where they can interact with each other routinely, and would not be surprised to see "offices" come back in style. In which case, working from the country may no longer work for these refugees. (And maybe real estate prices will drift back down when they all have to sell and move back to the city.)

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Sanding hardwoods is an art, and not to be taken lightly. The first Oak floor I laid, sanded and gloss urathaned was not pretty. I came in the next morning, saw the dips, and almost cried, but I learned. The house I live in now was built in about 60 when wall-to-wall carpeting was in vogue. Not long after I bought it, I started ripping out the carpet, room-by-room and laying hardwoods over the 2 layers of 3/4” plywood. This time I bought a Porter Cable pneumatic nailer and choose Bellawood (Norm Abram’s favorite) 3/4” prefinished T&G. They bake on an alumina finish, and after you nail it down, like unfinished T&G, you’re done - no sanding, no dust, and the finish is 10x as tuff as urathane. I did the first floor in Brazilian Cherry and the second floor in Oak. Took several years, and many truckloads of lumber. A box of 22 sq ft of Oak weighs about 45lbs, and a box of Cherry closer to 70. Glad I got it finished before my last heart attack 😳.

rcl285

Since most people get a mortgage to buy a house, the thing that counts is how much you can afford for a monthly payment. I ran a quick program which calculates the monthly payment for a house which sells for $400k, requiring a $100k down payment. If the interest rate is 4% for a $300k, 30 year mortgage, the monthly payment is $1432 per month. If the interest rate drops to 3%, the payment drops to $1265. I can now afford to go up a bit in the monthly payment to get a more expensive house. How much? With a bit of calculation, you will find that for your initial amount of $1432 per month, you could now afford a $340k mortgage.