Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
thoughts on housing market?
Aside from areas that were dramatically hit with the downturn (like Las Vegas, Detroit) I think we've all seen a modest downturn in house values since 2006. Do you think the market will continue in this trajectory? Or are we coming to the rebound point?
I'm house hunting but I've been watching some houses that have been on the market a while (6+ months) and if the market will come down some more I could see loosing money if purchased now. It may be best to wait another year for the market to stabilize.
-thoughts?
Re: thoughts on housing market?
I think there will be another few years of downward pressure on the market, with a few bright patches and it will slowly gain momentum.
In addition to other problems, there are thousands of foreclosed homes banks are just sitting on that haven't hit the market yet. Eventually those houses will have to be unloaded which will again increase the supply in the midst of low demand.
I do think most who buy now will initially "lose" value on their homes though not as steeply as they did in recent years. This is why I don't think most people should be buying homes with the intent of moving out or moving up in 3-5 years. You're going to take a hit if you buy now and turn around and sell right away. If you can stay for longer term, buying now can make sense and you'll see your property value return and eventually increase. My feeling is that price and value fluctuations are going to be much more specific to particular areas than they have been in the past. There will be exceptions but that is my generalized opinion.
I also think this is heavily location specific. We live in the small town Midwest, and it is a big buyer's market right now, and while it doesn't seem to be getting worse, it doesn't seem to be getting better either. Our realtor is telling his sellers to expect at least 6 to 9 months on the market, when before 3 months was pretty average. Most of the houses we have seen have been on the market for over 3 months with no offers at all.
Now, where my parents live, the market doesn't seem in as bad of a shape, however, the foreclosure rate is going up, so the market may actually be going down.
I agree with PP that you need to go by the house itself. That is what we are trying to do, but obviously we do take into account if there are several similar houses going for much less and the seller seems to be trying to get a pre-recession price for the house.
It is completely market specific and even neighborhood specific.
Homes in my neighborhood are selling for asking price within a month of listing (which is steadily rising with each new listing). So, I'd say my neighborhood is in an upswing.
It is a futile effort to try to predict the absolute "low" of the market in your area. The time to buy a home is when you are financially ready and find a home that suits your needs/wants within your budget.
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
You live in the twin cities, right? any TC-specific opinions?
Yep, TC
Take it for what you will since I'm not a REA. I think prices in the second-tier and urban sprawllish suburbs will continue to deteriorate at a faster pace than in the rest of the metro. They way overbuilt on the production tract homes and town homes and, like condo conversions, the market is just oversaturated and has a lot of distressed sales since so many people bought them new construction at insanely high prices before the crash.
What I've observed is that prices in established suburb neighborhoods, particularly in the good school districts (think EP, Apple Valley) have been retaining their value more than newer construction. I haven't paid a lot of attention to prices within the city proper(s) since I'm a suburbs dweller.
What are your thoughts?
We live in a first ring suburb with a highly desirable school district (smallest district in the metro- you should be able to figure out my town from that). I know our prices have dropped a TON over the past 4-5 yrs, but I cant quite put my finger on what they are doing now. If anything I would say they are pretty flat. My neighbor just sold her MIL's house in less than a week (before the sign was even in the yard) for full price. But there are plenty of people who have houses sit for months. So it seems to just depend on the condition/layout of the house, and how realistic they price it. But- my neighbor's MIL's house was completely dated- like no updates since the 60's other than refinished HW floors- so.... ???
We are actually meeting with a Realtor on Monday to see what she says. We are debating some remodeling, and trying to get an idea of what it would mean for selling price, vs what we could get if we just sold it now.