What do you think of the home buying market?

[razelove]

I just see a whole lot about how we need more housing, there isn't any housing available. Yet I look on the market and I'm still finding places for under 100,000 without plumbing or roof problems that just need updating, maybe some siding and lack central AC.

I get that ideal houses, and newer houses are ludicrously priced right now, but you could buy like 8 places in the hood for one "nice" place in the burbs right now.

I could be biased though, what are your thoughts?

It's good

It could be better

[sage2021]

But I would wait until Trump is President and see if the interest rates go down and hopefully not up!

The slightest percentage of interest rates when buying a house makes all the difference in your mortgage payments.

One great piece of advice my mom gave me about buying a house is to have the taxes and insurance included in your mortgage payments.

It's so much easier to do it that way because you don't have to worry every few months about getting up the money to pay for house insurance and you will never have the tax man standing at your door for losing your house because you couldn't pay your taxes!
That's how my mom lost our house because she didn't have the money to pay the taxes and she lost her house 🏠😔 So that is solid advice right there for you!!
Best of luck 🍀🤞🏼 house hunting!!

[razelove]

Oh, I keep everything rolled up in my escrow right now, I'm looking to buy another house to crash at when I have night shifts close to work and have a room mate pick up most of the tab. Then maybe buy some more cheap houses in the area, and build up a portfolio of rentals that are paid off by the time it's retirement age.

[sage2021]

@razelove
Sounds like a plan for sure! And remember to get the insurance and taxes included in your mortgage payments! 😊 You won't be sorry 🙂

[sage2021]

Thank you for the MHO 🙂🧁🌷

[katiesmuff]

Prices are to high and interest is to high as well! We need to put a stop of hedge fund groups or big corps coming in and purchasing single family homes for renting or reselling purposes.

[razelove]

I would agree to that, but more so for the reason that when they do developments, the quality of house they're producing for the 400k "affordable" homes are absolute garbage. None of them that I've seen look like they would be anything less then a catastrophic wreck by the time they actually get the mortgage paid off.

Like houses made from particle board and great stuff.

[AviatorTom]

Now, in the US, is not a good time to buy. Mortgage rates are up, house prices have ballooned in the past few years, which limits the number of houses for sale. People can't afford to sell because they can't afford to buy a replacement house.

[razelove]

Well, people that can't afford to keep their homes sell, foreclosures, estates and divorces, but otherwise I agree with you.

[exitseven]

There are not many houses on thr market where I live. Anytime one goes on thr market it sells in a few days often for more than asking price

[razelove]

Are you in a major city? In my mind that would drive the market like crazy, property going up for sale in a major city, then it would fly even if it was in the ghetto and overpriced.

[exitseven]

I am near a major city and I live in a very desirable town. I get postcards in the mail from realtors wanting to sell my house. I could get a lot of money got it but the problem is that you have to live someplace.

[razelove]

I kind of had that with my first house. When I bought it the place was barely move in ready, but was cheap, and big enough for my family at the time. The area got gentrified, and I found another place that was bigger, near the same price I had paid, and in a better school district, so I flipped it.

It made me nervous because though it was nice on paper, that was my house, and I had a kid on the way, it was a little nerve wracking. Everything worked out really well though. The house I'm in now shot up in value because of covid and all, but my kids are settled in here and this is home. I get both sides of that. The money, and the comfort of home.

[exitseven]

Thanks for the MHO😎

[DrPepper12]

Where TH do you live that you can get anything other than a soggy refrigerator box under $100K?

I can't touch 75 yr old stock for less than $800K. New construction is $1.3 mil plus!

[razelove]

Southeast Louisiana. Granted the newest houses I'm finding in the sub 100k range are in the 60's to 90's, one for 65k in that 75 year band you were talking about, all small places though.

If I was looking for larger family houses that would go up more. Building code is pretty loose here and can vary parish to parish.

[DrPepper12]

Incredible. Truly.

[RedInnocent69]

Rising as a result of lowering interest rates, and soon to be less regulation

[razelove]

Sounds about right, except the regulation part, in some areas if there was less regulation the power company would refuse to hook up, that's about the case where I'm at. Pretty much the only hard and fast rules are for your power hook-up, and if you want to get flood/homeowners insurance for your roof to pass inspection (like it won't blow off).

Also that a septic tank isn't spewing live e coli during the inspection, that's another hard and fast rule I forgot, you can build leaking raw sewerage, but you can't sell the same way unless it's a sewerage retention pond.

[RedInnocent69]

I was thinking more about bank deregulation giving them more power to screw people and make more money, but okay, that too

[razelove]

Oh, well yeah, it's about time us leeks get harvested again, I was thinking that after talking to @OddBeMe. We all got screwed in 2008, except the companies that got bailed out, they made out like kings. Then we got screwed again having to pay off their bail outs.

Why the hell wouldn't they do it again? Reversing positions, I surely would, that's two different worlds where they're looking at us like an ant farm that shits money when it dies.

[RedInnocent69]

Trump literally campaigned on it…

[razelove]

So did Kamala, I didn't vote this time, it was a choice of get fucked, or get fucked while getting pillow talk.

[RedInnocent69]

Not deregulating banks, though

[OddBeMe]

@razelove you didn't vote? Then stop fucking complaining

[razelove]

@OddBeMe I'd prefer to make money right now to invest. If I would have voted it would have been for Trump, which was already a lockdown in my state. Getting more hours and overtime seemed like a better bet than taking a day off to add a drop to a pond. He was the best of non-ideal choices in my opinion.

What are you seeing me complain about besides things that I want to change in my own life? I accept that I'll never be in that high vantage point in power or wealth. I can at least move to upper middle class with some rental properties though.

[OddBeMe]

I just hate non voters. You bitch and protest the obvious shit but can't be relied on to get your ass up for an hour and cast a ballot.

[OddBeMe]

I'm also speaking of the ladies and minorities who were absent from voting too. No doubt they'll be picketing trumps inauguration. Lol

[OddBeMe]

Anything can be better. A healthy market goes through ups and downs.

[razelove]

Yeah, the only down I can remember was 2008, but then our tax dollars saved all the underwriters and let those who owned or defaulted on homes go underwater.

[OddBeMe]

That was a definite down. But perhaps all markets have an issue of being so large they drag the economy with it.

[razelove]

People were being screwed out of their homes and all of their belongings before then by loans, hell, isn't that the main problem in the movie "It's a Wonderful Life"? We just amplified the problem and made the bubbles bigger and nationwide with corporations like fannie mae and freddie mac. Especially with them getting incentives from the government. I can't think of anyone else that could/would underwrite a first time home buyer loan.

[OddBeMe]

And now markets have less completion of too big to fail so a bad quarter pulls everything down

[Kelly6]

It’s worse but I doubt it will get better

[razelove]

Well, that's easy to say, but likely the home market will get much much worse in major cities, and ludicrously cheap in more rural areas as less people are born and wealth is more concentrated going into the future. Japan is already going through that where rent and home prices consistently increase in major cities, but you can buy houses an hour away in basically abandonded areas for 10-25,000 depending on the condition.

I could see the same happening in the US, or major players like blackrock pushing legislation to demolish blighted homes on taxpayer funds to keep the prices rising. The US is having less children than the replacement rate right now, and has been for almost two generations, the current one and Gen Z.