We live in a neighborhood that has houses from the 1980’s to one house that was completed and sold within the last year. They are clearing trees off three of the six wooded empty lots (there are just under 80 house lots in the neighborhood) looks like there will be three more new homes.

The house we live in has increased in value 5% in the last year and forecast say 5 to 6 % in the next year

We live in Eastern North Carolina.

If housing is rising at 5–6% yearly it means housing is the one investment ahead of inflation. Even if you buy a house and leave it empty, the return beats interest you’d acquire leaving the money in the bank.

We have had almost zero available rentals or homes for sale in the last two years, demand is very high for suburbia.

Any houses that are not complete dumps sell here quickly for at or above reasonable asking prices. It’s very much a sellers market.

They seem top be building quite a bit around me. Housing prices are up as well. Of course that means nothing. During the last bubble burst, the same could be said right at the beginning.

Everyone above, are a portion of the houses being bought by investors?

No, private individuals, though I suspect there is a developer that is buying up the land and organizing the building of the homes.

Not in my area (about an hour north of NYC) and in the cities north of NYC, there are a lot of luxury rentals going up everywhere. People commute to NYC but don’t want to pay 4k a month rent in the city, so they will pay 2k or 3k a month in Westchester. Luxury rentals have in-unit washer dryer, dish washers, and fancy lobbies with gyms. Posh.

As I said on your other thread about the housing market, second home buyers are pushing up prices in my part of the Jersey shore. There is also a lot of condominium development going up in some towns, some of it by Jared Kushner.

I see condos get flipped but it’s mostly single family homes. They end up in the hands of people who plan to live in them. The margin here for rental units is not the best. Flipping houses is not too profitable here either.

@JLeslie Not really, no. It’s a sellers market so people are selling their ‘starter’ homes in the 120k+ range.
Starter homes are getting four-five offers and always at ask or higher. There’s just nothing available unless you go big ($200–300k) and not many people seem to be going for the McMansions anymore here.

@KNOWITALL Wow! Starter homes here are around $350k and up and McMansions can be anywhere from the high sixes to the millions.

@janbb Cost of living is probably way cheaper here, too, though. My home is a decent 3 bed, 2 bath ranch, nice lot, was listed around $91k 15 yrs ago.

Many people from the coasts sell out and buy here because they get quite a nice set up for the money. Here’s a link if you want to look. https://www.thefirm417.com/-/ListingSearch/results/?display_page=2&lpp=20

No. It depends on the town, but you can’t get into a 3-bedroom, 1 bath, 1500 sq ft house for less than $600k around my area (and most are far higher).

@KNOWITALL Yes, but I imagine salaries are lower for those who are still working though.

@janbb Oh sure, we both work FT and have no kids, and we do pretty good. Not going without anything we want by any means.

Where I live, prices are similar to where @janbb lives. People can commute to the city from here and that’s where they make big bucks. Starting salary for government is around 50k. I remember going upstate for training about 15 years ago and their starting salaries were way less then ours (about 40% less) but they could buy a house for 70k. Here you can’t buy a shed for 70k.

The small 3/2’s with a 2 car garage here are about $190 starting, unless you include mobile homes. If you go right outside of my city to the next town then it’s cheaper.

Guess it really depends on where you living as to what housing costs. I bought my house 8 years ago. 1900 sq ft, 3 bed, 2 bath on an acre of land. I got it on a Short Sale and it was $130k. Since we moved in, they have built at least 20 new homes in the neighborhood. The last batch are smaller (1300 sq ft) 3 bed/2 bath on small lots and they are selling like hot cakes at about $200k. But just up the road (within 2 miles), there are neighborhoods you can’t get into for less than $350k.

Famous saying in real estate location location location.

Doesn’t seem to be here. The population of the Reno area is booming, especially as people from the Bay Area fed up with the high cost of living and the traffic come here. And even back in the Bay, it doesn’t seem like things are slowing down at any significant rate. An empty lot near my parents’ house recently sold for $2.1 million. Things are still hot there.

When things get really hot I guess I’m the type that I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Although, the last time a big downturn happened in 2005 I had been thinking the bubble would burst for over a year. I don’t know if that counts as being right, or if it was so far in the future from when I first started thinking the appreciation in housing couldn’t keep up at the pace it was going that it doesn’t count.

2003, 2004, people kept saying things like “you can’t lose” on real estate. Lots of people were flipping properties. As soon as people think something is a sure thing, I think they are probably taking too many risks.

My partner and broker (two different people) we all thought there was no way it keeps going up and up.

@JLeslie It will never just keep going up and up. Real estate as an investment strategy is dicey for the small investor; maybe fine for the big money people who can flip fast.

@janbb So true. All investments go up and down. I’ve made money on most of my real estate, or at least broke even. I lost money only one time. I lost a lot that time. I should have held onto it probably and sold a couple of years later, but there were reasons we didn’t.

Right now I have someone interested in land I bought when I moved here. I don’t know if the deal will come together. I should make about $45k if we can agree on a price. IF is the operative word. I bought it almost 3 years ago, and have about $90k in it considering closing costs, taxes, and maintenance fees. We’ll see what happens. That’s a better increase than I’ve had with mutual funds. Nothing is done until it’s done though. I’m not counting my money yet.

It seems to me that the cycles of boom and bust grow ever shorter and more extreme. There was the dot com bust then the housing bubble explosion, damned near the second great depression, and now Beaver Cleaver’s house would cost Wally’s dad 2 million dollars.