House Prices

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Bill Walker

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At the beginning of the Pandemic we were told house prices would fall by 30 or 40% due to people being in strife with mortgages, due to losing their jobs, limited viewings of houses for sale, the share market plummeting and a host of other reasons. With the whole world shut down this seemed inevitable.

House prices have done the opposite over the last 2 years. Prices rises as much as 40 or even 50% !! Average price in Brisbane is now $1 Million
I know similar has happened in NZ, Canada, (prices have soared in these countries) parts of the USA and big increases in the UK.

What do you think has caused this, I find it hard to explain.
 
I think the fact that people have been stuck at home for so long has had a major effect. People want more space or just a new location.
 
Gone through the roof here in Florida. And they keep building more apartments.....
People can't afford to live anywhere near the water so move inland pushing prices up in those areas too.
Renting is even worse..... landlords increased the prices ridiculously last 12 months as demand is high
 
A big problem here Bill is that prices rose dramatically in Toronto, which then led to people selling their houses there and moving out into this rural area for a quieter lifestyle, surrounded by lakes. If they needed to commute for five or six years, then they were happy to do that. That simply increased the house prices here.

COVID came along, and people thought they would always continue to work from home, so there was another exodus and prices rose even more............and then more. For those who they were called back, now couldn't afford to move back to the city.

With that came a scarcity and now anything advertised always sells a couple of hundred thousand above asking price........with NO conditions. If you have conditions, you may as well not even submit an offer.

The old option of 'fixer uppers' is not on the table for the younger generation, the purchase prices are just too much to make it viable.

These days it's not just the purchase market that is unaffordable, rental properties are seriously in demand, because there just aren't any.

We own a second investment home and rent it out for a fair rent and occasionally we'll get a moan from the tenant. When I get that, I feel like telling him to find somewhere else, because I know he'll be paying at least $800/month more and we'd have no problem whatsoever finding new tenants. They would be lined up for it.

It's a sad situation, because at present the younger generation have zero chance of getting onto the ladder without substantial support from elsewhere. My son will inherit the house we presently live in, but hopefully I've got perhaps 15/20 years in me, so what does he do until then?
 
We were trying to sell in Oldham pre-covid but our buyer ducked out at the 11th hour as we were going to move to Lincolnshire, we decided to stay where we were while the world was fucked with the pandemic.

We're now about 10-20 days off completion with another buyer and are getting s good 25% more after painting and a bit of a tidy up while lockdown.

Unfortunately, we've been priced out of the area we wanted to move to which has gone up even more but, have found somewhere nice on the coast on the edge of Fleetwood & will make a profit on the deal as well.

Prices overall have gone up but depending on area, transport links, work availability etc some areas much more than others.
 
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Buy land they aren't making it anymore..... Mark Twain

As long as the UK makes less housing and less affordable housing than it needs this will happen - most buyers don't need a five bed detached with 3 bathrooms but people buy them so housebuilders construct them to make profit.

My lad has had his 2nd section 21 notice served in 4 years - landlords raising rents above and beyond what they think tenants can afford.

The UK housing market has a whiff of a Dutch Tulip Bubble about it
 
Prices have blown up in my neck of the woods too, people who’d dreamed of living in the mountains can now work remotely from home and are flocking here. Another huge factor that’s affecting renters is the Air b n b market, it’s crushing our small community
 
idahoblues said:
Prices have blown up in my neck of the woods too, people who’d dreamed of living in the mountains can now work remotely from home and are flocking here. Another huge factor that’s affecting renters is the Air b n b market, it’s crushing our small community
Click to expand...
They have houses in Idaho?? When did that happen??
 
idahoblues said:
Prices have blown up in my neck of the woods too, people who’d dreamed of living in the mountains can now work remotely from home and are flocking here. Another huge factor that’s affecting renters is the Air b n b market, it’s crushing our small community
Click to expand...
How much do you charge for a weekend on your ranch ?
 
Seems to be happening everywhere at the moment. I don't know what's driving it. At first it seemed there was a housing shortage after '08 when houses weren't being built, then brokerages/investment companies were buying up houses, then foreign investors. I don't know. Nothing seems to explain it all to my peanut brain.

From a personal experience, wife and I bought our first house early March 2020 (great timing, I know. we closed and 5 days later the world shut down). Cost was 475k which really stretched out budget but we live in a rapidly growing city with a great job market (Austin TX) and were fortunate enough to have a windfall to help with the down payment so we went for it. 2 years later, our next door neighbors sold their house for near double that price (800k), despite it being slightly smaller and needing work.

So do the math. In 2 years, during a pandemic and everything else going on, the housing market has somehow doubled. Absolutely fucking insane.
 
Slipper One said:
A big problem here Bill is that prices rose dramatically in Toronto, which then led to people selling their houses there and moving out into this rural area for a quieter lifestyle, surrounded by lakes. If they needed to commute for five or six years, then they were happy to do that. That simply increased the house prices here.

COVID came along, and people thought they would always continue to work from home, so there was another exodus and prices rose even more............and then more. For those who they were called back, now couldn't afford to move back to the city.

With that came a scarcity and now anything advertised always sells a couple of hundred thousand above asking price........with NO conditions. If you have conditions, you may as well not even submit an offer.

The old option of 'fixer uppers' is not on the table for the younger generation, the purchase prices are just too much to make it viable.

These days it's not just the purchase market that is unaffordable, rental properties are seriously in demand, because there just aren't any.

We own a second investment home and rent it out for a fair rent and occasionally we'll get a moan from the tenant. When I get that, I feel like telling him to find somewhere else, because I know he'll be paying at least $800/month more and we'd have no problem whatsoever finding new tenants. They would be lined up for it.

It's a sad situation, because at present the younger generation have zero chance of getting onto the ladder without substantial support from elsewhere. My son will inherit the house we presently live in, but hopefully I've got perhaps 15/20 years in me, so what does he do until then?
Click to expand...
How any young couple can get on the ladder and buy their first house is the question.
This increases the demand for rentals which pumps up the price of rentals.
Next to where I live, 440 new apartments are set to open over the next month or so along with hundreds more further south on Hwy 301 within a 10 mile section. All for rental.....
 
Mad Eyed Screamer said:
How any young couple can get on the ladder and buy their first house is the question.
This increases the demand for rentals which pumps up the price of rentals.
Next to where I live, 440 new apartments are set to open over the next month or so along with hundreds more further south on Hwy 301 within a 10 mile section. All for rental.....
Click to expand...
And Tampa generally has a low cost of living, especially for a city of its size
 
idahoblues said:
Prices have blown up in my neck of the woods too, people who’d dreamed of living in the mountains can now work remotely from home and are flocking here. Another huge factor that’s affecting renters is the Air b n b market, it’s crushing our small community
Click to expand...
How far are you from Boise? Read somewhere that Boise had the highest year over year housing cost increase in 2021
 
It's crazy. We moved last year and thought we'd paid too much, but prices have even gone up since then.

I think I put this in another thread in here too but we bid on 9 houses before getting the one we have now, all but 2 went to best and final offers and in most cases people were prepared to pay 10-15% above asking to secure it. In 4 cases we know the deal fell through as either the buyer had second thoughts or there was no proof of funds. In one case the bank refused to lend as they didn't value the property at the proposed selling price.

I know of first time buyers now with mortgages of well over half a million. They feel they have jumped up the property ladder and skipped a few steps and have a lifetime to pay it off, but with bigger bills and rising costs and interest rates, time will tell whether it was a smart or silly move.

I see a couple of properties even now that we looked at or even bid on, still unsold. But the asking price is at least the same, if not higher than 12 months ago. One had severe structural issues due to a poorly done garage conversion and subsidence, it was taken off but is now back on, same condition it seems, for £20k more.

There is also a huge knock on effect for building services. We need our roof replacing pretty soon according to the surveyor, but of the 6 roofing companies we contacted earlier this year only half even replied, and all of those want so much more to replace a roof than we were quoted even for a 2 bedroom loft conversion at our old property, partly because of cost increases but also because they can pick and choose in this market.

It has to crash at some point you'd imagine. Could get messy
 
There’s some crazy prices out there. Two originally identical houses near me, one went for £225k, one went for £525k. Granted the second one had been extended (by about 20%) but there was nowhere near that amount of difference and the costlier one had a garden backing onto a busy road! Stupid buyers if you ask me.

The bubble really needs to burst because the longer the prices increase the worse it will be when it happens.
 
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