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Old 04-20-2016, 08:25 AM
 
Location: North of Boston
3,671 posts, read 7,361,985 times
Reputation: 3640

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Quote:
Originally Posted by traffic_lover View Post
We gave up & bought in andover

Hey! That's good news. Congrats!
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Old 04-20-2016, 09:03 AM
 
Location: MetroWest Boston
317 posts, read 427,539 times
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Helping a relative search - open to towns throughout the southern and western MA in the 'I-95 or just beyond' corridor. Have put in multiple offers as high as 5% over asking, with zero success.


About 3 weeks ago inventory was flooding in...seems to have tapered, for the moment anyway, which doesn't seem to be favorable for buyers when something decent actually does come on the market...
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Old 04-20-2016, 09:35 AM
 
Location: Massachusetts
6,301 posts, read 9,588,263 times
Reputation: 4797
Quote:
Originally Posted by traffic_lover View Post
Houses in reading 500k to 700k bracket are routinely going 30k- 70k over ask and gone in 5 days. We gave up & bought in andover
Congratulations, now chuck out the Dunkies and make a pit stop at Brew'd Awakening in Lowell.
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Old 04-20-2016, 10:18 AM
 
Location: 42°22'55.2"N 71°24'46.8"W
4,848 posts, read 11,753,596 times
Reputation: 2961
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePRU View Post
I've been chatting with XO about the friends mentioned in the earlier post and one important detail left out of the original post about them is that they are moving to a more sought-after town then where they sold. Whenever you do this there's bound to be a gap between what you're selling and what you're buying. It's exacerbated in a hot real estate market like this though.
Besides moving to a more sought-after town, young families often move out of their starter home and into a larger home. This is also tough to do in a hot market because the $100k they made on the sale of their starter house doesn't offset the price increase of their new house over the same time period. Often, dual-income families in this subset of buyers are still early in their careers and getting promotions and large raises. They arguably should have stretched to buy the bigger house in the first place, knowing they would be able to afford it comfortably a couple years down the road.

Quote:
Originally Posted by traffic_lover View Post
Houses in reading 500k to 700k bracket are routinely going 30k- 70k over ask and gone in 5 days. We gave up & bought in andover
Congrats trafficlover.
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Old 04-20-2016, 10:53 AM
 
Location: Needham, MA
8,525 posts, read 13,910,379 times
Reputation: 7908
Quote:
Originally Posted by traffic_lover View Post
We gave up & bought in andover
Congrats! I know you had a longer than anticipated home search. Glad to hear you found something.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parsec View Post
Besides moving to a more sought-after town, young families often move out of their starter home and into a larger home. This is also tough to do in a hot market because the $100k they made on the sale of their starter house doesn't offset the price increase of their new house over the same time period. Often, dual-income families in this subset of buyers are still early in their careers and getting promotions and large raises. They arguably should have stretched to buy the bigger house in the first place, knowing they would be able to afford it comfortably a couple years down the road.
Moving to a more expensive town really compounds the problem though. Upsizing definitely means have a bigger mortgage but hopefully as you say these people have had increases in their income since they purchased their current home which will allow them to absorb the extra debt comfortably.
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Old 04-20-2016, 11:04 AM
 
779 posts, read 869,484 times
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I've often wondered about the demand between "starter"-type homes (let's say homes between $400K - $600K) and upgrades (maybe $800K plus). I have a friend--she's not in the Boston area, she's down in DC--who bought her starter home for just about $450K in 2010 and is selling it for $700K. The budget for the new home is $900K - $1.1M. She feels like she's in a good position because the market for homes under $700K in her town is pretty hot and many houses in that price range result in a bidding war. She said that homes in her town that are listed for over $1M are staying on the market longer and and there is still room for negotiation on the prices.

I'm not a realtor, so this is just more me being curious than anything. But I'm wondering if a market like this is good for those trying to upgrade? Are prices for the more "affordable" homes increasing at a higher rate than the more expensive "upgrade" homes. My friend said that she feels like the area where she lives is like a springboard for getting into a nicer home...the price increase for her starter home has narrowed the gap between the house she's in and the house she wants to be in (coupled by the fact that their salaries have increased in the past 6 years and they can afford a larger mortgage).
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Old 04-20-2016, 11:38 AM
 
3,808 posts, read 3,105,618 times
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Out here in rural America (10 minutes west of 495) properties are starting to move more briskly, suggesting that buyers might be migrating west. There were a number of properties in town (both new builds and old) which sat for a year or more ... a truly stagnant market ... but nearly all have sold within the past 2 months for near or at asking. Inventory in the slightly more desirable neighboring towns is truly awful unless you're pursuing 1-percenter RE. FTHBs aren't likely to catch a break anytime soon.
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Old 04-20-2016, 01:15 PM
 
837 posts, read 1,218,086 times
Reputation: 701
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parsec View Post
...This is also tough to do in a hot market because the $100k they made on the sale of their starter house doesn't offset the price increase of their new house over the same time period. Often, dual-income families in this subset of buyers are still early in their careers and getting promotions and large raises. They arguably should have stretched to buy the bigger house in the first place, knowing they would be able to afford it comfortably a couple years down the road.
:nodding: I get that, and I'm pretty sure they get that too. They found the house they're currently selling on a whim -- their lease ran out and, when everything was said and done, the mortgage payment for this particular house was lower than a month's rent in a halfway decent apartment anywhere in their area. Their salaries aren't particularly high. They've expanded their search to condos and duplexes. As long as they both can get to their respective workplaces within reason, I think they'll be expanding their search area because so far they've come up empty.

As Mike was saying, a few of the towns they're looking at will be, IMO (and Mike's) a rather sizable financial stretch. I don't know if they realize that.

We also have another set of friends who will be coming up against this same thing when their lease runs out this summer. They're seriously considering moving back to where they came from when they moved here 2 years ago. They'd rather stay here, but right now it doesn't look like they can afford to.
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Old 04-20-2016, 02:22 PM
 
Location: Westwood, MA
5,037 posts, read 6,874,353 times
Reputation: 5960
I have some work friends who have finally given up on Cambridge and are looking to the suburbs. I had hoped they would consider Westwood but it seems that in the last two years the entry-level price has up enough that it's no longer in their budget (or what was our budget when we first bought). They are looking at Sharon and from what I here things are going fast there, too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Parsec View Post
Besides moving to a more sought-after town, young families often move out of their starter home and into a larger home. This is also tough to do in a hot market because the $100k they made on the sale of their starter house doesn't offset the price increase of their new house over the same time period. Often, dual-income families in this subset of buyers are still early in their careers and getting promotions and large raises. They arguably should have stretched to buy the bigger house in the first place, knowing they would be able to afford it comfortably a couple years down the road.
I will say that when we went through this exercise in late 2014 that the entry-level houses in town seemed to be going up faster than those at higher price-points. In fact at the level near the top of our budget prices almost seemed to be coming down a little bit. This meant that there was a much bigger jump (in quality/size) from $900k to $1.1m then there was from $700k to $900k or even from $500k to $700k, which seemed unusual. I wonder if others have ever noticed this sort of thing in their towns.
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Old 04-20-2016, 03:30 PM
 
Location: 42°22'55.2"N 71°24'46.8"W
4,848 posts, read 11,753,596 times
Reputation: 2961
Quote:
Originally Posted by jayrandom View Post

I will say that when we went through this exercise in late 2014 that the entry-level houses in town seemed to be going up faster than those at higher price-points. In fact at the level near the top of our budget prices almost seemed to be coming down a little bit. This meant that there was a much bigger jump (in quality/size) from $900k to $1.1m then there was from $700k to $900k or even from $500k to $700k, which seemed unusual. I wonder if others have ever noticed this sort of thing in their towns.
I've never considered this before, but both you and NewfieMama have both touched on this now.

Another thing to consider if you are trying to get the best bang for your buck is how much house you are getting at specific price points among different towns. You might find actually find a better deal in a more expensive town. A town's median house price can be very misleading because the size/condition of housing at the median price point varies widely from town to town. People looking in Natick might completely dismiss Sudbury due to the higher median home prices. This was me when I was looking in 2012-13. I was finding 3000sf homes that needed a lot of updating in Natick in the $650k range, so I was pleasantly surprised that $650k got me a completely renovated 3000 sf home in Sudbury. Overall, homes are a lot bigger, newer, and more updated in Sudbury than in Natick which drives up the median home price. If you compare similar 3000 sf homes, you'll see Sudbury is actually a little cheaper than Natick. It was a no brainer for me because the schools have a better reputation and we now live much closer to where my wife works. I'm also leaving my job in Boston soon, so I'm going to have my sanity back.
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