2023 Real Estate Observations (Boston, Cambridge, Lynn: engineering, sell, town)

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Huh? I'm afraid you got the wrong guy, buddy. I'm just saying that for somebody already struggling to get into the housing market, a mere $15K could "make or break" them.

Didn't say it was you. 485k vs 500k is not a make or break.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Didn't say it was you. 485k vs 500k is not a make or break.

Says the man completely out of touch. It absolutely CAN be. I mean, no buyer has an unlimited money supply and all have a "make or break" threshold.

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Says the man completely out of touch. It absolutely CAN be. I mean, no buyer has an unlimited money supply and all have a "make or break" threshold.

If someone is able to afford a 485k home, I'm sure they can save up enough for a 500k home.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

If someone is able to afford a 485k home, I'm sure they can save up enough for a 500k home.

OK I'll play along with your little game. SUPPOSE somebody can actually put away an extra $1000/month (a lot to ask for an average person currently renting in the area, especially if they have a family to take care of). That would mean they now have to wait another 15 months to buy. Would you be OK with that, were it you? Really?

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by massnative71

OK I'll play along with your little game. SUPPOSE somebody can actually put away an extra $1000/month (a lot to ask for an average person currently renting in the area, especially if they have a family to take care of). That would mean they now have to wait another 15 months to buy. Would you be OK with that, were it you? Really?

Uh, do you know how a mortgage works? 20% of 485k is 97k. 20% of 500k is 100k. It would take an entire 3 months to save up the extra 3k... Assuming they put 20% down. Some people put way less.

Also we looked for 14 months while renting before we found a house we liked. We had a baby at the time. So yeah I'd be fine looking for 15 months. That is not a long time in real estate terms.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Uh, do you know how a mortgage works? 20% of 485k is 97k. 20% of 500k is 100k. It would take an entire 3 months to save up the extra 3k... Assuming they put 20% down. Some people put way less.

Also we looked for 14 months while renting before we found a house we liked. We had a baby at the time. So yeah I'd be fine looking for 15 months. That is not a long time in real estate terms.

Yes, do you? You do realize that your payment will go up if you finance some of that $15k, right? This scenario assumes that a $3078/month mortgage payment is your max budget ($500K at 6.25% or about $485K at 6.5%).


Another math lesson:


Your 14 months now became 29 months. All in the name of "equity". Still cool with that?

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Yes, do you? You do realize that your payment will go up if you finance some of that $15k, right? This scenario assumes that a $3078/month mortgage payment is your max budget ($500K at 6.25% or about $485K at 6.5%).


Another math lesson:


Your 14 months now became 29 months. All in the name of "equity". Still cool with that?

Why would it take 29 months to save up another 3k? You said yourself they save $1000/mo.

485k @ 6.5% mortgage is 3007/mo.
500k @ 6.5% mortgage is 3098/mo.

Based on Bankrate
https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/mortgage-calculator/

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Why would it take 29 months to save up another 3k? You said yourself they save $1000/mo.

Because according to you, you already spent 14 months trying to find a place on your original budget of $500K. Now you have to spend another 15 months saving for that extra $15K, now that the fees have gone up.

Originally Posted by matrix5k

485k @ 6.5% mortgage is 3007/mo.
500k @ 6.5% mortgage is 3098/mo.

Based on Bankrate
https://www.bankrate.com/mortgages/mortgage-calculator/

I have no idea how you got those numbers. Your link shows:


485K @ 6.5% is $3065/mo

500K @ 6.25% is $3078/mo

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Because according to you, you already spent 14 months trying to find a place on your original budget of $500K. Now you have to spend another 15 months saving for that extra $15K, now that the fees have gone up.

I have no idea how you got those numbers. Your link shows:

485K @ 6.5% is $3065/mo

500K @ 6.25% is $3078/mo

What are you talking about? You don't need to wait 15 months to save up 15k. You only need to save up an extra 3k for 20%. That's even if you decide to put 20% down, as mentioned many times some people put less than 20% down. If someone can save up 97k for a 485k house then they can certainly save up 100k for a 500k house in less than 15 months.

We didn't wait 14 months to buy because we needed to save up 15k and our budget was not 500k. We waited 14 months to find a house we liked. We are going to be here for over 20 years so 14 months was nothing.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Wait, 485k vs 500k is significant now? I can't with this forum LoL. I can't find the thread at the moment but I got blasted for saying 800k is NOT the same as 1 million. It could have been this thread. Everyone argued with me that 800k and 1 million was "basically the same". LMAO. A 20% difference is "basically the same" here but now a 3% difference is significant, omg.

First, the rest of the forum isn’t a monolithic entity. Trying to find consensus is futile. Any opinion will find someone who disagrees. You could say Biden is awful and get blasted and then say Biden is great and get blasted again.

Second, as I already explained, the issue isn’t really the amount. 6.5 isn’t exactly 6.25, but they are definitely close. People that are just scraping by will feel the difference between the two every month, but I doubt that a quarter point is going to be the difference between buying or not for the vast majority.

What most people are upset about is the perceived injustice of “the government” coming in and increasing prices for one group and not the other. People weren’t happy when rates went from 2.5% to 6.5% but they did so for everyone and in a way that was perceived of as more or less fair. It could be $1 and some people would be upset on principle. Certainly they’ll get upset over $100/month.