Current Fall 2020 Real Estate Situation in PA (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh: sale, real estate market)

[Jessie Mitchell]

Originally Posted by PBToast

I think Jesse hit the nail on the head. The house has to look a certain way or it gets passed by. It's a lot of work though for older people if your house is old too!

When we were still house hunting we looked at a few places where the owner was an older person who was looking to sell and move on after many years in a place. There were things that a new owner would need to do such as replace old windows, update a kitchen or bathroom, have the floors renewed or replaced, HVAC upgrade, etc. And I totally understand why the seller just didn't have the interest or wherewithal to take on that work and expense prior to selling the house. What a pain.

On the other hand, we too are not-young buyers ourselves. We'd already done that buy-an-older-place-and-DIY-rehab many years ago with our previous house and had zero interest in doing it again. (In fact that house was sold by an older person going into assisted living who'd lived there for 40 years!) So we were accepting that we'd pay more for a newly remodeled place to expressly NOT have to do that ourselves.

[medievalbooks]

IN Cashtown and surrounding areas, houses have been selling within hours of listing. Part of the reason is the prices are lower compared to other places. So appears to me more younger couples with children have moved into our area, which is a very good thing. Alot of the houses need(ed) some work and they are willing to do it. The price was affordable for the younger couples....they just need to put in sweat equity.

[PBToast]

Medievalbooks, Yes! I see the prices Jesse listed for Lancaster and it's much higher where I live. There are not condos for $300K, let alone houses. Well we are getting our house ready to sell and we will see what happens.

[Wells5]

Originally Posted by medievalbooks

Part of the reason is the prices are lower compared to other places. So appears to me more younger couples with children have moved into our area, which is a very good thing. Alot of the houses need(ed) some work and they are willing to do it. The price was affordable for the younger couples....they just need to put in sweat equity.

I think the 3% mortgage rates are why houses are selling. The low mortgage rates will come back to wreak havoc with the banks some day along with the massive creation of new money to finance the US Government's massive borrowing needs.


My first mortgage was in 1975 and the mortgage rate was 8.5%. My father's VA mortgage rate was 4 3/4% in the 1950s while bank mortgage rates were 6%.

[PAhippo]

My 1st mortgage was in 1980. over 15%. 15.77 as I recall.

[JakeinChina]

In the Lancaster city suburbs like Manheim Township and Lititz, decent looking homes in the price range of 250k to 450k are flying off the shelves and are usually accepting bids within 1 to 2 days of being listed. Homes north of 500k take a couple of weeks, where very high end homes, 700k and up will sit for a while but many do eventually get sold in 1 to 3 months.

It's pretty crazy still, and I would expect this to continue until most people are vaccinated and people feel safe again to list their homes, as well as have the confidence that once they do sell, they'll be able to purchase a new home.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by JakeinChina

In the Lancaster city suburbs like Manheim Township and Lititz, decent looking homes in the price range of 250k to 450k are flying off the shelves and are usually accepting bids within 1 to 2 days of being listed. Homes north of 500k take a couple of weeks, where very high end homes, 700k and up will sit for a while but many do eventually get sold in 1 to 3 months.

It's pretty crazy still, and I would expect this to continue until most people are vaccinated and people feel safe again to list their homes, as well as have the confidence that once they do sell, they'll be able to purchase a new home.

I think that this problem will outlast the pandemic unless we boost the production of new housing.

[speagles84]

I just purchased a new home. My 30yr fixed rate was 2.5%, so yes homes are selling like insane. Most homes we were looking at were on the market for less than 3 days.

[bridge12]

Philadelphia real estate out-performing the suburbs in housing prices and rent.

June Year-over-year Housing Value Change

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington MSA - Suburban +3.2% - Urban +5.9%

June Year-over-year Rent Growth Rates

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington MSA - Suburban +1.8% - Urban +2.2%

https://www.zillow.com/research/2020...LTWlYGoc2McBcU

[DXBtoFL]

Househunting in Maryland myself. Story is the same. Anything in good shape and fairly priced sells in days, if not just one day. Houses that seem overpriced sit. So there is buyer resistance, which is a good thing. We're not quite in bubble territory yet due to the buyer resistance factor.

Part of the problem, methinks, is that despite being a very hot market with record low interest rates, people still aren't selling houses unless they really have to. Plenty of people who would like to upgrade are holding back because they can't get the house they want to upgrade into. Plenty of older folks ideal for downsizing are holding off partly because of COVID, and, as my agent tells me, more and more older people are ageing in place for as long as they can rather than retiring to Florida. And for those who want to downsize, they tend to prefer to stay in the same area but now have to compete with first time buyers for the same smaller house (and often win those bids with cash offers, making it harder for first time buyers).

It may very well be that after the election and in the spring, when we hopefully have some kind of vaccine, we'll see more listings from people who held back and delayed selling this year.

My agent also thinks there will be an upcoming foreclosure pandemic due to all the forbearances this year, but I'm not quite sure I agree. The market is so hot that it implies it can easily absorb the foreclosures and I also think there will be a lot of political pressure on banks to hold back on foreclosures unless they really need to, so I don't think we'll see a dump of foreclosures all at once.