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...Bad schools are a blessing, there are so many people who don't want to move to Vegas because of the "bad schools," and that's fantastic! Please, stay away, there are enough cities (i.e. all of them) full of kid-happy (or kid-miserable) people, I don't care about the schools whatsoever. If I get a discount on my house because no parents want to live there, that's a true win-win -- no kids, AND cheaper real estate?! Wow, sign me up!
The problem is that most prospective buyers either do have children themselves, or are thinking in terms of resale... to other buyers with children. Even if many people today are child-free, or empty-nesters, their house purchasing decisions are driven by consideration of resale, and therefore, school-quality is tremendously important.
It is especially important in areas with lots of empty buildable land remaining. Where will builders erect new construction? In places with the best schools. That drives up local prices, in jurisdictions with said schools. Neighboring jurisdictions don't see any new construction. Empty land remains empty. Farmland stays farmland, and older houses on sprawling acreage just age-in-place.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kthnry
I bought my first house in the early '90s, when my salary was about $45,000, for about $70,000. I see on Zillow that the house sold six months ago for $539,087. If my salary had increased proportionately, I'd be earning $337,500. Am I earning that much? Hahahahahahahaha ...
In my locale, a house that sold for $70K in say 1992, would probably have appreciated to $100K by the year 2000. Since then, it would have meandered around the same $100K... possibly rising to maybe $120K, or - in the worse school districts (see above) even declining.
Wages have indeed been stagnant, but surely even for the least-skilled workers, wages (in nominal dollar terms) have grown by more than 0% in 20 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook
I think what I'm saying is.... the 90's was not the stone ages. ...
I am reminded of when my parents were shopping for a house, in the early 1980s. Back then, "modern" construction was all the rage... cathedral ceilings, walk-in closets, staircases making a 90-degree angle midway, "open floor plans", islands in kitchens, special shelving in kitchens to accommodate a microwave oven (then a comparative novelty), two-story foyers. "Dated" was, well, construction from the 50s and 60s.
Today is seems that the 80s and 90s are "dated", but really, they're not. Modern notions of open spaces, tall ceilings and the like, really stem from that era. Before then, most residential construction evidently emphasized efficient use of space, for perhaps a larger family, but one of more modest means. In other words, smaller bedrooms, narrower hallways, narrow staircases abutting a wall (continuing straight, without turning), small foyers, narrow kitchens and so forth.
It's odd, at least to me, that pre-WW2 construction is coming back into vogue, as being compact, tidy and cute... while 50s and 60s construction remains, as it was already in the 80s, "dated".
I think what I'm saying is.... the 90's was not the stone ages. If cabinetry is good quality and functional, we should stop assuming it should all be ripped out, ever... unless until it's damaged and NEEDs to be ripped out.
Counter tops become worn or scratched, replace those... porcelain sinks... faucets, appliances, all wear out and should be replaced from time to time. Repaint... yes! But we need to stop ripping out perfectly functional cabinets, often nice solid built-in-place cabinets, simply because the kind of wood or finish is "dated" twenty years, only to be replaced by pre-fab cabinets in one of the two currently acceptable woods and finishes for this year. It's wasteful. Wasteful of our resources, filling our landfills. Houses are not temporary fads, they should last for the long term.
Of course, I have clients all the time who say they're going to do just that. Rip everything out and put in __________. I just nod and smile... My opinion only matters to me, right?
Yep. My townhouse condo at a Vermont ski resort is vintage 1987. I've replaced the three exterior doors and a couple casement windows with modern Pella designer series stuff, the kitchen appliances, and the water heater. I've swapped out all the original furniture over the years. It's original paint, carpet, and flooring which I'm addressing this month. If I decide to sell it, it will be immaculate but still have white cabinets with oak pulls and a laminate counter top. The out-of-state vacation home market insists on near-perfect cosmetics but there's no payback on updating kitchen and baths.
In my salt water house, I spared no expense on kitchen & bath remodeling but I'm not ever going to sell it. That's discretionary spending for my quality of life. For a vacation home at a ski resort that I will most likely sell sometime in the next decade, I'll leave it to the next owner to fling their discretionary money at those projects.
Worried about carcinogens from DIY projects? Silly. Nope.
It kind of depends on the age of the house. Personally, I have no interest in asbestos or lead paint. Where I live, the trade people now have to wear HazMat suits and implement all kinds of containment procedures when they work on old houses. I've completely gutted my house so there isn't much lead paint or asbestos left. Some asbestos panels in the boiler/utility room and lead paint on a fireplace & built-in cabinetry and bookcases I never touched. I had all the work done before that was all implemented. It would cost me a fortune to get that work done now.
Where I live, the only house I can think of that won't sell is a historically important house a couple hundred yards from me that needs an enormous amount of work. You aren't allowed to tear it down. If you brought a crew in to gut it and address all the problems, you'd never get your money out. The price of the house is now below the value of the lot it sits on with no takers. The usual path for those houses is for someone in the trades to buy it for cheap money and barter with their friends to do the remodel. This one is just too big a project for anyone to want to take it on.
There were never many McMansions built in my zip code. That's using the standard definition of a large house on a small lot with disjointed architectural features and builder grade finishes. The gated oceanfront communities certainly have a lot of large houses but they have a real architect and the materials tend to be top quality. Some are in poor taste but that's been true forever.
My neighbor sold an older house with 1960s metal cabinets for asking price in a couple of weeks. When I sell mine I'll just do a little creative hipster cosmetic work, no big projects. My idea is to make it look like Ikea meets craftsman, so charming and hip that no one would want to change it right away. I just did a stained glass interior door which added a nice little detail.
Boomers now in their 50s and early 60s were slapped by the Great Recession in much the same way as Millennials. A lot of them saw a large proportion of their retirement assets disappear...
The joke at the time was everyone had 201Ks (half of a 401K).
Since then, the value of retirement accounts has soared. An S&P 500 index fund was $69/share back in March, 2009. Today, its about $275/share.
Many people are re-balancing their assets - taking wealth in one type of asset (the stock market) and moving it to another asset (residential real estate).
Some people are driven by status and they will always go for the bigger square footage, whether it's called a McMansion, estate home or something else.
I hope people understand that.
Some of us want large houses as it makes it easier to host charity fundraisers and large parties.
Now, if you have so much money that you can just go along paying electricians to change light bulbs...
It helps to have a 40 foot extension ladder handy...
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I just did a stained glass interior door which added a nice little detail.
