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I honestly don't see prices to go down unless
1) economy collapses and a lot of people will be without job
2) interest rates will increase twice and up
I am not sure why people call today's market a second bubble. What prices are you comparing today's prices to? To the lowest these were in 2010-2011? I am pretty sure these prices were too low and not a norm. You cannot compare any market to that down time.
If you want to compare prices during last bubble vs today's, do it smart. Don't look at houses prices, factor interest rates too. Most people who bought during last bubble, they got different interest which makes their payments higher compare to now. And most people got adjustable rates back than, or even interest only rates.
I would say prices stay pretty much the same for the last couple of years. I didn't noticed any increase in home prices except new construction. But new construction always were more expensive, it's like new car.
Also, if people talk about their "forever" homes, they are investing for at least another 15 years. Nobody knows what will be happening in 15 years. Today's market is not great for investors. but for regular buyers it's been like that for last 3 years. As you can see people are paying listed prices, so no need to drop prices really.
And some areas are hotter for sure. Wesley Chapel is growing, with recently added outlet mall, soon to be open ice forum, the expansion for the hospital, community college campus right there, there are no needs to leave Wesley Chapel unless you walk in Tampa. Sure enough you see overall higher prices in that area.
My rule of thumb is the prices are reasonable with the interest rate around 3.5% if for the house size under 2500 sq. ft. has the price around $115-125 per sq. ft., for house size between 2500 and 3500 sq. ft. the price is $100-115, and for houses bigger that 3500 sq. ft. the price is $90-105 per sq. ft. Basically the smaller houses are more expensive (per sq. ft.), but are within more affordable price range which is harder to find. And much bigger houses are more expensive obviously and are hard to sell.
Is it a good time to buy houses now? Nobody knows, but prices we saw in 2010-11 might never be there again. As long as you can afford the house it's really a time to buy. New construction homes are more expensive, but you have warranty so it's pretty much no worries.
You are woefully out of touch with what's selling in walking areas of downtowns.
In DTSP a cottagy cute small house (if you can find one) run 225 - 250 per square foot. Downtown Dunedin smaller homes/cottages run 210 - 230 per square foot. Safety Harbor downtown runs 200 - 215 a square foot. Historic Waterfront District Gulfport running 200 - 220 sq. ft. Last sale a block from our house in Gulfport was a 2BR 1 BA cottage, 1433 sq. ft., nice upgrades on 10K sq. ft. lot for $300,100.
Lots of young retirees who are coming to FL want walking venues, not 'burbs where they lived 30+ years raising their kids, and that is driving up prices in these areas....walkable to numerous eateries, waterfront, etc. Same is true in downtown Sarasota, anywhere within walking distance of these sort of amenities.
Agreed, she obviously is a real estate hawker, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing it seems to me, but if that poster can't see artificially inflated house prices in Tampa Bay, they have no economic "chops" or credibility examining markets in general.
Luckily I don't believe that realtors will be extinct as you would agree with me if you would see how many hurdles sellers/buyers often go through as it is not like a plane ticket you buy but a huge investment and with the many home inspection, sink hole issues and that is aside from clouded titles, etc. than I know for sure realtors will not extinct.
Why Luckily? - are you a realtor?? Realtors are grossly overpaid for what they do; anyone can be a realtor; no college education needed. An experienced ATTORNEY is all that is needed to either sell or buy a home that will charge a flat fee of $500-1000 per transaction. Tell me again why realtors should get 6% ($30k for a $500k house!! for example) of each sale???
I am not, trust me. I am not in real estate and have no interest to join that group of people. I guess I wasn't clear I was referring to Wesley Chapel area in my post and referred to pricing there, not to South Tampa or Sarasota.
I've been here long enough and bought a total of 3 houses pre and during last bubble, and still have 2 out of these 3 as of today. The prices we paid seemed crazy around 2010, but I can sell each house for more that we paid back then. Luckily these houses are perfect rental properties now so no need to sell now.
We (someone from my family) also bought homes/ built 3 new one within last 4 years (including well known builders as well as small private builder). So I saw how prices were changing over time. Last 4 homes we bought/sold were done without realtors involved as FSBO and we added two homes in MLS with flat fee realtor. Funny part is we never thought we will be doing all these transactions, I should of get a realtor license long time ago, but I just cannot justify why do I need one. I can buy/sell/rent our properties without being a realtor...
Again, thinking the prices are super high now - what you guys compare prices to? To the bottom economy went to? Sure, prices will be well over 2010-2011 price ranges. Don't forget a lot of investors scoped many foreclosed homes when the market was on the bottom and none of these sit vacant! Why would these investors be selling these homes anytime soon if the rentals market is hot? And if they decide to sell, well they will be looking for profit, so we will not see low bottom level prices any time soon.
I am not here to argue with anyone, I just share my opinion. I was looking for a perfect house for my growing family for some time now and saw prices going up, but nothing like I experienced during last bubble. When I got my first mortgage during last bubble I wasn't even legally allowed to stay in this county for a long period of time and had to leave and re-enter with new visa, but lenders had no issues back than. Now I had to go through much harder process to get a loan, and by seeing how many people lost their deposits on new construction homes is scary, and people were not qualified for a mortgage... Just to clarify, people were not approved because they went crazy with upgrades and their homes never appraised that high, so homes became inventory homes and people got no mortgage approval and lost their deposits.
And wake up people, cash buyers are pretty much gone. You know mortgage records are a part of public records, right? You can look up anyone who bought a house and see if they got mortgage and for how much (so you know how much down payment people made). I would say most home sales in price range over 200K are with mortgage. And I am as a seller will not sell my home cheaper to cash buyer if I can get more money from someone coming with the mortgage. No difference for me really.
Why Luckily? - are you a realtor?? Realtors are grossly overpaid for what they do; anyone can be a realtor; no college education needed. An experienced ATTORNEY is all that is needed to either sell or buy a home that will charge a flat fee of $500-1000 per transaction. Tell me again why realtors should get 6% ($30k for a $500k house!! for example) of each sale???
Exactly! And yes, I believe bentlebee is a realtor. He also implies that it is the real estate agent who clears up title issues. Ha! Title companies do that job. All real estate agents do is add drama to the transaction so they can appear to be worth their overpaid commissions. Our last purchase was FSBO and had least drama, effort than any of our previous 9 house purchases. We intend to sell via FSBO when/if that time comes.
Hopefully real estate agents will soon become as outdated as travel agents.
Why Luckily? - are you a realtor?? Realtors are grossly overpaid for what they do; anyone can be a realtor; no college education needed. An experienced ATTORNEY is all that is needed to either sell or buy a home that will charge a flat fee of $500-1000 per transaction. Tell me again why realtors should get 6% ($30k for a $500k house!! for example) of each sale???
+1
I agree realtors are a waste of space. As I wrote earlier we did FSBO and had no issues. And every time we had a realtor before we had some miscommunication going on, scheduling conflicts and so on... I also don't see why realtors charge by % of the sale price if their job is the same as if the sell XX,000 or XXX,000 houses...
Exactly! And yes, I believe bentlebee is a realtor. He also implies that it is the real estate agent who clears up title issues. Ha! Title companies do that job. All real estate agents do is add drama to the transaction so they can appear to be worth their overpaid commissions. Our last purchase was FSBO and had least drama, effort than any of our previous 9 house purchases. We intend to sell via FSBO when/if that time comes.
Hopefully real estate agents will soon become as outdated as travel agents.
Well, bentlebee is a realtor so as some of his other family members, but let's be fair, he might be good at what he is doing.
I was fighting with him more than once, but after talking to some people not too long ago I realized some people really need a help of realtor to get through this process. I mean, some people need one. Period. Do I hate realtors change % and are everywhere? Yes, but some people are better of using them. Bentlebee's posts are helpful sometimes, and he has years of experience in the area, so he might be good at what he is doing.
What I really like to see if either realtor's service not to be tied to % of the sales price or have an option to have one or not and see this difference in the price. Sellers are loosing money big time. One of my family members is planning FSBO soon and wants to offer flat fee for buyers agent, not 3% - take it or leave it. We will see how it will go. The problem I see if the average realtor shares a half of his fee with his broker... It's very nice business model
We are renting a 2 br/2 ba in Town n Country for $1340/month which isn't much cheaper than what we paid in DC. Things have definitely changed in Tampa.
I would put a lot of money on you not comparing apples to apples here. I moved from DC to the St. Petersburg side of the bay 2.5 years ago and found prices here much cheaper both for rental and purchase. Prices have gone up a lot but are still far below that of the DC area. What part of DC were you comparing that to? And how many beds/baths & sq ft?
Some of my experiences:
In DC
Renting a 2/2 1200 sq ft apartment in the Huntington area of Alexandria cost about $1800 / month.
A 2/1 780 sq ft condo on the edge of Old Town cost $220k
Going further out, a 2/2 1000 sq ft apartment in Centreville ran about $1400 / month
Here
2/2 1500 sq ft house with a yard, garage, etc. for $1150 / month + utilities - going for about $1300 now I think.
A 2500 sq ft house with a pool and nice size yard for around $280k (now worth about $320k if Zillow is to be believed)
Both are located about 30 minutes from downtown St. Pete
Where you might be getting yourself in trouble is if you want new construction and/or multi-story 3500 sq ft homes. There just aren't too many of those around so they cost more due to supply and demand. most of the core area around here was completely built out 20-40 years ago. Houses were smaller then. Also, 1 story homes are the norm here, presumably because of hurricanes, insurance, sandy ground, and also older people. If you don't want a single-story place built in the 70s, 80s, or 90s then you are very much limiting yourself and will likely have to look at the "hot" new construction areas, or homes built by people in the upper middle class (which your income does put you in here).
I would put a lot of money on you not comparing apples to apples here. I moved from DC to the St. Petersburg side of the bay 2.5 years ago and found prices here much cheaper both for rental and purchase. Prices have gone up a lot but are still far below that of the DC area. What part of DC were you comparing that to? And how many beds/baths & sq ft?
Some of my experiences:
In DC
Renting a 2/2 1200 sq ft apartment in the Huntington area of Alexandria cost about $1800 / month.
A 2/1 780 sq ft condo on the edge of Old Town cost $220k
Going further out, a 2/2 1000 sq ft apartment in Centreville ran about $1400 / month
Here
2/2 1500 sq ft house with a yard, garage, etc. for $1150 / month + utilities - going for about $1300 now I think.
A 2500 sq ft house with a pool and nice size yard for around $280k (now worth about $320k if Zillow is to be believed)
Both are located about 30 minutes from downtown St. Pete
Where you might be getting yourself in trouble is if you want new construction and/or multi-story 3500 sq ft homes. There just aren't too many of those around so they cost more due to supply and demand. most of the core area around here was completely built out 20-40 years ago. Houses were smaller then. Also, 1 story homes are the norm here, presumably because of hurricanes, insurance, sandy ground, and also older people. If you don't want a single-story place built in the 70s, 80s, or 90s then you are very much limiting yourself and will likely have to look at the "hot" new construction areas, or homes built by people in the upper middle class (which your income does put you in here).
are you really finding 1500 sf with yard for $1300? Where? I'm looking in the NE area and it's 33703 near crisp park. There is nothing I"m seeing less than $1600 with a yard. And I was told as fall .winter arrives, prices are higher. Is that incorrect all? thanks.
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