Do I Wait Out This Crazy Market?

[ufcrules1]

Originally Posted by Leonard123

Not huge? I guess if you've been living in a bubble your whole life. 20-30 years ago, a house that size was unheard of aside from a few small neighborhoods with only the wealthiest individuals. 3200 square feet outside of a few select neighborhoods is a McMansion.

No offense Leonard, buy you are the one who is actually living in a bubble. Saying a 3200 sqft home here in Texas is a McMansion is quite silly.

[Prey521]

Originally Posted by cammyspot

Hey there, I remember when you posted on the Houston forums. You live in Tavola, right? My mom is right down the street in the Oakhurst neighborhood in Porter. We recently lived in Spring and moved to DFW (Allen) in September. The housing market here is so crazy, open houses have long lines. We sold our home in Spring in November and made no where near what you stand to make. I would suggest to rent for a while, while you get to know the area. New construction is the best bet at this time.

Ya, that's me! Moved from NY a little over 8 years ago with my fam of 4, which is now a fam of 5 moving up to DFW.

This market is crazy right now.....I think I'd sell even if I wasn't relocating since who knows how long it would take to make this kind of money on my home. We considered selling last Summer and my realtor suggested a list price of 315-320k.....this time, his list price is 369K for our 5 bed/4 bath 3100 sq ft home that's a little over 5 years old.

How do you like Allen? We really like Allen, but the commute to Irving would stink, which is why we're considering towns west/northwest of Irving, which have great schools and quick commutes. How do you like Allen?

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by Prey521

We really like Allen, but the commute to Irving would stink, which is why we're considering towns west/northwest of Irving, which have great schools and quick commutes.

Yes, that commute would be horrible. You'd also be spending a fortune on NTTA tolls.

For an easy commute to Irving with excellent schools, look at NE Tarrant County: Grapevine, Colleyville, Euless, Southlake (if your budget allows). Coppell in Dallas County, too.

[Sunbather]

Originally Posted by Katana49

I suppose you could fit all that in a 2,000 sq ft home... if every room was 10x10. Would make playing pool awfully difficult. Wouldn't have enough room to hang the projector screen on the wall either. In the DFW market, you won't find all of that in under 3500 sq ft, and then you're probably still missing a bedroom or office. Been there, done that.


Stuff like this had been discussed long before there was a pandemic, as a lot of people didn't have a need for any of that on a daily basis, they'd either go to a gym, or go to a theater, or they had to commute to an office. So sure, you could eliminate a lot of space... but to me, it's a helluva lot more convenient to have it all at home, and especially now during Covid. Formal dining rooms and living rooms are becoming things of the past for a lot of homeowners... but I can't imagine NOT having them. While we don't use either room frequently, Christmas morning is always done in the formal living room, and all holiday meals and dinners with guests are in the dining room. I don't know what people do when they want to have a dinner for 8 and they don't have a dining room.

My previous home was >2800 ft2. Our current home is 1000 ft2 with one open living/dining/kitchen and I prefer the smaller - just different lifestyles. (We also have no kids and have spent years living in urban environments like NYC. So, entertaining in 1000 ft2 is plenty for us! )

Prior to covid, we had people over all the time in the 8-12 person range with no issue - entertaining was a huge part of us getting this house. In terms of formal dinners, 8-9 people is the max if we're eating indoor (6 places at the dining table and 3 more at the island behind the dining table); however, a formal dinner with 8 people is only 2-3 times a year for us. The rest of the time it's cocktails or different conversation groups etc. Again, just different strokes.

[DFWUser1]

Originally Posted by ChristieP

Yes, that commute would be horrible. You'd also be spending a fortune on NTTA tolls.

For an easy commute to Irving with excellent schools, look at NE Tarrant County: Grapevine, Colleyville, Euless, Southlake (if your budget allows). Coppell in Dallas County, too.

That's the problem if posters jump on giving advise that "they" like without completely getting the details. What if OP or spouse look at a future job let's say in Plano or Richardson?

OP - Allen is a beautiful small little town in the middle of Collin County, compared to other surrounding big towns. Easy access to both highways 75 (free) and 121 (toll), beautiful parks, bike and trail system, excellent schools, family friendly activities, tons of shopping/dining you can imagine within 15 min etc. Overall Allen is very nice, east of 75 is older (75002 zip code), less expensive, whereas west of 75 is newer and more expensive (75013 zip code).

Now, coming to your specific situation:

(1) Location: If you foresee yourself commuting to Irving for a long time, then it is wise to look at other nearby areas mentioned like Coppell, Grapevine, Flower Mound, Colleyville, Southlake etc. depending on your preference and budget instead of Allen or Collin County.

But if there is a possibility of job change to you or your spouse in the near future for better opportunity or for any other reasons AND if you have flexibility to travel to your current job during off-peak hours or WFH, then Allen can definitely be in your short list. It is very easy commute to BOTH Plano/Frisco Job Centers AND Richardson also, with easy highway access to rest of DFW via 75 and 121 highways.

(2) Whether to buy in this crazy market? NO ONE can predict or answer. Situation is crazy not only in DFW, but ENTIRE country, all markets. No one knows for sure what happens in future with respect to demand, prices, economy, mortgage rates etc. Who would have thought the current housing market trends and quick rebound of stock market in the middle of pandemic? If you like the home without compromising on what is important for you, see yourself living in this area for a long time then better to consider buying. Even if prices were to drop in short term, you may be doing ok in the longer term.

So, look at all perspectives and take the decision.

[WorldKlas]

I think Katana’s home is stunning and I am so glad he loves Prosper where he lives.

Allen sounds like a great place, too. We have friends who live there and love it. User1 was just answering the OP’s questions.

(Me, when in DFW I live in a condo near SMU and it suits us perfectly, diff strokes for diff folks)

Now, let’s get back to helping the OP.

[Acntx]

Originally Posted by WorldKlas

I think Katana’s home is stunning and I am so glad he loves Prosper where he lives.

Allen sounds like a great place, too. We have friends who live there and love it. User1 was just answering the OP’s questions.

(Me, when in DFW I live in a condo near SMU and it suits us perfectly, diff strokes for diff folks)

Now, let’s get back to helping the OP.

Moderator Note: Recent posts were removed to keep the discussion and on topic and end the back-and-forth bickering. If it continues, the thread will be closed. Thanks for your cooperation.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by SingleGuy28

Exactly - It's causing a frenzy and a bubble..

Once the pandemic, frenzy, and associated boredom/FOMO subside, you will see things cool off.

This is a matter of psychology and not fundamentals.

The term, "bubble" implies you see a crash on the other side and you see that in the short or medium term.


"Cool off" implies a decrease in the rate of increase which I'd argue is about 25x more likely and would be healthy.

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Lately the 10 year yield has drifted downwards and sales have been comfortably oversubscribed (there is no shortage of appetite). FWIIW the 10 year yield is almost identical today to the same in Feb. 2020.

Over the last many decades the key driver of inflationary spikes has been our reliance on foreign oil (oil roughly tripled in the early 70s and stayed high). Concurrently, then Federal Reserve President Arthur Burns in the face of oil spiking, other commodities increasing and real wages at a then all time high made several moves to increase liquidity (lower discount rate, lower bank ratios {rrr}). It's pretty clear that Burns was far too willing to run the Fed/FOMC as part of Nixon's political machine.

Thanks in great part to West Texas plays we are far less reliant on foreign oil than in the past. OPEC is weaker than in the past etc. oil is far less likely to catalyze inflation anytime soon.


Over time fixed mortgage rates more or less track 10 year yields at +1.5 to maybe 2.1% most of the time............don't expect mortgage rates to explode upwards any time soon.

Odd........this is the second time in 24 hours I've mentioned Burns and inflation.

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So long as NY, NJ, CA, CT etc. force very high COL+tax burdens on those with professional class salaries and up good numbers of people will move. For slightly different reasons companies will continue to fully and partially relocate to TX, FL, GA, AZ, NV etc. At different magnitudes of the same plus a lack of opportunity component has driven American Blacks generally from blue states to more red or at least mixed states. Dallas, Houston, Austin, SA , Atlanta, Orlando etc. have seen %black population increases over the last 10 years.........the big 3 CA cities, NY, DC, Portland, Chicago and more have seen decreases.

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I have to be cryptic - I'm not going to ID the source but this is best possible information.......I was able to read a list of companies actively considering full or partial relos is very Texas heavy and quite frankly some of the names are shocking.



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None of that points to a housing price bust in Texas anytime soon.



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OP IMO renting for a bit in your case makes sense. Driving around DFW as with most big cities in the south is tough to quantify per particular commutes. In Dallas per se one 5 mile commute might be 8 or 10 minutes and another 20.

If you rent near work or very carefully pre-scout the area and buy you can gage drive times for your self.

Sorry for the typos.

[fuhongl]

I bought a new construction two story house of 2400 sqf six months ago and I live by myself. It's too big for me, my neighbors probably wonder why I bought such a big house for only myself. Most of them are families living in smaller sqf single story houses.
Well, the fact is when I came here the community only had this one ready to move -in. Otherwise I wait for at least three more months. And at that time, the price wasn't crazy yet and in my target range. So I felt lazy to check out more communities and moved after in two weeks.
Now after 6 months, I felt I wish I can exchange some of the space for lot, meaning what I really need is a 1500 sqf but bigger lot like ranch house. I wish there is house trade.

[cammyspot]

Originally Posted by Prey521

Ya, that's me! Moved from NY a little over 8 years ago with my fam of 4, which is now a fam of 5 moving up to DFW.

This market is crazy right now.....I think I'd sell even if I wasn't relocating since who knows how long it would take to make this kind of money on my home. We considered selling last Summer and my realtor suggested a list price of 315-320k.....this time, his list price is 369K for our 5 bed/4 bath 3100 sq ft home that's a little over 5 years old.

How do you like Allen? We really like Allen, but the commute to Irving would stink, which is why we're considering towns west/northwest of Irving, which have great schools and quick commutes. How do you like Allen?

Cool, we are a family of 5 as well, we moved from my home state of NJ just over 10 years ago. Wow good luck with the upcoming sale.

Allen is a such a nice little city, very picturesque. You definitely do not have to drive far for anything, that is what I enjoy so much. The school district is great too. I am not too knowledgeable about schools in Irving but keep us updated about what town you choose .