Home prices have increased a lot in 2 years in North Fort Myers.

[Babaribou]

The current prices are crazy. It's definitely not worth that price and it will hurt when it's gonna fall. The economy is good now, but it won't stay the same forever. People in the area don't make much $. Most people were able to grab these houses for really cheap after the crisis, and they are now trying to sell them 3 to 5 times the price they paid for it because they want the cash and don't have the income to keep up with the cost of owning a house. I'll be interested to see how the market looks like here in 2 or 3 years. It's definitely cheaper to "buy" and get a 30 years mortgage than renting around here though, but who wants a 30 years loan?

[LifeIsGood01]

I just got an alert set for a home under $60K on Realtor.com I'm not looking for a house but just curious about the market and I click on it and it's already Pending.

[LifeIsGood01]

Originally Posted by Babaribou

but who wants a 30 years loan?

I do, who wants to rent for 30 years. My principal and interest won't go up but rents will. Who wants to be told they have 30 days to find a new place in this every increasingly expensive market.

[LifeIsGood01]

Obviously people earn more money in the northeast then they come down here after selling the house and buy a small home worth $80K for $120K in cash because they can't fathom how a home sells for $80K when homes where they live are never less than $300K.

Investors are also paying cash above market value for small homes because they know they can pay $50K and rent them out for $1000 a month and get most of their money back in 4 years. This happened 2 years ago on my block when a small 600 sq ft 2/1 sold for $55k to investors. Then around the block a larger 2/1 about 1400 sq feet sold around the same time on a corner double lot for $150K. In that case I think it also had to do with the large detached double garage and area to park a large RV. Neither of these would have appraised for that much,

[simonsaysFLA]

I agree with you. If you cannot afford a home you shouldn't be buying it. Too many people are purchasing homes that are way above their pay grade. But on the other hand I do think home prices are outrageous. Rent cost more than some peoples mortgage.

[LifeIsGood01]

Lot prices have not gone up in my neighborhood because it costs so much to build a house and improve the lot. Once existing home prices cost the same as building new than lots should increase.

[EdieCZ]

Markets all have cycles. Whenever prices have gone down you will see that they have always returned to at or above the levels when a crash occured. When prices got as low as your talking about we had many short sales and foreclousers.