Like he** I'm going to pay these prices! (Boston, Worcester: daycare, hotels)

[massnative71]

^Can you explain what that graph is?

[mdovell]

that's the dow jones industrial average

[BostonMike7]

Dow during the Great Recession.

So what's the point being made?

[msRB311]

Whatever the situation is i don't think most people (even wealthy people) want to be spending what they are for a home. Must be great for the sellers.

[BostonMike7]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Must be great for the sellers.

Only if they are moving out of state to a LCOL area, or to an area with much more inventory.

Otherwise if the seller now becomes a buyer, they are under the gun to get out of their home and competing against many others to secure a house in time. This is probably what fuels the excessive offers. Desperation.

[msRB311]

That's true. I was reading something where a lot of people aren't selling here because they have no where to go unless they are leaving MA.

In the town my parents have a house in down the cape there are only 50 homes on the market right now. Normally there are about 200.

[mdovell]

well flat inventory is one thing but in some parts of mass and parts of CT you have the foundation problem and technically inventory is going down, not up. Take any industry and maintain demand and watch supply drop and prices rise. We have first time home buyers with cash and credit ratings, retirees looking to downsize and covid. perfect storm for higher prices

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by massnative71

^Can you explain what that graph is?

S&P over the 10yr.

Price increases outside the 495 belt are tied to interest rates; desirable towns along the 495 and within are driven by interest rates and equities gains. This should not be a profound insight - posters like Geoff and ID77 discuss this point near weekly.

You can't compete in a low inventory market without serious capital. Merely qualifying with a lender for X amount doesn't cut it in a multiple bid situation. Posters assume this is isolated to Boston and it's blue-chip 'burbs, but this is also the reality in desirable 495 like Harvard.

This isn't me being snobbish ... it's the current reality. I bought largely on W2 money as my investments were tied up in an IRA. Some of my peers had more liquid capital thanks to RSUs or direct investment with the likes of Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, etc. They are, bluntly, the only ones able to compete in the metro west right now. The W2 crowd is fighting over scraps in towns like Hudson/Marlborough or further west. It’s a brutal market.

[bigfatdude]

Exactly - great if you're cashing out and moving, not so great if you're upsizing and even though you just got $500K for your shoebox you now need to pony up $900K for a slightly larger shoebox.

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Only if they are moving out of state to a LCOL area, or to an area with much more inventory.

Otherwise if the seller now becomes a buyer, they are under the gun to get out of their home and competing against many others to secure a house in time. This is probably what fuels the excessive offers. Desperation.

[mdovell]

Since few places are really going to reopen their offices to normal the houses are no going back on the market. People sold houses to buy other houses, not rent temporarily. Covid was the straw that broke the camels bank. I see people that work for "BOSTON" that are really in western mass, southern NH, RI and CT. If you want the 128 belt education sure but recently I've started to see new Boston based jobs that are now remote and reopening is in satellite offices in smaller cities. If people aren't coming back why pay Boston commercial rents?

I don't think we have a housing bubble but those that now live in suburbs are going to be much more apt to approve development to make it more urban.