2022 Real Estate Observations (Boston: deal, equity, single)

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by id77

One other possibility is that it's a very short time at that amount and a follow-up lump-sum is paid to lower the payment. When we bought, we put ~25% down because we hadn't sold our previous place yet; once it sold we took some of the proceeds and made another payment for about 33% of the principal, then immediately re-cast the mortgage to drop the P&I part of the payment (by around $2k/month). On the public records though, it'll only show the original down and mortgage amount so the outside observer would have no idea that the current mortgage payment is actually only based on about 65% of the original loan amount.

True, good point. That is a scenario that could happen as well. Anyone can make payments toward their principal above and beyond standard monthly payments and the outstanding amount could be significantly less than what shows in the public records.

[MtPleasantDream]

In old days, people only pretended not to know how much their friends' home cost.
Now we pretend not to know the mortgage loan.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by newenglandgal123

True, good point. That is a scenario that could happen as well. Anyone can make payments toward their principal above and beyond standard monthly payments and the outstanding amount could be significantly less than what shows in the public records.

That’s not true. You can look up mortgages for any house in the state at the county registry of deeds. You’ll see the original mortgage, the discharge, and the new mortgage. If you want to snoop on your neighbors, it’s all online with a few mouse clicks. I certainly looked my house up before I bought it so I had a good sense for the seller’s equity position. It also served as an informal title search since any lien will be there.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

That’s not true. You can look up mortgages for any house in the state at the county registry of deeds. You’ll see the original mortgage, the discharge, and the new mortgage. If you want to snoop on your neighbors, it’s all online with a few mouse clicks. I certainly looked my house up before I bought it so I had a good sense for the seller’s equity position. It also served as an informal title search since any lien will be there.

Um, yeah it is true. Hypothetically speaking, if I made a big lump sum payment toward my principal last month and if you were to look up my mortgage in the public records, it's not going to show you or any other joe shmoe what the current outstanding amount is. It will only show you the original mortgage amount and in cases of a re-fi, it will show you that new outstanding amount as a result of the re-fi.


Let's say original amount is $800K, last month I make a $100K payment toward principal, it is not going to show you that the remaining mortgage amount is now ~$700K.

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by msRB311

haha. I mean I would have been satisfied enough to find out about the 1.6 million home.

Is 300k down on a 1.6 million house a lot? Is she single? If not, parents definitely helped or someone died and left her money.

I know plenty of people under 35 who are capable of putting 300k down on a home, it's not that far fetched. I'm not sure why you assume she can only do it through inheritance or help from parents.

[msRB311]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

I know plenty of people under 35 who are capable of putting 300k down on a home, it's not that far fetched. I'm not sure why you assume she can only do it through inheritance or help from parents.

Well I guess we are living in a new world where lots of single people under 35 have 300k sitting around that they made themselves.

[newenglandgal123]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

I had to go back to look. Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp and Crosscountry Mortgage Inc were the most recent since interest rates exploded. Both were under 8% down on 700-800K homes within the last month.



I can't seem to figure out how to navigate the masslandrecords site. I used https://www.countyoffice.org/ma-property-records/ but you are limited to 5 searched per day

I looked up a recent sale near me where the buyers put 3.5% down and it was with Fairway as well.

[matrix5k]

Originally Posted by msRB311

Well I guess we are living in a new world where lots of single people under 35 have 300k sitting around that they made themselves.

Not saying it's common but definitely possible for a frugal person. Say you graduate college at age 22, that's 13 years of working. Saving 23k per year earning zero interest gets you there. But saving half of that per year and investing it would also get you there.

[msRB311]

If someone is living in Boston and paying rent unless they are very highly paid I'd be surprised if they could save 300k by 35. I mean they'd have to be very frugal or very high salary

And btw you said you knew plenty of people capable of saving 300k on their own by 35. Plenty = a lot then you said it's not common

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by matrix5k

Not saying it's common but definitely possible for a frugal person. Say you graduate college at age 22, that's 13 years of working. Saving 23k per year earning zero interest gets you there. But saving half of that per year and investing it would also get you there.

A 22 or 23 year old able to save 23K per year is an extreme anomaly, no matter how frugal one is. Entry level salaries and the local cost of living, just makes that out of reach for almost anybody.