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Is anyone else seeing this? Seems like things were slowing down a bit since the mortgage rates were increasing over the last couple of months. However, now all a sudden that rates have decreased a bit over the last 2 weeks, we are seeing a lot of rushing in and more multiple offers within hours of listing. One house we toured today was 45k over the comps for the area, which were listed (and went under contract) only 2 weeks ago. In addition, it backed to a busy street. It went under contract within 4 hours!
We are getting very discouraged. After months of looking, our area has increased 7% in price in only 3 months. The kind of house we could get three months ago we could not hope to get today. It seems like we may be in bubble territory. We may be forced to go back to the sidelines and try to save another 40k to get the house we want.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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We are not seeing what I would call panic buying. We are getting multiple offers over asking price in the first few days but they are not first-time buyers. Some are either people moving up to a bigger house or better school district, but most are newcomers to the area moving here for jobs that have equity from the home in their previous state. In our neighborhood most are back up to $500-600,000 but there is a little 1,800 sf house a few doors down on the market for $410k. I'm anxious to see how long it takes to sell because being so small it's more of a first time buyer house. So far it's been two days.
Inflation causes an increase in Interest rates and we are seeing both right now.
Back in the 80's this created a surge in buying, anticipating that costs and prices will go higher.
IMO we are seeing this and will continue. History will repeat itself.
be patient and don't rush into anything... there will always be houses for sale. Don't chase into price spikes and get this idea and real estate is going to suddenly be priced out of your affordability or see huge inflation adjusted spikes. Keep the emotions in check. Don't expect a huge rise in interest rates with bernake at the wheel... if we do get them the economy is in serious trouble.
Look at a lot of houses, go to open houses, make a checklist of what you are looking for, heck, read a book on home inspections.. I used this one
Make your offer contingent on financing, appraised value (do not pay above appraisal unless the house is dirt cheap and you are a flipper) , and home inspection. Get an independent inspection done.
Make sure any improvements done to the home had building permits to protect your butt, and with older homes be careful with finished basements, they can hide a lot of foundation problems. My advice is to always follow the laws, codes, and do things properly in regards to real estate transactions. Trying to save a couple hundred a year on property taxes or building permits can cost tens of thousands later if a problem occurs... oh and get the sewer line checked with a camera on homes build in the 70's and earlier or any lot with lots of mature trees near and around the sewer line, or where the seller mentions 'roto rooting' in the disclosure. Good luck!
We saw a huge slowdown from the end of June until last week - probably summer vacations plus interest rate hike. But now it's back to the hustle we saw earlier this year, but not quite as frantic.
We saw a huge slowdown from the end of June until last week - probably summer vacations plus interest rate hike. But now it's back to the hustle we saw earlier this year, but not quite as frantic.
About the same here.
Amazing that interest rates in the low 4's would hamper activity!
And in terms of panic buying, I have seen many sales of "mistake homes" over the last year due to low inventory.
Sometimes that house is a piece of crap, but it's the nicest piece of crap on the market.
"Incurable deficiencies" are almost always a "mistake" purchase.
Big power lines, backing to a 4 lane highway, etc. Too often the price paid does not reflect the level of error made by the buyer.
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Location = Mars, the red planet ?
