Why would anybody buy a house now?! (way, way overpriced) (sale, housing)

[Serenity2019]

I don't understand why anybody wants to buy a house now! Prices are way , way high for houses. People are even in bidding wars where I live and bid on the same house to try to buy it. Ridiculous, live in an apartment, a nice apartment, until the housing goes down or crashes like in 2008. I feel sorry for anybody buying a home right now, they should wait!

[lpc123]

My mom sold her house in the West University area of Houston in the 1970's.

It was originally purchased for around $37K. She sold it when no one could figure out why anyone would want to buy it for $85K, and decided to rent. The lots alone today go for around $750K-$1 mil.

Who should you feel sorry for?

[davebarnes]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...ation-housing/
Rents are up more than 30 percent in some cities, forcing millions to find another place to live

https://www.zumper.com/rent-research/columbia-sc
Rent Prices, Columbia, SC

Houses for sale are way down from 2008
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSACSR
Monthly Supply of Houses in the United States

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/u...uses-gone.html
Where Have All the Houses Gone?

[Threestep2]

Originally Posted by Serenity2019

I don't understand why anybody wants to buy a house now! Prices are way , way high for houses. People are even in bidding wars where I live and bid on the same house to try to buy it. Ridiculous, live in an apartment, a nice apartment, until the housing goes down or crashes like in 2008. I feel sorry for anybody buying a home right now, they should wait!

If living in an apartment works for you - great! It does not work for us - great as well!

[robr2]

But what if housing doesn't go down?

[NC211]

Unless if a specific set of circumstances exists in the house’s specific market; housing cost increases are usually permanent, while house cost decreases are usually temporary.

Massive housing shortage these days due to the crash of 08’ and builders (and financial industry that supports them) barely returned, and none went back to building speculative neighborhoods all at once.

No doubt there is a bubble now. Driven by lack of supply and basically free money (relatively speaking). The money will now cost more and thin out the buyer pool, pushing everyone down a notch or two (wanted $1m house today, but won’t be able to afford beyond $800k tomorrow due to interest rate increases). But we’re back to 08’ and the total lack of supply. Demand is so strong now, who knows if 100 people going for the $1m house today will thin down to 50, or 20, or 5. I don’t think it’ll get low enough to push down the price, but likely to push up the time it takes to sell it.

[PBC-1966]

It's the same here in northwest Arkansas. We moved here at the beginning of 2020 and feel fortunate that we bought just before prices really started escalating quickly. Looking at other homes in the area, I'd say that if we were selling we could easily get 50% more than our original purchase price, and quite possibly a lot more. We keep an eye on the real-estate listings and there are few homes which stay on the market more than a couple of days at the most; many pop up as new listings and are then pending within a matter of hours. The only homes which seem to stay listed for longer periods are real fixer-uppers, very small homes, or something in an undesirable location. Even newly built homes are pending sale before they've been completed. Our realtor contact says that we too have bidding wars going on, with most homes selling for over the asking price.

[CaseyB]

My youngest and her husband are in the process of buying a house right now. Luckily, they were able to get a decent rate locked in for 60 days. Of course, the same house would have been $80k less last summer but it is only going to get worse.
There are just not enough houses.

[otterhere]

Originally Posted by Serenity2019

I don't understand why anybody wants to buy a house now! Prices are way , way high for houses. People are even in bidding wars where I live and bid on the same house to try to buy it. Ridiculous, live in an apartment, a nice apartment, until the housing goes down or crashes like in 2008. I feel sorry for anybody buying a home right now, they should wait!

If you're selling a house, you're also selling that one "ridiculously high" so - theoretically anyway - it should balance out. Of course, if you're living in an apartment and looking to buy your first house, that's rough.

[steiconi]

A lot of people do think that prices will just keep going up and up, but in my experience, they zigzag up and down. You just have to figure out which way they're headed before pulling the trigger.

We're looking at an area that jumped in the last couple of years, but is now coming back down. Probably won't go as far down as it was at the beginning, but I wouldn't buy now.